May 28 Monday – Sam wrote two letters from Ottawa to Livy: His plans to leave had been repeatedly delayed since Saturday. A raft trip down some rapids planned for three or four o’clock that day were scrapped due to a storm; Sam expected to leave at 4:30.

I was provided with only 3 white neckties, & they were rather shabby ones, too. They are shabbier, now. My dress coat has a big moth hole between the shoulders; but I have blacked the white lining with ink, & I suppose it hardly ever shows; in fact, the wise Princess said—but dear me it is luncheon time. How swiftly the time does fly! [LLMT 216].

Sam’s second letter to Livy disclosed he was leaving for Montreal, where he would spend the night, then take a morning train for home. “I thought I would write this final note because maybe it will beat me home” [MTP].

Sam left on a train for Montreal, where he stayed at the Windsor Hotel.

Sam wrote from Montreal to Samuel E. Dawson, returning the coat with his many thanks.

“To say I had a delightful visit at the Government House is putting it tamely—very tamely, indeed” [MTP].

Sam inscribed A Tramp Abroad for Sir Francis De Winton: “How simple & easy the bovve diagrams look, until they have been explained / Sincerely Yours/ S.L. Clemens / Mark Twain / To / Colonel De Winton / May 28, 1883” [MTP]. Note: De Winton (1835-1901) was a friend of the Marquis of Lorne who later was appointed by King Leopold to take Sir Henry Stanley’s place in the Congo. He was a recognized authority of central Africa.

Joseph R. Hawley wrote an invitation for Sam to meet Prof. Willard Fiske this evening at 6:30 [MTP].