We are a couple of mugginses. Suppose you & I should die?— Transfer that $3,000 to the account of C L WebsterⒶemendation & Co as agreed the other day; & then put all the rest of the money in Mrs. Olivia L. Clemens’s name & send her one of that bank’s check books. Then you & I can die if we want to, & there will be no complications.

I saw one of Estes & Lauriat[’]s chief men on the train & he said the firm supposed my book was coming out before the holidays, or they would not have put in that ad. I said we couldn’t help what they “supposed,” & we should have to require them to pay for supposing such injurious things.