On Thu, 24 Jun 1999, Kenneth M. Sanderson wrote: > Gregg: > > Well, what did Mr. Duhigg find for you? P 439 of the Twain-Howells Letters, 22 August, 1883, "I must speculate in something, such being my nature." He foudn it in Vol three of _N&J_, where it appears, among other things, as a chapter title! > > What I found was: "But I was born with the speculative instinct and I did > not want that temptation put in my way." (Notebook 32, TS p. 14, cited in > _Mark Twain's Correspondence with Henry Huttleston Rogers_, 337n1). 'Tis a > poor thing, but 'tis mine own. > > I do have a feeling that, like the punch lines to jokes that appear over > and over in his notebooks, Clemens probably expressed his awareness of his > inclination to speculate many times, in many places--though not often > enough, one might say. > > You do come up with interesting requests for help. > > Ken > I'm happy to keep your days interesting. Gregg