Clemens parodied the first stanza of a popular hymn by Phoebe Hinsdale Brown (1783–1861): “I love to steal, awhile, away / From every cumbering care, / And spend the hours of setting day / In humble, grateful prayer.” It was included in Henry Ward Beecher’s Plymouth Collection of Hymns, which Clemens knew well. He was following early returns from the 7 November presidential election. As a supporter of Hayes, the Republican, he was disturbed that Hartford and Connecticut had already gone for Tilden, the Democrat, with the Hartford Courant projecting his victory: “The decided probabilities are that Mr. Tilden is elected” (“The Result,” “The Result in Connecticut,” 8 Nov 1876, 2; Beecher 1855, 799–800).