ConcerningⒶemendation Jean Clemens, if anybody said he “didn’t see noⒶemendation p’ints about that frog that’s any better’n any other frog,” I should think he was convicting himself of being a pretty poor sort of observer. She is the comeliest, & daintiest & perfectest little creature the continents & archipelagoes have seen since BayⒶemendation & Susie were her size.Ⓐemendation I will not go into details; it is not necessary; you will soon be in Hartford, where I have already hired a hall; the admission fee will be but a trifle.

It is curious to note the change in the stock-quotationsⒶemendation of the Affection Board brought about by theⒶemendation throwing this new security on the market. Four weeks ago the children still put Mamma at the head of the list right along, where she had always been. But now:

That is the way it stands, now. Mamma is become No. 2; I have dropped from No. 4, and am become No. 5. Some time ago it used to be nip &Ⓐemendation tuck between me &Ⓐemendation the cats, but after the cats “developed” I didn’t stand any more show.

I’ve got a swollen ear; so I take advantage of it to lie abed most of the day, &Ⓐemendation read &Ⓐemendation smoke &Ⓐemendation scribble &Ⓐemendation have a good time. Last evening Livy said with deep concern, “O dear, I believe an abscess is forming in your ear.”

I responded as the poet would have done if he had had a cold in the head—

This made a coolness. Ⓐemendation For the one thing which Livy cannot stand, is wit.

I have read “John’s Trial,” & like it very much indeed. It has the advantage of Bret Harte’s rot, that it is sincere. I mean to read the rest, to-day. The papers say that Harte & William Black are bumming around together in the Highlands. I suspect that at bottom these two are kindred spirits.

I am more than charmed to know that John T. Raymond has made a most complete & pitiful failure in London with Col. Sellers. Still, it doesn’t do me half the good it could have done if it had come sooner. My malignity was so worn out & wasted away with time & the exercise of charity that even Raymond’sⒶemendation death would not afford me anything more than a mere fleeting ecstasy, a sort of momentary pleasurable titillation, now—unless, of course, it happened in some peculiarly radiant way like burning, or boiling, or something like that. Joys that come to us after the capacity for enjoyment is dead, are but an affront.Ⓐemendation

Been reading Daniel Webster’s Private Correspondence. Have read a hundred of his diffuse, conceited, “eloquent,” bathotic (or bathostic) letters written in that dim (no, vanished) Past when he was a student; &Ⓐemendation Lord, to think that this boy who is so real to me now, &Ⓐemendation so booming with fresh young blood &Ⓐemendation bountiful life, &Ⓐemendation sappy cynicisms about girls, has since climbed the Alps of fame &Ⓐemendation stood against the sun one brief tremendous moment with the world’s eyes upon him, &Ⓐemendation; then— f-z-t-! Ⓐemendation where is he? Why the only long thing, the only real thing about the whole shadowy business is the sense of the lagging dull &Ⓐemendation hoary lapse of time that has drifted by since then; a vast empty level, it seems, with a formless spectre glimpsed fitfully through the smoke &Ⓐemendation mist that lie along itsⒶemendation remote verge.

Well, we are all getting along here first-rate; Livy gains strength daily, &Ⓐemendation sits up a deal; the baby is five weeks old and—— butⒶemendation no more of this; somebody may be reading this letter 80 years hence. And so, my friend (you pitying snob, I mean, who are holding this yellow paper in yourⒶemendation hand in 1960,) save yourself the trouble of looking further; I know how pathetically trivial our small concerns wouldⒶemendation seem to you, &Ⓐemendation I will not let your eye profane them. No, I keep my news; you keep your compassion. Suffice it you to know, scoffer &Ⓐemendation ribald, that the little child is old &Ⓐemendation blind, now, &Ⓐemendation once more toothless; &Ⓐemendation the rest of us are shadows, these many, many years. Yes, &Ⓐemendation your time cometh!