October 17 Sunday – Thomas Bailey Aldrich wrote to Sam.

My dear Clemens: / I hope you have been behaving yourself wisely and not too well during these past six months, while I have been fraternizing with your old boon companions in Italy, the St. Sebastians,—“a werry nice little family”, as Sam Weller would say, “with a good many werry nice points in ’em.” I trust you and the little ones—which include Mrs Clemens, to whom we send our love—are flourishing. How, when, and where shall you be seen in the flesh by / Your faithful friend, / ’Ebare Gordong, /de la Ville de Ponkapog, / Amerique? / I enclose you the petal of a flower plucked from Mike St. Sebastian’s grave. I know it will draw tears from your eyes [MTPO].