Produced by Charlene Taylor, David Garcia, Emmy and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) [Illustration: Cover] [Illustration: Endpapers] [Illustration: _I'm sitting alone by the fire, Dressed just as I came from the dance_] HER LETTER His Answer & Her Last Letter By BRET HARTE _Pictured by_ ARTHUR I KELLER [Illustration] Boston & New York. HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & COMPANY THE RIVERSIDE PRESS, CAMBRIDGE. 1905 COPYRIGHT 1870 BY FIELDS, OSGOOD & CO. COPYRIGHT 1871 BY JAMES R. OSGOOD & CO. COPYRIGHT 1898 AND 1899 BY BRET HARTE. COPYRIGHT 1905 BY HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED [Illustration] PUBLISHERS' NOTE _The first two of the poems here printed have long been popular favorites, but the third was not written till near the end of Mr. Harte's life. It rounds out the romance with such completeness and charm that it is peculiarly fitting that the poems should be grouped, and issued in a form worthy of their own excellence. The coöperation of Mr. Keller was secured for making the illustrations, not only on account of his recognized ability as an artist, but also because of his admiration for Mr. Harte's writings and his previous success in illustrating several of the stories._ _Boston, 4 Park St., October, 1905._ [Illustration: LIST OF DESIGNS] PAGE _I'm sitting alone by the fire Dressed just as I came from the dance. (In color) Frontispiece_ _Title. (In color)_ _Publishers' Note--Headpiece_ 5 _List of Designs--Headpiece_ 7 _HER LETTER--Half-title_ 11 _Is wasting an hour upon you_ 13 _That waits--on the stairs--for me yet_ 15 _With whom do I waltz, flirt, or talk?_ 17 _To look supernaturally grand_ 19 _And the hum of the smallest of talk_ 21 _With the man that shot Sandy McGee. (In color)_ 23 _The man that shot Sandy McGee_ 25 _Of that ride,--that to me was the rarest_ 27 _And swam the North Fork, and all that_ 29 _Mamma says my taste still is low_ 31 _That my heart's somewhere there in the ditches_ 33