January 27 Sunday – Isabel Lyon’s journal:

This morning I had no mail for the King so we had talk instead & he read me Mr. Dooley’s ideas about the Army Canteen which appears in today’s Times. He sat up in bed & rolled it out so deliciously, gurgling with delight. I wish Peter Dunne could have seen him. I wish Kipling would see him read those immortal Jungle Tales.

C.C. went off to Boston at 12:30. Such a bustle to get her off & then as A.B. & I sat by my open fire, I bade him stop talking for I heard a wail a lamentation. It was the King singing. I flew down stairs & I told A.B. that the King was lonely, for he sings like that only when his spirit is calling for lost companionship. I found him cursing the loneliness of the house—the first floor—& it is that way. There’s nothing gemütlich about those rooms, but they could be made so—oh easily. However, we lunched & the King was brilliant. Then he played billiards— a left handed game—all the afternoon with A.B. & all the evening too. I watched for a little while, & so rested myself, for I’m very weary sometimes. And the King always rests me— always [TS 23]. Note: gemütlich: German adj.: Warm and congenial; pleasant or friendly.

Gertrude H. Baldwin wrote inviting Sam to some function [MTP]. On or just after this date Sam replied:

“Don’t go out at night any more except when I feel obliged to do it & that will be exceedingly seldom. If I haven’t done my share of work I have at least reached the time limit when I ought to have done it” [MTP].

Isabel Lyon’s journal: Sam was “cursing the loneliness of this house” [Hill 165].

Robert Reid wrote a rather illegible letter to Sam that begins, “I wanted to see you—I didn’t know you were going to see Mr R.” (H.H. Rogers) The rest is only partially readable [MTP].