Hartford May 7/81.
My Dear Osgood—
If the matter were solid, they might be right—in that case it is possible that it might be got into ‸13½ or‸ 14 of their pages. But the dialogues open it up right smartly. I However, what I’m coming at, is the instructions you ask for. My dear sir, any rate you can beguile these people out of, above $20 a page, will be entirely sastisfactory to me—I shall look upon the pure surplus as pure swag, & value it accordingly;—i. e., ‸above‸ any money honorably earned. There—am I explicit enough?
Now you said you wanted a letter of mine to frame. All right—just hang this one up; for it ain’t a screed exhibiting a man’s literary gait that you want for such a purpose, as that, but a screed which whi will exhibit his moral lay-out.
Ys Truly
S. L. Clemens
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