oems and stories of
Bret Harte just as the spirit of Bret Harte breathes through the poems
and stories of Kipling. Bret Harte had a very pretty satirical vein
which might easily have developed, have made him an author of satire
rather than of sentiment. Who can say that the influence of Dickens,
coming at the early, plastic period of his life, may not have turned
the scale?"

Another of his biographers, T. Edgar Pemberton, says his admiration for
Charles Dickens never waned, but on the contrary, increased as the years
rolled by. Harte himself, referring in later years to his childhood
days, to his father's library and the books to which he had access,
spoke of "the irresistible Dickens." Mr. Pemberton states, also,
that Bret Harte always felt that he owed a deep debt of gratitude to
Charles Dickens.

Small wonder, then, that, Bret Harte no matter how unconsciously,
should have adopted here and there something of the style and some of
the mannerisms of Dickens. This is directly traceable in his writings,
even to the extent of his resorting, here and there, to oddities of
expression which were peculiarly Dickensian.

The English writer, on his part, reciprocated in no small degree the
feeling of admiration which his works had aroused in the young American.
His biographer, John Forster, relates that Dickens called his attention
to two sketches by Bret Harte, "The Luck of Roaring Camp" and "The
Outcasts of Poker Flat," in which, writes the biographer, "he had found
such subtle strokes of character as he had not anywhere else in later
years discovered; the manner resembling himself but the matter fresh to
a degree that had surprised him; the painting in all respects masterly
and the wild rude thing painted a quite wonderful reality. I have rarely
known him more honestly moved."

Dickens gave evidence of this feeling of appreciation in a letter
addressed to Harte in California, commending his literary efforts,
inviting him to write a story for "All the Year Round" and bidding him
sojourn with him at Gad's Hill upon his first visit to England. This
letter was written shortly before Dickens' death and, unfortunately,
did not reach Bret Harte until sometime after that sad event.

When word of the passing of "The Master," as he reverently styled him,
reached Bret Harte he was in San Rafael. He immediately sent a dispatch
across the bay to San Francisco to hold back the forthcoming publication
of his "Overland Monthly" for t