November 20 Friday – Sam wrote two letters from Hartford to Howells. The first is an interesting fantasy, set in Boston (called Limerick) in the future, Nov. 16. 1935:

My air-ship was delayed by a collision with a fellow from China loaded with the usual cargo of jabbering, copper-colored missionaries, & so I was nearly an hour on my journey. But by the goodness of God thirteen of the missionaries were crippled & several killed, so I was content to lose the time. I love to lose time, anyway, because it brings soothing reminiscences of the creeping railroad days of old, now lost to us forever [MTL 6: 290].

In the second letter Sam enclosed his first “Old Times on the Mississippi” article [MTL 6: 294].