i have sent the books to you, care of sam. i sent those books to mr. schroeter, but as i left the first e out of his name, they may not have reached him. no matter. if he did not get them, he has done me a genuine kindness in not acknowledging them; for an acknowledgment generally requires a line in return, and i would rather send ten books than write the line. so do not say anything to him about it.

iⒶemendation am glad your hea[l]th is so much improved, but in no way surprised, for a change of air and scene invigorates infallibly all but the dead. and ’livens them up, too, i suppose, if they land in the wrong end of the here-after. i hope so at any rate, for a number of persons in whom i am interested have traveled that way this year. my old friend joe goodman’s post-office address is fresno city, cal. he is grape farming in a small way. it may be that he is a neighbor of sam’s. if so, sam should hunt him up and cultivate him, for he is a rare man in many ways, intellectual among others, and that is a quality which sam will find sufficiently scarce where he has located himself.

all the family are well and send love and christmas greetings. the white elephant is my last book.