s to intrude
my trivialities at such a time. Castigating myself and resolving anew,
I wrote on in contrite silence. After a little Mr. Burroughs paused and
lifted his head; his expression was puzzled, as though wrestling with
some profound thought, or weighing some nicety of expression; I saw he
was about to speak--perhaps to utter his latest impression concerning
the glories of the Canon. As he opened his lips this is what we heard:
"_Couldn't we warm up those Saratoga chips for luncheon?_" Whereupon
it will be seen that the abyss he was then cogitating about was in the
epigastric region, instead of in Arizona.

Mr. Muir likes a laugh at his own expense. He told us of a
school-teacher in the vicinity of his home instructing her pupils about
Alaska and the glaciers; and on telling them that the great Muir Glacier
was named after their neighbor, who discovered it, one little boy piped
up with, "What, not that old man that drives around in a buggy!"

I may as well offset this with one of our Hawaiian experiences. When we
were in Honolulu, we heard that one of the teachers there, thinking
to make a special impression upon her pupils, told them the main facts
about Mr. Burroughs's writings, their scope and influence, what he stood
for as a nature writer, his place in literature, and then described his
appearance, and said, "And this noted man, this great nature lover, is
right here--a guest in our city!" A little lad broke in with, "I know--I
saw him yesterday--he was in our yard stealing mangoes."

One day, while still in Pasadena, I told Mr. Muir that on April 3d a few
of us wished to celebrate Mr. Burroughs's birthday, his seventy-second,
by a picnic up one of the Mount Lowe canons. He said it would be
impossible for him to be with us on that day, as he had to go up to
San Francisco. On my expressing keen disappointment he teasingly
said:--"Why, you will have Johnnie, and Mr. Browne, and the
mountains--what more do you want?"

"But we want _you_," I protested, assuring him that this was not a case
where one could say,--

"How happy could I be with either,
Were t'other dear Johnnie away!"

"Well, then, why can't you have it some other day?"

"Because he wasn't born some other day."

"But why must you be tied to the calendar? Can't you celebrate Johnnie's
birthday a few days later just as well? Such a stickler for the exact
date as you are, I never saw."

Thus he bantered, but when he had to leave