[Hartford, 3 December 1872]

Dear Captain:

You must run down next voyage & see us, if you can. Telegraph me what hour you will arrive & I'll go to the station & fetch you home. Mr. Wood stayed all night with us & then joined the General in New York & they went West together. I wanted the General to stop with us, too, but his business made it impossible.

The American papers say the Royal Humane Society ought to give me a medal for "standing around on deck without any umbrella," &c. I suspect they mean a leather one.

My wife is anxious that you should be put in command of the biggest Cunarder afloat, & then she thinks the sea-sickness will deal less harshly by her. I hope also that you'll have a particularly big ship next May, for I am afraid my wife is going to have a hard time with sea-sickness.

Yrs Faithfully
Sam.l L. Clemens

Cor. Forest & Hawthorne sts.
Hartford
Capt. Mouland (forgot the initials -- as usual.)