November 27 Monday – Livy’s 26th birthday.

Sam lectured in Bennington, Vermont – “Artemus Ward.” Afterward, Sam wrote to Livy:

Livy darling, good house, but they laughed too much. A great fault with this lecture is, that I have no way of turning it into a serious & instructive vein at will. Any lecture of mine ought to be a running narrative-plank, with square holes in it, six inches apart, all the length of it; & then in my mental shop I ought to have plugs (half marked “serious” & the others marked “humorous”) to select from & jam into these holes according to the temper of the audience [MTL 4: 498].

Sam also thought that too many books about the West made Roughing It a bit “hackneyed,” and mentioned writing a Mississippi book—“then look out! I will spend 2 months on the river & take notes…” Sam had thought of a river book at least since Jan. 1866 [MTL 4: 499].

Hume & Sanford Co. Buffalo, wrote to Sam with a statement of account balancing goods & services with payments totaling $1,072.35 [MTP].