To Eunice Ford
25? December 1870 • Buffalo, N.Y.
(MS: CtHMTH, UCCL 02787)

c

Christmas, 1870.

Dear Greatgrandma:

With this I send you a loving Christmas present to remind you that [ it at] this season of all seasons of the year when babies are important & their acts of great honor & significance, this baby recognizes & approves of his greatgrandma—entirely & completely.

This present is a small personal friend of mine who has gotten over his crimson period, his yaller period & his red-gum period & has bleached out & taken a good complexion.1

He has a good many [ ve virtues,] but his chiefest one is his mannerly & attractive quietness. He never speaks till he is spoken to—and even then he don’t answer right off. Merry Christmas to you & a great deal of love.

Your greatgrandson

Langdon Clemens.

Explanatory Notes | Textual Commentary

Editorial Signs

Click to add citation to My Citations.

1 A photograph of Langdon Clemens may have accompanied this letter, although no such early image has been identified. Possibly, however, the enclosure was a drawing, similar to the ones Clemens had recently done for Susan Crane (19–20? Nov 70 to Crane).

Description of Texts and Provenance

Source text(s):

MS, Mark Twain House, Hartford (CtHMTH).

Previous publication: L4, 285.

Provenance:donated to CtHMTH in 1962 by Ida Langdon.

Emendations and textual notes:

it at • i at

ve virtues • veirtues