"  I  would  have  travelled,"  he  began,  "  a  much
greater  distance  than  I  have  come  to  witness
the  paying  of  honors  to  Doctor  Holmes,  for
my  feeling  toward  him  has  always  been  one
of  peculiar  warmth.  When  one  receives  a  let-
ter from  a  great  man  for  the  first  time  in
his  life,  it  is  a  large  event  to  him,  as  all  ot
you  know  by  your  own  experience.  Well,  the
first  great  man  who  ever  wrote  me  a  letter
was  our  guest  —  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes.  He


THE  HOLMES  VREAKFAST.  163

was  also  the  first  great  literary  man  I  ever
stole  anything  from,  and  that  is  how  I  came
to  write  to  him  and  he  to  me.  When  my
first  book  was  new,  a  friend  of  mine  said,
'The  dedication  is  very  neat.'  *  Yes,'  I  said,  'I
thought  it  v^as.'  My  friend  said,  '  I  always  ad-
mired it  eveh  before  I  saw  it  in  The  Innocents
Abroad'  I  naturally  said,  '  What  do  you
mean  ?  Where  did  you  ever  see  it  before  ? '
'  Well,  I  saw  it  some  years  ago,  as  Doctor
Holmes'  dedication  to  his  Songs  in  Many  Keys.'
Of  course  my  first  impulse  was  to  prepare
this  man's  remains  for  burial,  but  upon  reflec-
tion I  said  I  would  reprieve  him  for  a  mo-
ment or  two  and  give  him  a  chance  to  prove
his  assertion  if  he  could.  We  stepped  into  a
bookstore  and  he  did  prove  it.  I  had  really
stolen  that  dedication  almost  word  for  word.
