September 4 Wednesday – From Sam’s notebook at the Beau Rivage Hotel, Ouchy:

Furious at breakfast…have read French 25 years & now could not say “breakfast” —could think of nothing but aujourdhui—then demain!—then—& so on, tearing my hair (figuratively) and raging inwardly while outwardly calm—one idiot french word after another while waiter stood bewildered.

There were indications wh[ich] showed that this egg was an antique [MTNJ 2: 170].

Sam and Joe set off on their last Alpine tramp. Bound for Chamonix, France, they took the train to Martigny, Switzerland, where they arrived at 9 PM and took rooms at the Hotel Clerc [MTNJ 2: 153-4, 170].

September 4? and 8 Sunday – Sam and Livy were now together in Geneva, Switzerland, at the Hotel de l’Ecu de Genève. They wrote a joint letter to Jane Clemens. Livy had just received a letter from Jane, with an enclosed letter from Orion and Mollie Clemens. Livy began the letter when Sam was “off on a walking trip…for nearly a week.” Evidently, Orion had written of another scheme to teach English in Europe or German in Keokuk, it’s unclear which. Livy outlined the obstacles, since Orion did not know German.

On Sept. 8 Sam returned from a “long walking tramp to Mont Blanc,” and finished the letter, agreeing with Livy that at age 53 it would be “simply an impossibility” for Orion to learn German well enough to teach it.

I seemed to have walked the rheumatism out of myself at last, but it was a slow remedy. Twichell & I started from Martigny at 8 AM & reached Chamouny at 6 P.M.—a frightfully hot day. There was an abundance of snow within pistol shot sometimes, but it did not cool the air any. Next day we walked again about 10 hours. We never got tired but the heat roasted us. / We remain here a few days longer, then go to Venice [MTLE 3: 85].