The triumph in the Concours was excellent news; but I did not know the full size of it till I showed the P. S. to St. Gaudens in the cars, two or three days ago. He was surprised, & vastly pleased. He said you had to come in about the head of the list, if you left s about 30 competitors behind you. He thought thinks you are doing marvelously well.

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St. Gaudens is to spend the coming ten days in Hartford, & he wanted to see your work there; & said he would examine it & give me his opinion; so I gave him a note to our coachman. St. Gaudens is over-run with work; so is Frank Millet; so is White (son of Richard Grant White); so are all the art-boys.

We still hang with bated breath upon the bulletins from Washington—& very hopefully, too, these last five days., thank God.

Enclosed is a note from the K. of H. In reply I merely sent your Paris address & said letters would reach you there.

I enclose a new letter of credit for £100, good till this day a year hence.

OVER Ⓐemendation

inserted on the verso:

I got it nearly a month

I got it some little time ago; but I’ve been busy, since, & besides I had to make a journey or two.

            

OVERⒶemendation again.

Although you will not exhaust your present letter (barring unforeseen circumstances,) till October, 15th (I think that was the date you prophecied—I haven’t your letter by me,) I thought it safest to forward the new letter a little ahead of time, to cover accidents.

YouⒶemendation said something, I think, about ythe uncertainty of your & your wife’s future. Don’t bother about that. Put it clear out of your minds. It isn’t healthy. One can’t forecast his future—it is a mighty sight better to take first rate care of one’s present, & leave the future to take care of itself. It saves worry. AndⒶemendation it saves more than worry: Every time one wastes a thought on the future he misses a trick in the present. For instance, if I am out with a gun, & stop a moment to calculate the chances of next year’s gunning, I shall surely lose the birds that fly over my head during that wasted moment. I can’t bother over the probable fate of the book I am writing, without burning up time & intellectual fuel which should h Ⓐemendation g have gone to the improving of the book itself. And you, yourselves, can’t ever fling a thought forward into the future without robbing the more valuable present. Your work, to-day, dictates what your future shall be. Therefore build the edifice of your future to-day, brick by brick, & patiently & with good courage—peering aloft, to try to imagine glimpse the future roof, will cost you a brick, every time, & delay the said roof by just that much. I Don’t you worry a bit: I go bail that your future will take ample care of itself, if you’ll drop it out of your thoughts & give your whole attention to taking care of the present. There, now, that is preaching enough for one time, I reckon.

However, I wouldn’t talk so feelingly on this subject, but for one circumstance: I have never taken thought about my future, & it has always come out about right; but my brother has devoted all of the 56 years of his life to trying to fix up his future satisfactorily. Well, now, don’t you know, by the time he gets it fixed up just right, there won’t be any of it left? Lord bless you, he is the very worst failure that ever lived. Brim full of talent, too.

Mrs. Gerhardt must write Mrs. Clemens, every time the spirit moves her—& we hope it will move her mighty often, for she sets down the thoughts she thinks, not those she thinks she thinks—& that is the simple & only secret of acceptable letter-writing. Maybe she will say, “Then Mrs. Clemens must answer every time.” No—I am going to put in a plea, there, in Mrs. C.’s defence.—to wit: she has a gang of servants, & also 4 children, (including me,) to look after. This keeps her hard at it, morning, noon, & night. And she has but little bodily strength. She would answer every time, if she could—she certainly has the will & the desire to do it, but the time & strength are lacking. Now, Mrs. G.?

All the tribe are well, & Jean came near breaking her neck yesterday—fell head first off a high porch. No harm done. We all send love to you both, & lots of good wishes.