I am a great deal stronger Ⓐemendation than I was a week ago. O. L. C

Your loving letter touched Livy deeply (both of us, indeed,) & did her more good than all the day’s medicines. I know, & she knows, that a fortnight under the home roof, with the home faces around, & the home affections & tendernesses shining out of them, would bring healing & health to Livy quicker than all other cures combined; & for a while, it was our dream to try it the moment she should be strong enough to travel; but now that Livy’s strength has really begun to dribble perceptibly back, she is afraid to venture: for it would be small benefit to her if the children were along; wh Ⓐemendation & to leave them behind in this town whose death-rate has been for months just double what it ought in reason to be, is a thing which she can contemplate, & has contemplated—contemplating is easy—but at the same time it is a thing which you & I know she isn’t ever going to do. For a while I actually thought she would; but when I saw by the paper this morning that the Hartford death-list for the month of March reached the startling & disgraceful figure of 89, I no longer wanted her to venture away & risk the children here. We shall not forget your generous words & your loving invitation, nor let our appreciation of it fall dim or lose value; but I believe, with Livy, whose judgment is always good in such matters, that she had better stand to her post, now, & do the best she can in the circumstances, until the time for the summer flight shall arrive.

We are greatly relieved & rejoiced to glean from your letter that mother has improved; for we have been feeling uneasy on her account.

Charley dear, I cannot express to you how much I value your loving letter. Mr Clemens and I both had (as the children say) “tears in our eyes when we read it. I want desperately to go to Elmira and your letter makes me want to go more than ever—but I feel that it is not best. Susy was quite sick the other night with sore throat and fever and I was very thankful that I was here. There is so much scarlet fever about that it makes me anxious about the children. With warm love to Mother Ida & yourself I am most lovingly

O. L. C.