March 8 to 10 Tuesday – The visit of Howells, Osgood and the Aldriches lasted until Mar. 10.

March 7 Saturday – Howells, Osgood, and the Aldriches left Boston on the train to Springfield, Mass., where Sam and Warner met and accompanied the group to Hartford. Howells and Osgood stayed with the Warners, while the Aldriches stayed with Sam and Livy [MTL 6: 62n1-2].

March 6 Friday – Sam returned alone to Hartford, perhaps after luncheon at the Aldrich home. Of the lecture, The Boston Globe:

March 5 Thursday – Sam gave the “Roughing It” lecture in Horticultural Hall, Boston [MTPO].

March 4 Wednesday – Sam telegraphed from Hartford to William Dean Howells, suggesting they return to Hartford the day after the lecture, Friday, Mar. 6. Sam actually returned alone that day; Howells, Osgood, Aldrich and wife came on Mar. 7 [MTL 6: 61, 62n1].

March 3 Tuesday – Sam telegraphed from Hartford to William Dean Howells to complete arrangements for Howells to visit. Embellishing the old saw about a bird in the hand, Sam wrote:

March 2 Monday – In Cambridge, Mass. Thomas Bailey Aldrich wrote:

March – Sometime this month Rosina Hay (1852?-1926), the German nursemaid, was hired. She would stay with the family for many years, and accompanied them on their trip to Europe in 1879 [MTNJ 2: 365n33]. Salsbury writes, “She was a Lutheran, had a lovely sense of humor and an easy, cordial laugh. She had good sense and great courage” [28]. Rosina would work for the Clemens family until she left to be married on Aug. 16, 1883 [AMT 2: 568].

February 28 Saturday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Edinburgh physician, John Brown, saying he was “delighted” with Brown’s commendations of The Gilded Age.

February 27 Friday – Sam wrote from Hartford to William Dean Howells about a mix-up in lecture dates for Boston, and Howells’ arrival in Hartford with Boston publisher James R. Osgood at the invitation from Sam’s neighbor and collaborator, Charles Dudley Warner. “I am in a sweat, & Warner is in another.” The visit was deferred for a week [MTL 6: 52].