November 28 Sunday – Sam wrote from Boston to Livy about her 24th and his 34th birthday:

“I have kept the day alone, my darling—we will keep it together hereafter, God willing. My own birthday comes Tuesday, & I must keep that alone also, but it don’t matter—I’ve had had considerable practice in that” [MTL 3: 413].

Sam recommended Charles Reade’s The Cloister and the Hearth (1861), a book Twichell had recommended and one Sam was unable to find fault with [Gribben 571].