November 4 Sunday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Will Bowen, old Hannibal friend, relating his reflections of the previous evening at a wedding. Sam then wished Bowen could have stayed longer, and the next time to bring his wife along. The Bowens had just lost a child and the others were sick. Sam comforted his old friend, touching on the pain of his own loss of a son:

We all feel your deep trouble with you; & we would hope, if we might, but your words deny us that privilege. To die one’s self is a thing that must be easy, & of light consequence; but to lose a part of one’s self — well, we know how deep that pang goes, we who have suffered that disaster, received the wound which cannot heal [MTP].

Sam also wrote a short paragraph to Caroline B. Le Row, who had sent him the school children’s compositions from which he’d written “English As She Is Taught.” Sam thanked her for sending what was,

…entertaining reading — notwithstanding the ever-recurring pang one feels on account of the poor little mishandled devils…[MTP].