They spoke at the Lyceum - Library

Livy’s 39 th birthday.

Once again, Sam was away from home on a family member’s birthday.

In the evening, they gave a reading in Morristown, New Jersey and spent the night at the home of Thomas Nast, just before Nast began his own tour. The cartoonist arranged for them a quiet supper...Oysters on the shell were served at the little repast, and Mr. Clemens expressed his delight at the quality thereof and at Nast’s urging ate five plates full, after which he asked for an apple. Sam and George were to leave early the next morning, and Mrs. Nast agreed to see that they were up in time. When she woke she found the men still asleep and every clock in the house stopped. Sam said , “Wal, those clocks are all overworked, anyway. They will feel much better for a night’s rest” [Paine, Nast 511-12]

See:  "Mark Twain and Thomas Nast:  The Friendship and Correspondence of the Writer and the Cartoonist", John Pascal

Mark Twain Journal, v59 no1 - Spring 2021

Sam and Cable took a day off on Thursday, November 27, to celebrate Thanksgiving with the cartoonist Thomas Nast and his family at their home in Morristown, New Jersey. Sam apparently consumed five plates of oysters at dinner and, as he wrote Livy the next day aboard a southbound train, they “stayed all night with Tom Nast & family, & had a most noble good time.” He famously spent part of the night stopping the pendulums in some of the clocks in Nast’s house and carrying other clocks outdoors so that he could sleep undisturbed. As Katy Leary recounted, “Nast drew a funny picture about Mr, Clemens in his nightshirt, putting out them clocks.” [From page 428-9 The Life of Mark Twain - The Middle Years 1871-1891]