We both send a power of love to the Howellses, and we do wish you were
here.  Are you in the new house?  Tell us about it. 
                                             Yrs Ever
          
                                        Mark.

There has been no former mention in the letters of the coming of Twichell; yet this had been a part of the European plan.  Mark Twain had invited his walking companion to make a tramp with him through Europe, as his guest.  Material for the new book would grow faster with Twichell as a companion; and these two in spite of their widely opposed views concerning Providence and the general scheme of creation, were wholly congenial comrades.  Twichell, in Hartford, expecting to receive the final summons to start, wrote:  “Oh, my! do you realize, Mark, what a symposium it is to be?  I do.  To begin with, I am thoroughly tired, and the rest will be worth everything.  To walk with you and talk with you for weeks together—­why, it’s my dream of luxury.”

August 1st brought Twichell, and the friends set out without delay on a tramp through the Black Forest, making short excursions at first, but presently extending them in the direction of Switzerland.  Mrs. Clemens and the others remained in Heidelberg, to follow at their leisure.  To Mrs. Clemens her husband sent frequent reports of their wanderings.  It will be seen that their tramp did not confine itself to pedestrianism, though they did, in fact, walk a great deal, and Mark Twain in a note to his mother declared, “I loathe all travel, except on foot.”  The reports to Mrs. Clemens follow: 

Letters to Mrs. Clemens, in Heidelberg: 

ALLERHEILIGEN Aug. 5, 1878 8:30 p.m.  Livy darling, we had a rattling good time to-day, but we came very near being left at Baden-Baden, for instead of waiting in the waiting-room, we sat down on the platform to wait where the trains come in from the other direction.  We sat there full ten minutes—­and then all of a sudden it occurred to me that that was not the right place.

On the train the principal of the big English school at Nauheim (of which Mr. Scheiding was a teacher), introduced himself to me, and then he mapped out our day for us (for today and tomorrow) and also drew a map and gave us directions how to proceed through Switzerland.  He had his entire school with him, taking them on a prodigious trip through Switzerland—­tickets for the round trip ten dollars apiece.  He has done this annually for 10 years.  We took a post carriage from Aachen to Otterhofen for 7 marks—­stopped at the “Pflug” to drink beer, and saw that pretty girl again at a distance.  Her father, mother, and two brothers received me like an ancient customer and sat down and talked as long as I had any German left.  The big room was full of red-vested farmers (the Gemeindrath of the district, with the Burgermeister at the head,) drinking beer and talking public business.  They had held an election and chosen a new member and had been drinking beer at his expense for several hours. (It was intensely Black-foresty.)