December 21 Monday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Howells, who’d written on Dec. 19 that Sam’s “No. 3” (installment of “Old Times”) was “safe among the dead-heads in my drawer, so you can dismiss all fears but those of publication.” The two argued over $3 to pay for Aldrich’s room and board at the Parker House; Howells enclosing the money and claiming Aldrich was his guest, Sam insisting it was he who had reserved the rooms. “…we’ll leave for N.O. , Feb. 15. That is the idea” [MTL 6: 326-7].

Sam also wrote from Hartford to Thomas B. Pugh, manager of the Star Course of lectures in Philadelphia. Sam declined to lecture, even for $2,000, which he calculated it would cost him to interrupt his writing. Sam was working on The Adventures of Tom Sawyer [MTL 6: 327].