July 11 Friday – In York Harbor, Maine Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers.
July (?) Friday (?) 11th (?) ’02
Dear Mr. Rogers:
I know what year it is, but am not certain about the rest. Do come! Choose any date you please, & see if you can annoy me. It can’t be done.You will be the welcomest man in the universe. And we’ll feed you the best we can, too, though not up to Kanawha standard. Come the earliest you can, & the oftenest. We hope you will come now, on your way back from Fairhaven. Our cigar-box (house) is equidistant from York Harbor & from Kittery Point—or thereabouts: 15 minutes by trolley from York Harbor & a little more from Kittery Point. The latter is a snug harbor, shut in, & plenty of water, but York Harbor is exposed & shallow.
[Sam writes of a reaction to letters by “Baker,” which he thought were only matched by Capt. Ned Wakeman’s]
Why, I thought Rice sailed long ago. I hope there is nothing serious. It is a pity & loss that he can’t stand the sea; even when sea-sick he is an excellent addition to a yacht-crowd. He’ll have to be controlled & reorganized, for he can’t properly be spared.
Thanks to goodness I haven’t missed a day yet. I believe I can finish this book by the middle of August; a good summer’s work, & satisfactory thus far; but I already had a fight of it (22,000 words) written when I came here.
We’ll be looking for you right along, now. / Yrs / SLC
[cross-written in left margin on page 2:] Cuss those Fairchild bonds & stuff! Keeps me awake nights [MTHHR 490-2].
Note: William H. Baker had been writing letters to Rogers and did so until a New Bedford newspaper published one [MTHHR 497n2]. Sam was writing “Was it Heaven? Or Hell?” which would run in Harper’s Dec. 1902. The source gives Sept. 11 as the completion date. The last statement refers to $16,000 Sam had invested in American Mechanical Cashier Co. on the advice of Charles Fairchild. See n2 for more details.
Sam’s notebook again contains ideas for the 50 years after story : “Barty Nobles, bright, promising, but unstable; the most promising in town—owns the paper puts down the price—is a relative by marriage of Tom’s. Visits girl at 3 a.m., papa says ‘Don’t go—breakfast’” [Line separator:] WINTER. / Sled, skate, adrift on the breakup. / Tom Nash broke in [NB 45 TS 21].