of real talent, he is modest as can be.

The lady who wrote this sweet poem was Mrs. Neeley, who has been writing
to the Washington papers ever so long, in a way, too, that any woman
might be proud of. She sat directly behind the gentleman who read her
poem, and looked real nice in her crimson velvet dress.

After this a lady got up and read something mournful about three curls
of hair that a man had taken from his wife's head--golden when she was a
child, brown when she was a bride, and snow-white when she lay dead.

There was a sort of sob went through all the rooms when this poem died
out. Then, after a little, every lady began to cheer up and laugh; for
the same lady was reading a poem, half Dutch, half English, about a dog
howling, which was so funny that I almost forgot my dignity as the
representative of your Society, and near about clapped my hands--a thing
I should have regretted to the day of my death.

This dog poem set everybody into a state of high gleefulness and some
music struck up in the front room, which could be heard a little now and
then above the hum and rush of conversation that set in with the crowd,
where artists, authors, and statesmen, and scientifics mingled in, and
chatted promiscuously, saying such bright and wise and witty things,
that they fairly made my eyes snap. I cut in, too.

What is the use of being the emissary of a literary, scientific, and
moral institution, if one can't hold up her end of the yoke in
conversation? I did my best, sisters. An artist stood near me; I talked
with him about pictures till, I do believe, he thought that I had been
born in Rome, and cradled with Michael Angelo--an old fellow, that both
painted and made marble men in Italy years ago. Then I had something to
say about flowers to an agricultural bureau scientific, and about the
chemistry of something to a savant or savan, or a word like that, of the
Smithsonian Institution. I tell you, sisters, it was sharp work; but I
flatter myself you were not in any way disgraced.

By and by I was introduced to the Chief Justice of the Court of
Claims--about as smart a lawyer, and clear headed a judge, as can be
found in these parts, I can tell you. He was not long ago United States
Senator from Missouri, and has left his mark among the statesmen there;
but his genius lay as much in expounding the laws as in making them. He
has written some capital law-books, too, and could mate with any judge,
statesman, or autho