December 25 Tuesday – Christmas –­ William Dean Howells wrote to Charles Dudley Warner about Sam’s letter of Dec. 23: “This morning I got a letter from poor Clemens that almost breaks my heart. I hope I shall be able to answer it in just the right way” [MTHL 2: 212n3].

He then wrote to Sam that being in the Atlantic would “…help and not hurt us many a year yet…” He then began to repair Sam’s wounds:

…while I think your regret does you honor and does you good, I don’t want you to dwell too morbidly on the matter….One of the most fastidious men here [Francis J. Child] who read the speech, saw no offense in it. But I don’t pretend not to agree with you about it. All I want you to do is not to exaggerate the damage. You are not going to be floored by it; there is more justice than that even in this world. And especially as regards me, just call the sore spot well.

Howells suggested a way Sam might help himself:

—A man isn’t hurt by any honest effort at reparation. Why shouldn’t you write to each of those men and say frankly that at such and such an hour on the 17th of December you did so and so? They would take it in the right spirit, I’m sure. If they didn’t the right would be yours [MTHL 2: 213].

Sam wrote from Hartford to Olivia Lewis Langdon, thanking her for Christmas gifts of Satsuma ware, two quilts, and a “dainty Japanese fish.” Sam and family had a “pretty booming sort of a Christmas” and sent their love [MTLE 2: 210].

Sam inscribed a copy of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer to Harriet L. Lewis, Livy’s cousin who was with Livy and Sam on that first day the two had spent together in 1869, later pretending to be Sam’s sweetheart to avoid gossip. “Hattie L. Lewis, Merry Christmas, 1877.”

Sam received a copy of Harriet Martineau’s Retrospect of Western Travel, 2 vols (1838) from Theodore Crane [Gribben 454].

T.C. Marsh, “Stogies, Tips and Fine Cigars” wrote from Cambridge, Ohio, advising he was sending 600 stogies [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “Asking to name cigar after me. Agreed to. SLC”