To Mary Mason Fairbanks
11 August 1872 • New Saybrook, Conn.
(MS: CSmH, UCCL 00792)

Fenwick Hall
Saybrook, Conn.,
Aug. 11.

Dear Mother:

What a brief note it was! Now how did we know where you were? Been waiting ever so patiently to learn that you had reached home again, so that we could write you.1 Indeed, part of that is true. But the main reason why I, individually, have not written, is,—laziness. I never was afflicted with it before, but now that I have tried it, I adore it.

Our Susie is doing famously here, but the case was different in Hartford, the moment the warm weather set in. We had to pack our trunks mighty suddenly, the 5th of July & rush down here—& none too soon, for the succeeding week wilted Hartford children away like a simoom. This place is on the Sound,2 2 hours from Hartford, & is delightfully cool & comfortable—never an hour of heat, day or night. Mrs. Langdon will reach here in a day or two, & she & Livy will remain till cool weather—but I sail in the Scotia, Aug. 21st for Europe—England, rather—to be gone several months. If I find I am to be away very long, shall return by & by & take Livy over. I confine myself to England & Scotland. I wish you would come over there; & if you can’t, I wish you would make Livy a real good visit.

You must remember us lovingly to our friends in Cleveland, & especially the Severances3—Mrs. S’s. letter to us when we lost our boy touched us & so warmed our hearts toward her. I say these things to you because we have replied to none of the many letters of condolence we received, writing was so painful.

Susie is bright & strong & we love her so that no sacrifice seems too much to make for her; though I feel that we must look up a less expensive article of condensed milk for her. Good-bye.

Lovingly, Yr Son

Samℓ.

Explanatory Notes

Editorial Signs

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1 Abel and Mary Mason Fairbanks had been traveling in California and Nevada (they were in Virginia City in late June). Mrs. Fairbanks, who sometimes used the pseudonym “Myra,” contributed sketches about the trip to the Cleveland Herald. They were later reprinted as Cleveland to San Francisco (n.d.) (L2, 166 n. 4; Fairbanks, 552; “Editorial Visit,” Virginia City Virginia Evening Chronicle, 26 June 72, 3).

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2 Long Island Sound.

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3 Emily and Solon Long Severance of Cleveland were part of the small group of Clemens’s favored companions on the 1867 Quaker City trip (L2, 63, 66).

Description of Texts and Provenance

Source text(s):

MS, Henry E. Huntington Library, San Marino (CSmH, call no. HM 14278).

Previous publication: L5, 146–147; MTMF, 163–64; Grenander 1975, 1, excerpt; Davis 1977, 3, excerpt.

Provenance:see Huntington Library in Description of Provenance.