And yet whenever his stock of subjects for comment or raillery ran low he would write a letter to himself, asking the address of Colonel John A. Joyce, the author of "Love and Laughter," and manage in his answer to open up the whole controversy afresh. I suppose that to this day there are thousands of good people in the United States whose innocence has been abused by Field's superserviceable defence of Mrs. Wilcox's title to "Laugh and the World Laughs with You." It was delicious fooling to him and to those of us who were on the inside, but I question if Mrs. Wilcox ever appreciated its humorous aspect. Speaking of his practice of getting public attention for his own compositions through a letter of his own "To the Editor," the following affords a good example of his ingenious method, with his reply: EVANSTON, ILL., Aug. 15, 1888. _To the Editor_: Several of us are very anxious to learn the authorship of the following poem, which is to be found in so many scrap-books, and which ever and anon appears as a newspaper waif: _RESIGNATION I have a dear canary bird, That every morning sings The sweetest songs I ever heard, And flaps his yellow wings. I love to sit the whole day long Beside the window-sill, And listen to the joyous song That warbler loves to trill. My mother says that in a year The bird that I've adored Will maybe, lay some eggs and rear A callow, cooing horde. But father says it's quite absurd To think that bird can lay, For though it is a wondrous bird, It isn't built that way. Now whether mother tells me true Or father, bothers me; There's nothing else for me to do But just to wait and see. Whate'er befalls this bird of mine, I am resolved 'twill please-- Far be it from me to repine At what the Lord decrees._ Mr. Slason Thompson, compiler of "The Humbler Poets," could decide this matter for us if he were here now, but unhappily he is out of town just at present. We have a suspicion that the poem was originally written by Isaac Watts, but that suspicion is impaired somewhat by another suspicion that there were no such things as canary birds in Isaac Watts's time. Yours truly, MELISSA MAYFIELD. We have shown this letter to Evanston's most distinguished citizen, the Hon. Andrew Shuman, and that sapient poet-critic tells us that as nearly as he can recollect the poem was written, not by Dr. Watts, but by an American girl. But whether that girl was Lucretia Davidson or Miss Ada C. Sweet he cannot recall.