Dec. 28/81.
Dear Dr Burton—
You can rest right down on it, every time. I did not choose the word lightly, or with haste; & ‸but‸ after thought, & unhurried seeking for the right word; rejecting several that were near to being the right one, yet ‸but which‸ failed, by a shade, to reflect to the full the thing which was in my mind. I am careless about minor words, but never ‸not‸ about key-words—I mean, I don’t weigh the powder for the blank carotridges, but I do for the bullets. And look here: it wasn’t my idea to send you that ridiculous General-Butler toy; it was Stone’s—he wanted to sell it, I reckon. He said some minister ought to have it, to beguile his mind away, ‸for a moment,‸ from the contemplation of the woes & foolishnesses & littlenesses of the creeping ‸things‸ he is commissioned by his office to save or damn; & so I said send it to Dr Burton—for it struck me that his idea was sound. And when a toy-fiend exhibits an idea, he ‸one‸ marvels, & he is sore afraid, & his reason fails him, & he doth the thing which is thoughtless.
‸Merry Christmas.‸
Sincerely Yours
S L Clemens
Source text(s):Previous publication:
MicroML, reel 4.
Provenance:
See Appert Collection in Description of Provenance.
