Gold Cup. The note said:

Dere Mark, i return the Cup. You couldn't keep your mouth shut
about it. 'Tis 2 pretty 2 melt, as you want me 2; nest time I work
a pinch ile have a pard who don't make after-dinner speeches.

There was a postcript which said: "I changed the acorn atop for another
nut with my knife." The acorn was, in fact, replaced by a well-modeled
head of Mark Twain.

So, after all, the Ascot Cup would be one of the trophies which he would
bear home with him across the Atlantic.

Probably the most valued of his London honors was the dinner given
to him by the staff of Punch. Punch had already saluted him with
a front-page cartoon by Bernard Partridge, a picture in which the
presiding genius of that paper, Mr. Punch himself, presents him with a
glass of the patronymic beverage with the words, "Sir, I honor myself
by drinking your health. Long life to you--and happiness--and perpetual
youth!"

Mr. Agnew, chief editor; Linley Sambourne, Francis Burnand, Henry Lucy,
and others of the staff welcomed him at the Punch offices at 10 Bouverie
Street, in the historic Punch dining-room where Thackeray had sat, and
Douglas Jerrold, and so many of the great departed. Mark Twain was
the first foreign visitor to be so honored--in fifty years the first
stranger to sit at the sacred board--a mighty distinction. In the course
of the dinner they gave him a pretty surprise, when little joy Agnew
presented him with the original drawing of Partridge's cartoon.

Nothing could have appealed to him more, and the Punch dinner, with its
associations and that dainty presentation, remained apart in his memory
from all other feastings.

Clemens had intended to return early in July, but so much was happening
that he postponed his sailing until the 13th. Before leaving America, he
had declined a dinner offered by the Lord Mayor of Liverpool.

Repeatedly urged to let Liverpool share in his visit, he had
reconsidered now, and on the day following the Punch dinner, on July
10th, they carried him, with T. P. O'Connor (Tay Pay) in the Prince
of Wales's special coach to Liverpool, to be guest of honor at the
reception and banquet which Lord Mayor Japp tendered him at the Town
Hall. Clemens was too tired to be present while the courses were being
served, but arrived rested and fresh to respond to his toast. Perhaps
because it was his farewell speech in England, he made that night
the most effective address of his four weeks'