August 18 Sunday – In Tuxedo Park, N.Y. Sam added to his Aug. 17 to Dorothy Quick.

We talk about you all the time. You are not a large subject, but a very entertaining one.

“Would I like to have you read to me?” Indeed I should. I couldn’t like anything better.

Don’t you be troubled about your hand, Dorothy. It is a good hand, & has the chiefest of all merits: that it is as easy to read as print.

Miss Lyon didn’t count right: there are 4 little rabbits. She can count horses very well, but not rabbits, on account of being near-sighted [MTAq 53].

Sam also wrote to Frances Nunnally.

I am very glad to hear from you, Francesca dear.

Mr. Porter wrote me of your visit, with your mother, & it was clear that he & his family enjoyed the visit very much. Very nice folks they are.

No indeed, I have not forgotten the purposed visit to St. Vincent’s in the fall. I shall be there.

It occurred to me that you might reach New York & telephone my house & get no answer & not understand why; so I started the enclosed explanatory note after you August 3d It may miss you, but the present one won’t, for I shall enclose it to Captain Gates before he sails for England the last day of this month & you will get it when you board his ship Sept. 14th

You will be pretty sure to have a pleasant voyage: a little frosty, perhaps, but sunny & smooth. With love to you & kindest regards to your mother—  [MTAq 55].

Sam also wrote to Emilie Rogers (Mrs. H.H. Rogers).

Then it is all right, & I am relieved. I must have had some groping dull instinct that I had been making a blunder, for when I did not get an answer at once from the Admiral I was distinctly uneasy, without knowing why. Very well, there’s one thing sure: I shall not make another blunder. Until next time.

I should have gone with Harry but for engagements. Particularly a dinner one—the others could have been canceled; but for the chief guest to fail of a dinner-engagement, even when dead, is apparently not permissible. However, as it turns out, there wasn’t any such engagement: it was a tea. The dinner is Tuesday night.

I thought I would have my surgical operation now, & get it done over again when the time should come to use it as a pretext—for Col. Harvey said he had tried it, & it was a trifling matter. So I asked Dr. Rushmore to proceed with it. But he declined. He said that at my time of life it could land me in the graveyard. So that’s off. It is a world of disappointments.

Clara is prospering in Boston, where she is studying. She has gained 7 pounds in two months, & is proud & fat. Also, she has had a tonsil cut out, and thinks God arranged it for the summer season, so that she wouldn’t lose any time from concerting in the fall. Mebbe so. One can’t most always sometimes tell what His game is.

Somebody sent that picture to me, but I could not have it around, because it was indelicate. So I sent it to the Admiral. In this I am plagiarizing the attitude of [the remainder of the letter is missing] [MTHHR 633-4]. Note: source suggests the possible operation was for a hernia suffered in 1893 [n1].

Selma Werner wrote from Ampersand, NY to ask Sam for “a little greeting” [MTP]. On or after Aug. 18 Sam sent her his “truth …economise” aphorism [MTP].