“I went to Maui to stay a week and remained five. I never spent so pleasant a month before, or bade any place goodbye so regretfully. I have not once thought of business, or care or human toil or trouble or sorrow or weariness, and the memory of it will remain with me always.”
(1866)
Wailuku, Apr. 26.
Messrs Kimball —
Gentlemen – Don’t you think for a moment of going up on Haleakala without giving me an opportunity of accompanying you! I have waited for & skirmished after some company for some time without avail, & now I hear that you will shortly be at Haiku. So I shall wait for you.
Cannot you let me know, just as soon as you arrive, & give me a day or two (or more, even, if possible,) to get there in with my horse? Because I am told the distance hence to Haiku is 15 miles — to prosecute which will be a matter of time, to my animal, & possibly a matter of eternity. His strong suit is grace & personal comeliness, rather than velocity.
Yours Very Truly,
SAM J. CLEMENS
(Or “Mark Twain,” if you have forgotten my genuine name)
My address is “Waikuku Plantation.”
(Original.)
I shall send two or three notes [text is crossed out] by different parties, for fear one might miss fire [sic] — an idea suggested by my own native sagacity.
Me & Father in front of Mark Twain’s boyhood home Hannibal, Missouri.
