To Mr. and Mrs. Orion Clemens, in Keokuk, Iowa.: 

Private.  Bad-Nauheim, Aug. 23, ’92.  Dear Orion and Mollie,—­("Private” because no newspaper-man or other gossip must get hold of it)

Livy is getting along pretty well, and the doctor thinks another summer here will cure her.

The Twichell’s have been here four days and we have had good times with them.  Joe and I ran over to Homburg, the great pleasure resort, Saturday, to dine with some friends, and in the morning I went walking in the promenade and met the British Ambassador to the Court of Berlin, and he introduced me to the Prince of Wales, and I found him a most unusually comfortable and unembarrassing Englishman to talk with—­quick to see the obscurest point, and equipped with a laugh which is spontaneous and catching.  Am invited by a near friend of his to meet him at dinner day after tomorrow, and there could be a good time, but the brass band will smash the talk and spoil everything.

We are expecting to move to Florence ten or twelve days hence, but if this hot weather continues we shall wait for cooler.  I take Clara to Berlin for the winter-music, mainly, with German and French added.  Thus far, Jean is our only glib French scholar.

We all send love to you all and to Pamela and Sam’s family, and Annie.

Sam

Clemens and family left Bad-Nauheim for Italy by way of Switzerland.  In September Mrs. Clemens’s sister, Mrs. Crane, who had been with them in Europe during the first year, had now returned to America.  Mrs. Clemens had improved at the baths, though she had by no means recovered her health.  We get a general report of conditions from the letter which Clemens wrote Mrs. Crane from Lucerne, Switzerland, where the party rested for several days.  The “Phelps” mentioned in this letter was William Walter Phelps, United States Minister to Germany.  The Phelps and Clemens families had been much associated in Berlin.  “Mason” was Frank Mason, Consul General at Frankfort, and in later years at Paris.  “Charlie and Ida” were Charles and Mrs. Langdon, of Elmira.

To Mrs. Crane, in Elmira, N. Y.: 

Lucerne, Sept. 18, ’92.  Dear aunt sue,—­Imagine how I felt to find that you had actually gone off without filling my traveling ink stand which you gave me!  I found it out yesterday.  Livy advised me to write you about it.

I have been driving this pen hard.  I wrote 280 pages on a yarn called “Tom Sawyer Abroad,” then took up the “Twins” again, destroyed the last half of the manuscript and re-wrote it in another form, and am going to continue it and finish it in Florence.  “Tom Sawyer” seems rather pale to the family after the extravagances of the Twins, but they came to like it after they got used to it.