登陆注册
5380500000076

第76章

We send best regards.

MARK.

April found the Clemens family in Elmira.Mrs.Clemens was not over-strong, and the cares of house-building were many.They went early, therefore, remaining at the Langdon home in the city until Quarry Farm should feel a touch of warmer sun, Clemens wrote the news to Doctor Brown.

To Dr.John Brown, in Edinburgh:

ELMIRA, N.Y., April 27, '86.

DEAR DOCTOR,--This town is in the interior of the State of New York--and was my wife's birth-place.We are here to spend the whole summer.

Although it is so near summer, we had a great snow-storm yesterday, and one the day before.This is rather breaking in upon our plans, as it may keep us down here in the valley a trifle longer than we desired.It gets fearfully hot here in the summer, so we spend our summers on top of a hill 6 or 700 feet high, about two or three miles from here--it never gets hot up there.

Mrs.Clemens is pretty strong, and so is the "little wifie" barring a desperate cold in the head the child grows in grace and beauty marvellously.I wish the nations of the earth would combine in a baby show and give us a chance to compete.I must try to find one of her latest photographs to enclose in this.And this reminds me that Mrs.

Clemens keeps urging me to ask you for your photograph and last night she said, "and be sure to ask him for a photograph of his sister, and Jock-but say Master Jock--do not be headless and forget that courtesy; he is Jock in our memories and our talk, but he has a right to his title when a body uses his name in a letter." Now I have got it all in--I can't have made any mistake this time.Miss Clara Spaulding looked in, a moment, yesterday morning, as bright and good as ever.She would like to lay her love at your feet if she knew I was writing--as would also fifty friends of ours whom you have never seen, and whose homage is as fervent as if the cold and clouds and darkness of a mighty sea did not lie between their hearts and you.Poor old Rab had not many "friends" at first, but if all his friends of today could gather to his grave from the four corners of the earth what a procession there would be! And Rab's friends are your friends.

I am going to work when we get on the hill-till then I've got to lie fallow, albeit against my will.We join in love to you and yours.

Your friend ever, SAML.L.CLEMENS.

P.S.I enclose a specimen of villainy.A man pretends to be my brother and my lecture agent--gathers a great audience together in a city more than a thousand miles from here, and then pockets the money and elopes, leaving the audience to wait for the imaginary lecturer! I am after him with the law.

It was a historic summer at the Farm.A new baby arrived in June; a new study was built for Mark Twain by Mrs.Crane, on the hillside near the old quarry; a new book was begun in it--The Adventures of Tom Sawyer--and a play, the first that Mark Twain had really attempted, was completed--the dramatization of The Gilded Age.

An early word went to Hartford of conditions at the Farm.

To Rev.and Mrs.Twichell, in Hartford:

ELMIRA, June 11, 1874.

MY DEAR OLD JOE AND HARMONY,--The baby is here and is the great American Giantess--weighing 7 3/4 pounds.We had to wait a good long time for her, but she was full compensation when she did come.

The Modoc was delighted with it, and gave it her doll at once.There is nothing selfish about the Modoc.She is fascinated with the new baby.

The Modoc rips and tears around out doors, most of the time, and consequently is as hard as a pine knot and as brown as an Indian.She is bosom friend to all the ducks, chickens, turkeys and guinea hens on the place.Yesterday as she marched along the winding path that leads up the hill through the red clover beds to the summer-house, there was a long procession of these fowls stringing contentedly after her, led by a stately rooster who can look over the Modoc's head.The devotion of these vassals has been purchased with daily largess of Indian meal, and so the Modoc, attended by her bodyguard, moves in state wherever she goes.

Susie Crane has built the loveliest study for me, you ever saw.It is octagonal, with a peaked roof, each octagon filled with a spacious window, and it sits perched in complete isolation on top of an elevation that commands leagues of valley and city and retreating ranges of distant blue hills.It is a cosy nest, with just room in it for a sofa and a table and three or four chairs--and when the storms sweep down the remote valley and the lightning flashes above the hills beyond, and the rain beats upon the roof over my head, imagine the luxury of it! It stands 500 feet above the valley and 2 ?miles from it.

However one must not write all day.We send continents of love to you and yours.

Affectionately MARK.

We have mentioned before that Clemens had settled his mother and sister at Fredonia, New York, and when Mrs.Clemens was in condition to travel he concluded to pay them a visit.

It proved an unfortunate journey; the hot weather was hard on Mrs.

Clemens, and harder still, perhaps, on Mark Twain's temper.At any period of his life a bore exasperated him, and in these earlier days he was far more likely to explode than in his mellower age.Remorse always followed--the price he paid was always costly.We cannot know now who was the unfortunate that invited the storm, but in the next letter we get the echoes of it and realize something of its damage.

To Mrs.Jane Clemens and Mrs.Moffett, in Fredonia:

ELMIRA, Aug.15.

MX DEAR MOTHER AND SISTER,--I came away from Fredonia ashamed of myself;--almost too much humiliated to hold up my head and say good-bye.For Ibegan to comprehend how much harm my conduct might do you socially in your village.I would have gone to that detestable oyster-brained bore and apologized for my inexcusable rudeness to him, but that I was satisfied he was of too small a calibre to know how to receive an apology with magnanimity.

Pamela appalled me by saying people had hinted that they wished to visit Livy when she came, but that she had given them no encouragement.

同类推荐
  • 开禧德安守城录

    开禧德安守城录

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 珥笔肯綮

    珥笔肯綮

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 明儒学案

    明儒学案

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 佛说鸯掘摩经

    佛说鸯掘摩经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 太和正音谱

    太和正音谱

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 世界经典历史故事(中册)

    世界经典历史故事(中册)

    怎样快捷地了解世界,首先我们要从了解世界历史入手。人类历史发展为世界历史,经历了一个漫长的过程,生产力是历史发展的终极动力。从地球上有了人类那时起,人类的第一个活动便是生产活动,而且从未间断过。人类文明的演进,社会的发展,只能在生产力进步的基础上实现。旧石器时代使得氏族社会形成,金石并用时代又促成氏族社会解体,人类进入文明时代。在自然经济状态下,只可能有奴隶制度和封建制度,商品经济与市场经济却孕育出近代资本主义社会。手工工场时代、蒸汽时代、电器时代和信息时代将人类社会的进展划分为不同的发展阶段。这是二、三百万年来人类文明进程所确凿的事实。《世界经典历史故事》大体上是按照这个线索来编写的。
  • 重生国民男神:学霸甜妻,放开撩

    重生国民男神:学霸甜妻,放开撩

    【女扮男装】【撩汉攻略】【撩到你腿软!】前世的欧阳敏被人欺,被人骗,重生一世回到校园时期,她决定从男装开始,完成前世失败的“撩汉”任务,改变一切!于是攻略如下。接近男神,为此她虐渣打脸强势做学霸,靠实力和男神同居。投其所好,她一路打怪升级,最终俘获男神的心!近身勾搭,于是她使劲浑身解数诱惑。“男神你鞋带散了,我帮你系。”泳池边,欧阳敏拿着浴袍,“男神,我来给你擦擦身上的水,不然要感冒了。”陆男神按住她的手,将她压到墙上,语气危险,“欧阳敏,你究竟想干什么!”欧阳敏勾着他的下巴,笑容诱人,“我想给你生猴子,你心动么?”陆君豪沉了目光,“欧阳敏,再放肆,我宠坏你!”书友群:758900770
  • 天价为聘之嫡女

    天价为聘之嫡女

    她是个掉价的哑千金,却在媒婆前来提亲的时候,说出一句,“非天价为聘,不嫁。”仅此一句话,让天下大笑,却也引得四方好奇,哑千金会说话?从此,她开始了斗,斗庶母,斗庶女,甚至斗嫡长女。以斗为乐,以斗气人,以斗怡己却被白兔看上了,开始了永无安宁的生活……谁知道,他竟然是……自己的完结文推荐《绝宠皇后》《恶魔儿子天价娘》精彩片段抢先看:“娘子,你不觉得你相公很可怜吗?”小白兔的声音。“怎么了你?”堂堂慕容家的少爷,可怜?这简直就是一无赖!“我已经很就没有抱过你了。”小白兔撒娇了。女子翻了白眼,前一刻才抱了,难道她记错了?“娘子,我想,我们该去‘造人’了。”刚学会的词,便用上了,这个叫做学以致用。PS:此文为正剧,非种田,却似种田,非宫斗,却似宫斗。另文文过程曲折,无虐心虐肺,女主腹黑,手段狠辣!男主自行想象。好友好文推荐:《魔君宠舞》《腹黑医生,别耍赖》《废后,桃花纷乱》《离婚不承宠》在移动手机阅读平台上使用的名称为《天价为聘娶恶妻》
  • 纵览大国命运:欧洲战争革命史(套装共3册)

    纵览大国命运:欧洲战争革命史(套装共3册)

    纵览大国命运:欧洲战争革命史(帝国的分裂:1618-1648三十年战争史+王权的覆灭:1640~1649英国革命史+人民的主张:1789~1814法国革命史)
  • 麻烦你给我说清楚

    麻烦你给我说清楚

    村长张远莽上午到乡里开了一个会。主要是听乡长传达到清河县考察高山蔬菜的情况。乡长是个女的,讲话却很有水平,深入浅出,妙语连珠,把会场气氛弄得很活跃。女乡长最后给各村的村长布置了一个任务,就是回去后如何鼓动村民种植球白菜,把马蹄乡发展成县里的第一高山蔬菜基地。村长们都很兴奋,纷纷表态。只有张远莽沉默着,满腹心事的样子。他昨晚上打了一夜的花牌,输了十六块钱。他现在正回忆那两个大和是怎么打错了的,不仅没和上牌还放了别人一铳。他想要是那两牌和了的话,就正负十八块钱,本来应该赢两块的,反倒输了十六块。
  • 惊心动魄的世界战争

    惊心动魄的世界战争

    从古至今,人世间不知发生过多少次悲壮激烈的战争。运筹帷幄,攻城略地,长途奔袭,短兵相接。种种战例,或记之于史册,或见之于名著,或流传于口头。本书讲述了公元前27世纪的涿鹿之战、前8世纪—7世纪的亚述战争等内容。
  • 修真妖孽混都市

    修真妖孽混都市

    叱咤仙界的一代天骄回归花花都市,开启了自己的妖孽人生,起死回生的医术、惊爆眼球的商业才华、横绝天下的功夫,他是无所不能的都市主宰,是活在凡尘俗世的人间神话。
  • 人类的创举(科学知识大课堂)

    人类的创举(科学知识大课堂)

    为了普及科学知识,探索科学发展的历程,领略科学丰富多彩的趣味,弘扬科学名家的丰功伟绩,学习科学家不懈的创新精神与无私的奉献精神,培养青少年科学、爱科学的浓厚兴趣,并密切结合青少年朋友日常的生活与学习特点,我们组织编写了这套《科学知识大课堂》。作为一套普及科学知识的通俗读物,本书有别于专业的学术论著,侧重于知识性、趣味性、实用性,注重对青少年科技素质的培育、科学兴趣的培养、科学精神的塑造与科学方法的启迪,不求面面俱到,但求言之有物,物有所指,指有所发。
  • 我的外挂是魔君

    我的外挂是魔君

    虽灵根被毁,天才殒灭。但她从不信天命,只认拳头之理。来鬼杀鬼,来怪劈怪,来兽斩兽,来魔坑魔!一不小心,非礼了个美男,从此被他莫名缠上。听说:他纵横六界,集天地月华,受万魔敬仰,承万人惶恐。腿抖,惹不起就跑吧!只是……这魔坑了后,有些难缠。“你和你的臭鸟给我滚蛋!”云沐颜怒道。“我滚了你还怎么开挂?”某男好笑道。云沐颜背起一身装备,大怒,“哪里看出你的挂?这些都是我一个人打出来的!”某男扬起俊眉,瞅着她鼓起的小腹,“这个挂,你一个人可打不来。”
  • 霸道前夫请克制

    霸道前夫请克制

    “如果时间可以倒流,我会对你说四个字,誓死不嫁,如果要在上面加个期限,我希望是今生今世来生来世……”婆婆的诋毁,冷酷丈夫的冷嘲热讽,好友的算计,终究让她遍体鳞伤的离开……三年后,前夫纠缠不清,她视他如废土,他却视她如珍宝。可是不好意思,娇妻不见,悍妻来临!--情节虚构,请勿模仿