September 28 Sunday – In York Harbor, Maine: Sam’s notebook : “Let me talk with Mercer & didn’t tell me the h k f was on the door. / Thunder overhed—kind of rolling-pin. / Tin pan falls—racket. / Didn’t watch for beef steak / 59 days (8 ½ weeks) since Jean had any trouble. The longest interval, by 2 weeks, in 5 years. / And poor Livy, the real victim, is prostrate when all in justice she ought to be up & well & rejoicing. / We are again uneasy about her” [NB 45 TS 28-9].
Nurse Margaret Garrety arrived in the evening and took charge of Livy the following morning, Sept. 29 [NB 45 TS 31].
Joe Twichell wrote to Sam from Hartford about Livy’s illness, and why hadn’t he answered sooner?—he “didn’t want to make” Sam “lie unnecessarily” about her condition, but knew from the clipping he sent that it was serious. What would his address be the next few weeks? If Sam went to Elmira to give his regards to Mollie Dunham. “Your abominable heresies, of which you are now sporting such a menagerie, I will not deal to execrate at this time, but will return to later” [MTP].