himself--still
a resident, was also the author of a Redding history.

Of literary folk not native to Redding, Dora Reed Goodale and her sister
Elaine, the wife of Dr. Charles A. Eastman, had, long been residents of
Redding Center; Jeanette L. Gilder and Ida M. Tarbell had summer homes
on Redding Ridge; Dan Beard, as already mentioned, owned a place
near the banks of the Saugatuck, while Kate V. St. Maur, also two of
Nathaniel Hawthorne's granddaughters had recently located adjoining the
Stormfield lands. By which it will be seen that Redding was in no way
unsuitable as a home for Mark Twain.

CCLXV. A MANTEL AND A BABY ELEPHANT

Mark Twain was the receiver of two notable presents that year. The
first of these, a mantel from Hawaii, presented to him by the Hawaiian
Promotion Committee, was set in place in the billiard-room on the
morning of his seventy-third birthday. This committee had written,
proposing to build for his new home either a mantel or a chair, as
he might prefer, the same to be carved from the native woods. Clemens
decided on a billiard-room mantel, and John Howells forwarded the proper
measurements. So, in due time, the mantel arrived, a beautiful piece of
work and in fine condition, with the Hawaiian word, "Aloha," one of
the sweetest forms of greeting in any tongue, carved as its central
ornament.

To the donors of the gift Clemens wrote:

The beautiful mantel was put in its place an hour ago, & its
friendly "Aloha" was the first uttered greeting received on my 73d
birthday. It is rich in color, rich in quality, & rich in
decoration; therefore it exactly harmonized with the taste for such
things which was born in me & which I have seldom been able to
indulge to my content. It will be a great pleasure to me, daily
renewed, to have under my eye this lovely reminder of the loveliest
fleet of islands that lies anchored in any ocean, & I beg to thank
the committee for providing me that pleasure.

To F. N. Otremba, who had carved the mantel, he sent this word:

I am grateful to you for the valued compliment to me in the labor of
heart and hand and brain which you have put upon it. It is worthy
of the choicest place in the house and it has it.

It was the second beautiful mantel in Stormfield--the Hartford library
mantel, removed when that house was sold, having been installed in the
Stormfield living-room.

Altogether the seventy-third birthday