I struck a subject to-day, & was all right. ButⒶemendation to-night I have struck a couple more—so I am all wrong. Ⓐemendation again. I shall select one of the three, & speak upon it, but I can’t yet tell which one. But in order that the Printing Committee shall not be delayed, suppose I be set down in this way:

5th Regular Toast.

Response by MARK TWAIN.

Or, if that is too irregular, suppose we put it—

5th Regular Toast: The jurisprudence of New England—

—or some such grave subject, you know, & leave me to shirk the text as I may, & ring in my own subject.

The first proposition is the safest one, perhaps. I think I shall make a farewell address—it is one of my three topics & the one that seems to promise best—& I don’t quite know how to frame a toast to fit it, wherefore no toast at all best covers the ground, perhaps.