December 2 Friday – Sam and James R. Osgood began a three-day excursion a little over a hundred miles to Quebec, arriving at night and staying at the old Russell Hotel (see insert; closed in 1925) [MTNJ 2: 413n181].
Sam wrote from Quebec to Livy at midnight:
December 1 Thursday – Date of British copyright secured for The Prince and the Pauper [MTNJ 2: 403n165].
In the evening, Sam wrote from Montreal to Livy. Sam and Osgood had been:
December – The Prince and the Pauper was published in Germany by Tauchnitz [MTNJ 2: 382n77]. The book was reviewed by Hjalmar Boyesen in the December issue of the Atlantic.
November 30 Wednesday – Sam’s 46th birthday. Osgood and Sam were guests of Mr. & Mrs. Samuel Dawson, of Dawson Brothers, Sam’s Canadian publisher. Sam wrote Livy on Dec. 1 that the gathering was “A crowd of very nice people there. We staid till 11” [MTP].
November 29 Tuesday – Sam wrote from Montreal to Livy.
November 28 Monday – In Montreal, Sam wrote a short note and a long PS to Livy [MTLP 407].
Livy darling, you and Clara [Spaulding] ought to have been at breakfast in the great dining room this morning. English female faces, distinctive English costumes, strange and marvelous English gaits—& yet such honest, honorable, clean-souled countenances, just as these English women almost always have, you know. Right away—
November 27 Sunday – Livy’s 36th birthday.
Sam wrote from the Windsor Hotel in Montreal to Livy. His letter was a mixture of hieroglyphics (like his several lecture notes) and text. Paine’s translation:
Livy Dear, a mouse kept me awake last night till 3 or 4 o’clock—so I am lying abed this morning. I would not give sixpence to be out yonder in the storm, although it is only snow. …
November 26 Saturday – Sam left Boston by train for the 200 miles to Montreal, staying at the Windsor Hotel. He arrived at about 9:15 P.M. [MTBus 178; MTNJ 2: 407]. Sam took three history volumes of Francis Parkman to read on the train. On Nov.
November 25 Friday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Elinor Howells, who evidently wrote that her husband was ill and confined to bed:
“Dear Mrs. Howells— / How you startle me! Can a man so near by, fall sick, & linger along, & approach death, & a body never hear of it?…I supposed Howells went to Toronto the 20th, & that he would fetch around & join Osgood & me in Montreal three or four days from now” [MTHL 1: 379].
November 24 Thursday – Thanksgiving – Sam wrote from Hartford to Charles Webster. He didn’t doubt Charley’s energy or dedication, but did require continual reports on things, including the “daily prospects for brass” in order to keep up the English patent. Not long reports, Sam insisted, but ones to the point. If brass wouldn’t work, try copper.