here yesterday afternoon who
said it was bad for bronchitis, and, besides, it's too far away from
this billiard-table."

He suggested that I come back in the evening and play some more. I
did so, and the game lasted until after midnight. He gave me odds, of
course, and my "nigger luck," as he called it, continued. It kept him
sweating and swearing feverishly to win. Finally, once I made a great
fluke--a carom, followed by most of the balls falling into the pockets.

"Well," he said, "when you pick up that cue this damn table drips at
every pore."

After that the morning dictations became a secondary interest. Like
a boy, he was looking forward to the afternoon of play, and it never
seemed to come quick enough to suit him. I remained regularly for
luncheon, and he was inclined to cut the courses short, that he might
the sooner get up-stairs to the billiard-room. His earlier habit of
not eating in the middle of the day continued; but he would get up and
dress, and walk about the dining-room in his old fashion, talking that
marvelous, marvelous talk which I was always trying to remember, and
with only fractional success at best. To him it was only a method of
killing time. I remember once, when he had been discussing with great
earnestness the Japanese question, he suddenly noticed that the luncheon
was about ending, and he said:

"Now we'll proceed to more serious matters--it's your--shot." And he was
quite serious, for the green cloth and the rolling balls afforded him a
much larger interest.

To the donor of his new possession Clemens wrote:

DEAR MRS. ROGERS,--The billiard-table is better than the doctors.
I have a billiardist on the premises, & walk not less than ten miles
every day with the cue in my hand. And the walking is not the whole
of the exercise, nor the most health giving part of it, I think.
Through the multitude of the positions and attitudes it brings into
play every muscle in the body & exercises them all.

The games begin right after luncheons, daily, & continue until
midnight, with 2 hours' intermission for dinner & music. And so it
is 9 hours' exercise per day & 10 or 12 on Sunday. Yesterday & last
night it was 12--& I slept until 8 this morning without waking. The
billiard-table as a Sabbath-breaker can beat any coal-breaker in
Pennsylvania & give it 30 in the game. If Mr. Rogers will take to
daily billiards he can do without the doctors &