f and his heartfelt appreciation:

RELIEVING GUARD.

Came the relief. "What, sentry, ho!
How passed the night through thy long waking?"
"Cold, cheerless, dark--as may befit
The hour before the dawn is breaking."

"No sight? no sound?" "No; nothing save
The plover from the marshes calling,
And in yon western sky, about
An hour ago, a star was falling."

"A star? There's nothing strange in that."
"No, nothing; but, above the thicket,
Somehow it seemed to me that God
Somewhere had just relieved a picket."

This is not only good poetry; it reveals deep and fine feeling.

[Illustration: FRANCIS BRET HARTE]

Through Starr King's interest, his parishioner Robert B. Swain,
Superintendent of the Mint, had early in 1864 appointed Harte as his
private secretary, at a salary of two hundred dollars a month, with
duties that allowed considerable leisure. This was especially
convenient, as a year or so before he had married, and additional income
was indispensable.

In May, 1864, Harte left the _Golden Era_, joining Charles Henry Webb
and others in a new literary venture, the _Californian_. It was a
brilliant weekly. Among the contributors were Mark Twain, Charles Warren
Stoddard, and Prentice Mulford. Harte continued his delightful
"Condensed Novels" and contributed poems, stories, sketches, and book
reviews. "The Society on the Stanislaus," "John Brown of Gettysburg,"
and "The Pliocene Skull" belong to this period.

In the "Condensed Novels" Harte surpassed all parodists. With clever
burlesque, there was both appreciation and subtle criticism. As
Chesterton says, "Bret Harte's humor was sympathetic and analytical. The
wild, sky-breaking humor of America has its fine qualities, but it must
in the nature of things be deficient in two qualities--reverence and
sympathy--and these two qualities were knit into the closest texture of
Bret Harte's humor."

At this time Harte lived a quiet domestic life. He wrote steadily. He
loved to write, but he was also obliged to. Literature is not an
overgenerous paymaster, and with a growing family expenses tend to
increase in a larger ratio than income.

Harte's sketches based on early experiences are interesting and
amusing. His life in Oakland was in many ways pleasant, but he evidently
retained some memories that made him enjoy indulging in a sly dig many
years after. He gives the pretended result of scientific investigation
made in the far-o