September 25 Friday – In St. Pierre de Boef, France, Sam added a PS to his previous day’s letter to Livy (not in Paine’s letters):

P.S. 5 a.m. Next Day (in bed). I hear the villagers beginning to stir in the streets.

Cover the Child! cover the che-ild! lay on! lay on! you’ll make it! YOU’ll make it — and we — did make it![**] The gloaming was deep & rich when we struck St. Pierre de Boef, & it was good dark before we were done climbing crooked alleys & reached the inn. Did you say you wished you were along, sweetheart? Don’t think of it! A sailor’s life is not for you; a life of hardy adventure with rabbits [fleas], & indigestibles, & unimaginable dirt, is not the life for you, my dear. Drop the idea. But it’s the life for me. And for Joseph & the Admiral.

Note: ** [the “child” lines allude to George W. Cable’s famous piece which Sam grew sick of hearing, “Mary Richling’s Night Ride” given repeatedly during the 1884-5 “Twins of Genius” tour].

Sam also praised the work and guidance of Joseph Verey. “Joseph is perfect,” Sam wrote [MTP].

Sam’s party took again to the river at 9 a.m. At 3 p.m. that afternoon, afloat on the Rhone, Sam wrote again to Livy:

Livy darling, we sailed from St. Pierre de Boef six hours ago, & are now approaching Tournon, where we shall not stop, but go on & make Valence, a City Of 25,000 people. It’s too delicious, floating with the swift current under the awning these superb sunshiny days in deep peace & quietness. Some of these curious old historical towns strongly persuade me, but it is so lovely afloat that I don’t stop, but view them from the outside & sail on. We get abundance of grapes and peaches for next to nothing [MTLP 2: 552]. Note: Paine ended here, substituting the prior day’s PS into this letter; his edits are replaced]. My, but that inn was suffocating with garlic where we stayed last night! I had to hold my nose as I went up stairs, or I believe I should have fainted.

Little bit of a room, rude board floor unswept, 2 chairs, unpainted white pine table — voila the furniture! Had a good firm bed, solid as a rock, & you could have brained an ox with the bolster.

These six hours have been entirely delightful. I want to do all the rivers of Europe in an open boat in summer weather.

I love you, love you, love you, my sweetheart. / Saml [MTP].

Meanwhile, Livy wrote Sam from Ouchy, sending it to Avignon, France:

Youth Darling: I wanted to write you a long letter, but now it must be a note. We have all been stirred again this morning to our very depths on the William matter. There has been a letter from William to Jean. It was a very pathetic manly letter, of course not intending to be pathetic but all the more so for that reason. Sue had a hard cry and everything is just about as horrible as it can be. I have written another long letter to Charley on the subject and sent it to London. Something must be done, we cannot go on this way. Sue’s trip is entirely spoiled by this affair. We are getting on nicely and everything is extremely pleasant here. We have the same boatman every day. Several days it has been too rough to go out, but this morning we went and Clara learned to row. She learned as quick or quicker than Jean. We have always the pleasant faced boatman also named Emile, that let the boy take his boat that day. He has learned our Jean and does extremely well for us. The proprietor of the hotel asked after you this morning and said he was afraid the weather had been too bad for you to get much good out of the Rhone. I shall try to write you this evening.

We all love you and shall be truly glad to see your blessed face again. I rec’d your letter from Lyons. With Deepest Love, Livy [The Twainian Jan-Feb 1977 p.1]. Note: the “William matter” that Livy wrote to her brother about may have been a relative or friend of Sue Crane’s along on the trip. No further mention is made of the problem in Livy’s subsequent letters.