An amusing incident of many fortnights ago comes back to freshen his memory.An entertainment of a social character was given at the 0aklandUnitarian church, and when my turn came for a brief paper on wit andhumor I found that Joaquin Miller sat near me on the platform. As anillustration of parody, bordering on burlesque, I introduced a Millerimitation--the tale of a frontiersman on an Arizona desert accompaniedby a native woman of "bare, brown beauty," and overtaken by heat sointense that but one could live, whereupon, to preserve the superiorrace, he seized a huge rock and

"Crushed with fearful blow Her well-poised head."

It was highly audacious, and but for a youthful pride of authorship andsome curiosity as to how he would take it I should have omitted it.

Friends in the audience told me that the way in which I watched him fromthe corner of my eye was the most humorous thing in the paper. At thebeginning his head was bowed, and for some time he showed no emotion ofany sort, but as I went on and it grew worse and worse, he gave way to aburst of merriment and I saw that I was saved.