Your letter brought me vast relief. It had been my intention to mark that religious squib “Private,” but I forgot it, & so was tortured with the fear that it might fall into the hands of the family. One cannot be too careful how he quotes from the Bible, for he may bring a blush where he would be far from wishing to cause such a thing.

Since my return, the mail facilities have enabled Orion to keep me informed as to his intentions. Twenty-eight days ago it was his purpose to complete a work aimed at religion, the preface to which he had already written. Afterward he began to sell off his furniture, with the idea of hurrying to Leadville & tackling silver-mining—threw up his law den & took in his sign. Then he wrote to Chicago & St Louis newspapers asking for a situation as “paragrapher”—enclosing a taste of his quality in the shape of two stanzas of “humorous rhymes,” (b so labored, so witless, so dreary (I have a copy) as to compell the compassion of the unkindest reader. But only a brute could smile at this eruption of fetid hilarity. By a later mail on the same day he appliedⒶemendation to New York & Hartford insurance companies for copying to do.

However, it would take too long to detail all his projects. They comprise a removal to south-west Missouri; application for a reporter’s berth on a Keokuk paper; application for a cap compositor’s berth on a St Louis paper; a re-hanging of his attorney’s sign, “though it only creaks, & catches no flies;” but last night’s letter informs me that he has re-tackled the religious question, hired a distant den to write in, applied to my mother for $50 to re-buy his furniture, which has advanced in value since the sale—purposes buying $25 worth of ◇◇◇ books necessary to his labors, which he had previously been borrowing, & his first chapter is already on its way to me for my decision as to whether it has enough ungodliness in it or not. Poor Orion!

Your letter struck me while I was meditating a project to beguile you, & John Hay & Joe Twichell into a descent upon Chicago which I dream of making, to witness the re-union of the great Commanders of the Western army Corps on the 9th of next month. My sluggish soul needs a fierce upstirring, & if it would not get it when Grant enters the meeting-place I must doubtless “lay” for the final resurrection. Can you & Hay go? At the same time, consound it, I doubt if I can go myself, for this book isn’t done yet. But I would give a heap to be there.

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I do hope he Hay will be elected; in any case he will deserve his country’s gratitude for trying. Gratitude is the right term—I thought it out before saying it. When such men come forward, it has a good influence, for it emboldens other men of like stamp to do likewise. I mean to heave some holiness into the Hartford primaries when I go back; & if there was a solitary office in the land which majestic ignorance & incapacity, coupled with purity of heart, could fill, I would run for it. This naturally reminds me of Bret Harte—but let him pass.

We propose to leave here for New York Oct. 21, reaching Hartford 24th or 25th. If, upon reflection, you Howellses find you can stop over here on your way, I wish you would do it, & telegraph me. Getting pretty hungry to see you. I had an idea that this was your shortest way home, but like as not my geography is crippled again—it usually is. The Madam & I join in love to you both. Mrs. Clemens wants to add a special word of invitation to Mrs. Howells, but I tell her that as she is abed Mrs. Howells will receive it from me & harbor no hard feelings.