March 4 Saturday – Howells arrived at Sam’s for a two-day visit to collaborate on a play, a lecture tour, a book of travel and the encyclopedia of humor proposal [MTHL 1: 392n1].

Sam wrote from Hartford to James R. Osgood, obviously in a good mood and practicing dialect.

“I’s gwyne to sen’ you de stuff jis’ as she stan’, now; and’ you an’ Misto Howls kin weed out enuff o’dem 93,000 words fer to crowd de book down to one book; or you kin shove in enuff er dat ole Contrib-Club truck fer to swell her up en bust her in two an’ make two books outen her” [MTLTP 152-3].