1 On 31 January Clemens wrote Frank Fuller that he was “entirely idle” and planned to “remain so for two weeks & possibly three.” That helps explain why for nine days, between 4 and 13 February, no letters have been found.

2 Baillie, Samuel Morrin, and the Reverend R. Dunn were all fellow passengers of Clemens’s during the transatlantic crossing on the Parthia in January. Neither Morrin’s note nor Baillie’s invitation to lecture has survived. Dunn’s “famishing” companion has not been identified. The published passenger list misidentified Baillie as “J. E. Baillie” (“Arrival of the Parthia,” Boston Evening Transcript, 26 Jan 74, 1). This letter survives among the papers of William E. Baillie (b. 1848 or 1849), which also include the following autograph, on Parthia letterhead, doubtless to him as well: “Very Truly Yrs | Samℓ L. Clemens | Mark Twain | Jan. 25” (information courtesy of the National Art Library, Victoria and Albert Museum, London).