MY DEAR HOWELLS,--When Mrs. Clemens read your letter she said: "Well,

then, wherever they go, in March, the direction will be southward and

so they must give us a visit on the way." I do not know what sort of

control you may be under, but when my wife speaks as positively as that,

I am not in the habit of talking back and getting into trouble. Situated

as I am, I would not be able to understand, now, how you could pass by

this town without feeling that you were running a wanton risk and doing

a daredevil thing. I consider it settled that you are to come in March,

and I would be sincerely sorry to learn that you and Mrs. Howells feel

differently about it.

The piloting material has been uncovering itself by degrees, until

it has exposed such a huge hoard to my view that a whole book will be

required to contain it if I use it. So I have agreed to write the book

for Bliss.--[The book idea was later given up for the time being.]--I

won't be able to run the articles in the Atlantic later than the

September number, for the reason that a subscription book issued in the

fall has a much larger sale than if issued at any other season of the

year. It is funny when I reflect that when I originally wrote you and

proposed to do from 6 to 9 articles for the magazine, the vague thought

in my mind was that 6 might exhaust the material and 9 would be pretty

sure to do it. Or rather it seems to me that that was my thought--can't

tell at this distance. But in truth 9 chapters don't now seem to more

than open up the subject fairly and start the yarn to wagging.

I have been sick a-bed several days, for the first time in 21 years.

344

The Letters Of Mark Twain, Complete