May 25 Thursday – In Hartford, Sam inscribed The Poetical Works of Robert Browning to Susy Clemens: “These volumes, (in place of a promised mud turtle,) are presented with the love of / Papa / May 25, 1882. / N.B. The turtle was to have been brought from New Orleans, but I gave up the idea because it seemed cruel” [MTP].

F.A.O. Schwartz, New York, billed Sam $1.05 for “2 nurse bottles, 2 puffbones [?]” [MTP].

May 25 to June 8 Thursday – Sam began organizing and adding to his notes, reviewing his old Atlantic articles, “Old Times on the Mississippi,” which would comprise part of Life on the Mississippi. It was difficult for him to write at the Hartford house; he was anxious to leave the heat and distraction for Elmira and Quarry Farm, where high over the Chemung River, he was always quite productive. His notebook for this period reveals many planning entries for Clara Clemens’ upcoming birthday party.

Sometime shortly after May 24, Sam wrote to Louis C. Tiffany, evidently for glass work performed:

“I have been down the Mississippi river or I would have answered sooner. I am happy to say that the work is not merely and coldly satisfactory, but intensely so” [MTP].