February 17 Friday – Sam wrote a short letter to his mother and family about Livy’s improvement, though she:

“…still is very low & very weak. She is in her right mind this morning, & has made hardly a single flighty remark” [MTL 4: 352].

Sam also responded to an autograph seeker, Fannie Dennis, who wished both an autograph and sentiment:

To write an autograph is no trouble at all, when a body is used to it, but I never have tried to add a “sentiment” in my life…Therefore, let us just dodge the difficulty entirely & make use of somebody else’s sentiment. Now I always admired that neat & snappy thing which good old John Bunyan said to the Duke of Wellington: “Give me liberty, or give me death!” Isn’t it pretty? [MTL 4: 334].