[Illustration: A TRAGEDY IN FIVE ACTS. _From drawings by Eugene Field._ No. 1 The fair Mary Matilda skimming over the hills and dales of New Brunswick. No. 2 Lovelorn Eddie Martin in hot pursuit of same. No. 3 Lone pine in the deserted vale where the musquash watches for his prey. No. 4 Horrible discovery made by the fair Mary Matilda upon her return to the lone pine in the secluded vale. No. 5 All that is left of poor Eddie.] Early in the spring of 1885 Field was inspired, by an account I gave him of a snow-shoeing party my sister had described in one of her letters, to compose the series of pen-and-ink tableaux reproduced on pages 30 and 31. An inkling as to the meaning of these weird pictures may be gleaned from the letter I sent along with them to my sister, in which I wrote: I was telling Field the story of your last snow-shoeing party when he was prompted to the enclosed tragedy in five acts. He hopes that you will not mistake the stars for mosquitoes, nor fail to comprehend the terrible fate that has overtaken Eddy Martin at the mouth of the voracious musquash, whose retreating tail speaks so eloquently of his toothsome repast. The lone pine tree is a thing that you will enjoy; also the expression of horror on your own face when you behold the empty boots of Eddy. There is a tragedy too deep for tears in the silent monuments of Field's ignorance of moccasins. In explanation of the final scene in this "sad, eventful history" it should be said that "poor Eddie" was a harmless, half-witted giant who sawed the cord wood and did odd chores about my father's place. This gives significance to the pendant buck-saw and the lonely wood-horse. His lance rusts upon the wall and his steed stands silent in the stall. The reader should not pass from these examples of Field's humor with pen and ink without marking the changes that come across the face of the moon as the tragedy unfolds. That Field found a congenial spirit and correspondent in my sister is further evidenced in the following letter written in gamboge brown: CHICAGO, July the 2d, 1885. DEAR MISS: In order that you may no longer groan under the erroneous impression which you appear to harbor, touching my physique, I remit to you a photograph of a majority of myself. The photograph was made last December, when I was, so to speak, at my perihelion in the matter of avoirdupois. You may be gratified to know that I have not shrunken much since that time. I have taken the timely precaution to label the picture in order that none of your Fredericton people thumbing over your domestic album shall mistake me for either a young Episcopal rector or a rising young negro minstrel.