LITTLE MASTERPIECES OF AMERICAN WIT AND HUMOR VOLUME II [Illustration: Bret Harte Copyright by Elliott & Fry] +--------------------------------------------+ | LITTLE MASTERPIECES OF | | AMERICAN WIT AND HUMOR | | | | Edited by THOMAS L. MASSON | +--------------------------------------------+ | VOLUME II | | | | _By_ | | | | Bret Harte James Russell Lowell | | Sol Smith Mary Mapes Dodge | | John Godfrey Saxe Robert J. Burdette | | | | and others | | | | [Illustration] | | | +--------------------------------------------+ | New York | | Doubleday, Page & Company | | 1903 | +--------------------------------------------+ Copyright, 1903, by Doubleday, Page & Company Published, October, 1903 CONTENTS _VOLUME II_ PAGE SOL SMITH A Bully Boat and a Brag Captain 1 AMBROSE BIERCE The Dog and the Bees 8 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES Dislikes 9 G. H. DERBY ("Phoenix," "Squibob") Illustrated Newspapers 13 Tushmaker's Toothpuller 67 MARY MAPES DODGE Miss Malony on the Chinese Question 22 JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL The Courtin' 27 A Letter from Mr. Ezekiel Bigelow 59 JOHN GODFREY SAXE The Coquette--A Portrait 31 SAMUEL L. CLEMENS ("Mark Twain") Colonel Mulberry Sellers 33 FREDERICK WILLIAM SHELTON Incidents in a Retired Life 43 BRET HARTE Melons 49 The Society upon the Stanislaus 71 CHARLES GODFREY LELAND Ballad 65 JAMES JEFFREY ROCHE The V-a-s-e 74 FRANK R. STOCKTON Pomona's Novel 76 JOHN TOWNSEND TROWBRIDGE Fred Trover's Little Iron-clad 96 ROBERT JONES BURDETTE The Artless Prattle of Childhood 120 ANONYMOUS St. Peter at the Gate 130 HENRY GUY CARLETON The Thompson Street Poker Club 134 GEORGE T. LANIGAN The Fox and the Crow 140 HENRY CUYLER BUNNER Behold the Deeds! 141 FRANK DEMPSTER SHERMAN A Rhyme for Priscilla 146