All is well with us, I believe—though for some days the baby has wasⒶemendation quite ill. We cond considerⒶemendation him nearly restored to health now, however. Asky my bo brotherⒶemendation about us—you will find him at Bliss’s publishing office where he is gone to edit Bliss’s new paper.—left here last Monday.1explanatory note Make his & his wife’s acquaintance. Take Mrs. T. to see them f as soon as they are fixed.

Livy is up, & the prince keeps her busy & anxious these latter days & nights, but I am a bachelor up stairs & don’t have to jump up & get the soothing-syrup—though I would as soon do it as not, I assure you. {Livy will be almost certain to read this letter.}

Tell Harmony (Mrs. T.) that I do hold the baby, & do it pretty handily, too, although with occasional apprehensions that his h Ⓐemendation loose head will fall off. I don’t have to quiet him—he hardly ever utters a cry. He is always thinking about something. He is a patient, good little baby. And

Smoke? I always smoke from 3 till 5 on Sunday afternoons—& in New York the other day I smoked a week, day & night. ButⒶemendation when LivyⒶemendation is well I smoke only those 2 hours on Sunday. I’m “boss” of the habit, now, & shall never let it boss me any more. Originally, I quit solely on Livy’s account (not that I believed there was the faintest reason in the matter, but just as I would deprive myself of sugar in my coffee if she wished it, or quit wearing socks if the she thought them immoral), but& I stick to it yet on Livy’s account, & shall always continue to do so, without a pang.2explanatory note But somehow it seems a pityⒶemendation that you quit, for Mrs. T. didn’tⒶemendation mind it if I remember rightlyⒶemendation. Ah, it is turning one’s backⒶemendation upon a kindly Providence to spurn away from us the good creature he sent to make the breath of life a luxury as well as a necessity, enjoyable as well as useful, to go & quit smoking when there ain’t any sufficient excuse for it. WhyⒶemendation my old boy, when they used to tell me I would shorten my life ten years by smoking, I they little knew the devotee they were wasting their puerile words upon—they little knew how I trivial & valueless I would regard a decade that had no smoking in it! Ha! But I won’t persuade you, Twichell—I won’t until I see you again—for but then we’ll smoke for a week together & then shut off again.

I would have gone to Hartford from New York last Saturday3explanatory note but I got so homesick I couldn’t. But maybe I’ll come soon.

{Can you keep a secret? Among other reasons, I would have had to stay at Bliss’s—wouldn’t let me s go to the hotel—why didn’t you offer me bed &Ⓐemendation board? I’m expecting to run over there in a couple of weeks.} Ⓐemendation or more.}Ⓐemendation

No, Sir, catch me in a the metropolis again, to get homesick.

I didn’t know Warren WarnerⒶemendation had a book out.4explanatory note

We send oceans & continents of love—I have worked myself down, to-day.