December 28 Tuesday – Fidelia Bridges sent a receipt for $220 paid for watercolors [MTP].

December 28 to 31 Friday – Moncure Conway arrived for a visit and stayed until Dec. 31. Sam and Conway played billiards (Sam won, 11 games to 4). Sam further entertained his guest by singing “old boatmen’s songs which he heard when on a Mississippi steamboat.” He posed an idea to Conway, who’d been a Southern Minister in the Unitarian church before going to England and meeting Sam there in 1872. “The ease with which I perceive other peoples religion to be folly, makes me suspect that my religion may be folly also.” Conway took a MS of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer to England and arranged for Chatto & Windus to publish it. Sam gave Conway an inscribed Sketches book. Conway noted that Sam had a touch of dysentery [MTL 6: 599-601]. Note: Conway left his overshoes; he sent a postcard on Jan. 4 asking Sam to ship them.