Page:Boys Life of Mark Twain.djvu/187

 time there were one or more funerals daily. An entry in his diary says:

Since the last two hours all laughter, all levity, has ceased on the ship—a settled gloom is upon the faces of the passengers.

But the winter air of the North checked the contagion, and there were no new cases when New York City was reached.

Clemens remained but a short time in New York, and was presently in St. Louis with his mother and sister. They thought he looked old, but he had not changed in manner, and the gay banter between mother and son was soon as lively as ever. He was thirty-one now, and she sixty-four, but the years had made little difference. She petted him, joked with him, and scolded him. In turn, he petted and comforted and teased her. She decided he was the same Sam and always would be—a true prophecy.

He visited Hannibal and lectured there, receiving an ovation that would have satisfied even Tom Sawyer. In Keokuk he lectured again, then returned to St. Louis to plan his trip around the world.

He was not to make a trip around the world, however—not then. In St. Louis he saw the notice of the great Quaker City Holy Land excursion—the first excursion of the kind ever planned—and was greatly taken with the idea. Impulsive as always, he wrote at once to the Alta California, proposing that they send him as their correspondent on this grand ocean picnic. The cost of passage was $1,200, and the Alta hesitated, but Colonel McComb, already