t. Needy knife-grinder in the Tribune at Florence. No, not
"needy," come to think of it. Marcus Aurelius on horseback. Query. Are
horses subject to the Morbus Addisonii? Advertise for a bronzed living
horse--Lyceum invitations and engagements--bronze versus brass.--What
's the use in being frightened? Bet it was a bump. Pretty certain I
bumped my forehead against something. Never heard of a bronzed man
before. Have seen white men, black men, red men, yellow men, two or
three blue men, stained with doctor's stuff; some green ones, from the
country; but never a bronzed man. Poh, poh! Sure it was a bump. Ask
Landlady to look at it.

--Landlady did look at it. Said it was a bump, and no mistake.
Recommended a piece of brown paper dipped in vinegar. Made the house
smell as if it were in quarantine for the plague from Smyrna, but
discoloration soon disappeared,--so I did not become a bronzed man after
all,--hope I never shall while I am alive. Should n't mind being done
in bronze after I was dead. On second thoughts not so clear about it,
remembering how some of them look that we have got stuck up in public;
think I had rather go down to posterity in an Ethiopian Minstrel
portrait, like our friend's the other day.

--You were kind enough to say, I remarked to the Master, that you read
my poems and liked them. Perhaps you would be good enough to tell me
what it is you like about them?

The Master harpooned a breakfast-roll and held it up before me.--Will
you tell me,--he said,--why you like that breakfast-roll?--I suppose he
thought that would stop my mouth in two senses. But he was mistaken.

--To be sure I will,--said I.--First, I like its mechanical
consistency; brittle externally,--that is for the teeth, which want
resistance to be overcome; soft, spongy, well tempered and flavored
internally, that is for the organ of taste; wholesome, nutritious,--that
is for the internal surfaces and the system generally.

--Good,--said the Master, and laughed a hearty terrestrial laugh.

I hope he will carry that faculty of an honest laugh with him wherever
he goes,--why shouldn't he? The "order of things," as he calls it, from
which hilarity was excluded, would be crippled and one-sided enough. I
don't believe the human gamut will be cheated of a single note after
men have done breathing this fatal atmospheric mixture and die into the
ether of immortality!

I did n't say all that; if I had said it, it would have brought a pellet