February 13 Sunday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Mary Mason Fairbanks, calling his letter only a “Postscript” to the one he’d sent Mollie Fairbanks.

I’m always writing you in spirit—ain’t that enough? I write all my other letters by hand (& brain) of an amanuensis—but yours I think out myself though I do not set them down on paper. I have wholly lost the habit of letter-writing, & you know I never did have it in a largely developed way. My correspondence grew upon me to such an extent that it stopped all of my labor, nearly, & so was destructive to our bread & butter. I have been emancipated, for a good while, but I am soon to lose my private secretary, now, & don’t know what I shall do, for there are few people whom Livy will allow in the house [MTLE 1: 24].

Sam invited Mary and her daughter to visit in April or May, before the Clemens family made their “June exodus,” referring to their plans to reside in Elmira at Quarry Farm.