e Eugene.

Mr. Gray, who vouches for the general accuracy of the story of the
strange wedding present, with its costly filling, preserves among his
most cherished mementoes of his foster son-in-law, if I may be allowed
the expression, Field's prompt repudiation of that paragraph in the
above which charged him with lack of respect for one from whom he had
received every evidence of affection:

DENVER, June 25, 1883.

DEAR MR. GRAY,

A copy of last Saturday's St. Louis Spectator has just arrived and I
am equally surprised, pained and indignant to find in it a personal
article about myself which represents me in the untruthful light of
having been disrespectful and impudent to you. I believe you will
bear me out when I say that my conduct towards you has upon all
occasions been respectful and gentlemanly. I may not have been able
to repay you the many obligations you have placed me under, but I
have always regarded you with feelings of affectionate gratitude and
I am deeply distressed lest the article referred to may create a
widely different impression. Of course it makes no difference to you,
but as gratitude is about all I have in this world to bestow on those
who are good and kind to me, it is not right that I should be
advertised--even in a joking way--as an ingrate.

Yours sincerely,

EUGENE FIELD.

This letter is valuable in more ways than the one which it was so
unnecessarily written to serve. It is a negative admission of the
general faithfulness of the impression left by Field upon those
familiar with his life in St. Louis, and the reference to gratitude as
all he had to bestow upon his true friends will be recognized as
genuine by all who ever came near enough to his inner life to
appreciate its sweetness as well as its lightness. As for his airy
method of disposing of insistent creditors I have no doubt that the
rhymes on the backs of their bills more often than not were more to
them than the dollars and cents on their faces.

During the second period of his life in St. Louis two sons were born
to Field and his wife, Melvin G., named after the "Dear Mr. Gray," of
the foregoing letter, and Eugene, Jr., who, being born when the
Pinafore craze was at its height, received the nickname of "Pinny,"
which has adhered to him to the present time. The fact that Melvin of
all the children of Eugene Field was never called by any other name by
a father prone to giving pet names,