October 19 Saturday – In Tuxedo Park, N.Y. Sam wrote to Dorothy Quick in Plainfield, N.J.

Dorothy dear, it is perfectly lovely here, now—with brilliant skies, brilliant water, sleek as a mirror, & all the brilliant colors of the hills painted on it like a picture. And there’s rabbits—oh, no end! They’ve got a nest in that tree that leans over the nasturtium bed, & they scamper up & down it all day long & jabber. And as for squirrels, & deer, & Italians & other game, they’re everywhere. And nobody shoots them, for it isn’t allowed, I don’t know why. And there are owls, & cows, & bears; & nights you can hear them hooting. Sometimes they make the kind of a noise a preacher makes. It is awful, but I am not afraid. The others are afraid, but I am calm, & go down cellar.

I believe that is about all the news there is, except that we leave Tuxedo the 31st, to live in town —21-Fifth ave—where you must come & stay over Sundays every time you can be spared.

Dear heart, you mustn’t send stories to St. Nicholas, yet, it is too soon. You must learn the trade first, & nobody can do that without a long & diligent apprenticeship—not anything short of 10 years. Write the stories—write lots & lots of them, for practice—& when the Literary League gets together again, we’ll examine into your progress & take note of such improvement as we find.

We have a very nice thoughtful little cat, & it catches snakes & brings them into the house for Miss Lyon to play with.

3.30 p.m. time to get up / With love & many kisses… [MTAq 76, 78].

Mr. & Mrs. Lockwood De Forest sent Sam an invitation to their daughter’s wedding [MTP].

Mrs. M.E. Hill wrote from Washington, D.C. to Sam. “To the acquaintance of my youth, years have passed and to day I find myself reading one of your best books, so I thought I would take the liberty to find out if you were the little Sammy Clemens the author of Innocents Abroad that used to run in nearly every day to see us in the old historic city of Georgetown when a boy and I was a little girl Mary Bateman” [MTP]. Note: she had it partly right, but Clemens was never a boy in Georgetown. Sam often got letters from fans swearing they’d known him in one place and time or another.

Dorothy Quick wrote to Sam.

I have been watching the mail for a long time while expecting a letter every day I feel very lonesome for you when you don’t write for so long Mother says you are a very busy man and I should have patience but I cant. Please write me soon if only a tiny little letter I had a reply from the St. Nickolas yesterday they said my story was very good but too long so I think I will take your advice and wait until I am older before I try again I copied a lead in the Ladies Home Journal and it was so good I won the prize please write to me very soon. I am well and happy but I miss you very very much with love to Miss Lyon and lots and lots of love and kisses for you I am / Your fond little / Dorothy [MTAq 78].

October 19 ca. – In Tuxedo Park, N.Y. Isabel Lyon wrote for Sam (on the Oct. 19th invitation from Mr. and Mrs. Lockwood De Forest to the wedding of their daughter) to Marion Piepel at 75 W. 92 Street: “Mr. Clemens is glad you have been able to finish the story. I could have done it once, but it is too difficult now” [MTP]. Note: Piepel is unidentified, but the reference may be to a translation of one of his stories.