be--a true prophecy.

He went up to Hannibal to see old friends. Many were married; some had
moved away; some were dead--the old story. He delivered his lecture
there, and was the center of interest and admiration--his welcome might
have satisfied even Tom Sawyer. From Hannibal he journeyed to Keokuk,
where he lectured again to a crowd of old friends and new, then returned
to St. Louis for a more extended visit.

It was while he was in St. Louis that he first saw the announcement of
the Quaker City Holy Land Excursion, and was promptly fascinated by what
was then a brand-new idea in ocean travel--a splendid picnic--a choice
and refined party that would sail away for a long summer's journeying
to the most romantic of all lands and seas, the shores of the
Mediterranean. No such argosy had ever set out before in pursuit of the
golden fleece of happiness.

His projected trip around the world lost its charm in the light of this
idyllic dream. Henry Ward Beecher was advertised as one of the party;
General Sherman as another; also ministers, high-class journalists--the
best minds of the nation. Anson Burlingame had told him to associate
with persons of refinement and intellect. He lost no time in writing to
the Alta, proposing that they send him in this select company.

Noah Brooks, who was then on the Alta, states--[In an article published
in the Century Magazine.]--that the management was staggered by the
proposition, but that Col. John McComb insisted that the investment in
Mark Twain would be sound. A letter was accordingly sent, stating that
a check for his passage would be forwarded in due season, and that
meantime he could contribute letters from New York City. The rate
for all letters was to be twenty dollars each. The arrangement was a
godsend, in the fullest sense of the word, to Mark Twain.

It was now April, and he was eager to get back to New York to arrange
his passage. The Quaker City would not sail for two months yet (two
eventful months), but the advertisement said that passages must be
secured by the 5th, and he was there on that day. Almost the first man
he met was the chief of the New York Alta bureau with a check for twelve
hundred and fifty dollars (the amount of his ticket) and a telegram
saying, "Ship Mark Twain in the Holy Land Excursion and pay his
passage."

--[The following letter, which bears no date, was probably handed to
him later in the New York Alta office as a sort of credenti