August 24 Saturday – From Sam’s notebook:
“…up, shaved breakfasted, before 8—everybody gone but us…visited Gasternthal—gushing waterspout from rock. Sun shining on green ice & blazing snow…Chased a chunk down stream” [MTNJ 2: 143]. (See this source for Twichell’s description of Sam boyishly and joyously chasing a stick downstream.)
August 23 Friday – Sam and Twichell said goodbye to the family and left Interlaken.
August 22 Thursday – From Sam’s notebook:
At Jungfrau Hotel, Interlaken—Superb view of the Jungfrau.
Confounded crow woke us all up at daylight.
Set your umbrellas up on these polished wood floors, down it goes. Step suddenly on them, down you go. The lowest snow on the Jf seems but little above the valley level [drawing inserted] [MTNJ 2: 141].
August 21 Wednesday – Sam hired a carriage and the group continued on to Interlaken, Switzerland. From Sam’s notebook: “Left in 4-horse ambulance. Proprietor gave children box” [MTNJ 2: 141].
August 20 Tuesday – Sam wrote from Lucerne to Frank Bliss about Twichell inspiring him for a “better plan” for the book. Sam wouldn’t go to work “in earnest until…Munich in November.” The plan and title of the book were a secret, Sam wrote. He’d had rheumatism for two months, but had gotten the better of it. For a few months mail could be sent in care of Edward Meigs Smith, Lang’s Hotel, Heidelberg [MTLE 3: 77].
August 19 Monday – From Sam’s notebook: “The Yale cub who asked so many idiotic questions on the lake steamer” [MTNJ 2: 140]. Sam thought Lucerne “a charming place” but didn’t care for the “horde” of tourists that flocked there in the summer. Rodney concludes that, to Sam, “the antiquity of the Swiss city was more impressive than that of Heidelberg, its local color and natural beauty more appealing” [104].
August 17 Saturday – While Sam rested, smoked and wrote letters in Lucerne, Joe Twichell went solo on a three-day trip in the Alps, to St. Gottard Pass [MTNJ 2: 140n55].
August 16 Friday – The Clemens party completed their two-day excursion and returned to Lucerne.
August 15 Thursday – The entire Clemens party took a two-day excursion to the Rigi-Kulm. They spent the night in a hotel on the Rigi to watch the sunset and sunrise.
In a letter of Aug. 20, Sam described the ascent and descent to his mother: