May 29 Tuesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Howells, revealing that he had traveled to Bermuda under an assumed name, and lamenting the fact that Howells had not been on the trip:

Confound you, Joe Twichell & I roamed about Bermuda day & night & never ceased to gabble & enjoy. About half the talk was—“It is a burning shame that Howells isn’t here,” “Nobody could get at the very meat & marrow of this pervading charm & deliciousness like Howells,” “How Howells would revel in the quaintness, & the simplicity of this people & the Sabbath repose of this land!” “What an imperishable sketch Howells would make of Capt. West the whaler, & Capt. Hope with the patient, pathetic face, wanderer in all the oceans for 43 years, lucky in none; coming home defeated once more, now minus his ship—resigned, uncomplaining, being used to this,” “What a rattling chapter Howells would make out of the small boy Alfred, with his alert eye & military brevity & exactness of speech; & out of the old landlady; & her sacred onions; & her daughter; & the visiting clergymen; & the ancient pianos of Hamilton & the venerable music in vogue there—& forty other things which we shall leave untouched or touch but lightly upon, we not being worth,” “Dam Howells for not being here!” (this usually from me, not Twichell) [MTLE 2: 74].

Sam also wrote a note to John A. McPherson, who evidently had inquired as to the source of Sam’s pen name, “Mark Twain” [MTLE 2: 75].