December 18 Thursday – Sam and Cable took a Christmas break, this day being a travel day. Sam headed for New York where he spent the night at the Everett House, where he’d asked Webster to call on the morning of Dec. 19 [Dec.

December 19 Friday – Sam, after meeting with Charles Webster, probably headed straight home for Hartford, although no documentation for this date has been found. Upon reaching home, Sam was in store for a surprise.

December 20 Saturday – The Dec. 20, 1884 article by H.B. Stephens, “Mark Twain’s ‘Dorg’,” which ran in Every Other Saturday, is available in The Twainian (July-Aug. 1953) p.3-4, and contains a letter from Sam to Stephens, as well as a reference to a prior incoming letter from Stephens, both letters undated and unlisted by MTP.

December 22 Monday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Laurence Hutton, congratulating Miss Eleanor Varnum Mitchell, soon to be Mrs. Laurence Hutton.

December 23 Tuesday – Sam wrote two letters from Hartford to Charles Webster. Sam enclosed an advertisement by Estes & Lauriat of Boston for “Just ready” copies of HF, reduced from $2.75 to $2.25; Sam was infuriated.

December 24 Wednesday – Edward Zane Carroll Judson (Ned Buntline) wrote to Clemens:

December 25 Thursday – Christmas – Sam inscribed a copy of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn to Livy: “To / Livy L. Clemens / with the matured & perfect love of / The Author. / Xmas, 1884” [MTP].

December 26 Friday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Orion.

December 27 Saturday – Sam wrote from New York City to Livy, with news about Charles and Ida Langdon, and also the Cranes, who were in the city:

December 28 Sunday – Sam took the train from New York in the morning and traveled all day. He wrote at 9:30 P.M from Pittsburgh to Livy. Cable had arrived on Dec. 27. Sam asked that a letter he’d left at Hartford from a “Chicago poetess” be sent on to him. He told of an attempt by the railroad to “curtail his liberties” after breaking some rule (possibly smoking).