His statement that he supposed all that a pilot had to do was to keephis boat in the river is not to be accepted literally. TheGrants proposed that the Clemens family move over and board them, awelcome arrangement enough at this time. Clemens in his next letter declared that Rice'sreports might be parliamentary enough, but that they covered withglittering technicalities the most festering mass of misstatement, andeven crime. He speculated of many things: of life, death, the reason ofexistence, of creation, the ways of Providence and Destiny.
He prophesied a sale of 90,000 copies during the first twelve months anddeclared, I see the capabilities of the subject. Wildness, disobedience,indifference to his father's wishes, all were remembered; a hundredthings, in We are desirous ofobtaining from you a work of some kind, perhaps compiled from yourletters from the past, etc. Weigall, whom we met in London last month, assures us he is very knowledgeable, and handsome, too.
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