Sincerely your friend, AMBROSE BIERCE. [18 Iowa Circle, Washington, D. C., January 1, 1901.] DEAR STERLING, This is just a hasty note to acknowledge receipt of your letter and the poems. I hope to reach those pretty soon and give them the attention which I am sure they will prove to merit--which I cannot do now. By the way, I wonder why most of you youngsters so persistently tackle the sonnet. For the same reason, I suppose, that a fellow always wants to make his first appearance on the stage in the role of "Hamlet." It is just the holy cheek of you. Yes, Leigh prospers fairly well, and I--well, I don't know if it is prosperity; it is a pretty good time. I suppose I shall have to write to that old scoundrel Grizzly,[1] to give him my new address, though I supposed he had it; and the old one would do, anyhow. Now that his cub has returned he probably doesn't care for the other plantigrades of his kind. [1] Albert Bierce. Thank you for telling me so much about some of our companions and companionesses of the long ago. I fear that not all my heart was in my baggage when I came over here. There's a bit of it, for example, out there by that little lake in the hills. So I may have a photograph of one of your pretty sisters. Why, of course I want it--I want the entire five of them; their pictures, I mean. If you had been a nice fellow you would have let me know them long ago. And how about that other pretty girl, your infinitely better half? You might sneak into the envelope a little portrait of _her_, lest I forget, lest I forget. But I've not yet forgotten. The new century's best blessings to the both o' you. AMBROSE BIERCE. P.S.--In your studies of poetry have you dipped into Stedman's new "American Anthology"? It is the most notable collection of American verse that has been made--on the whole, a book worth having. In saying so I rather pride myself on my magnanimity; for of course I don't think he has done as well by me as he might have done. That, I suppose, is what every one thinks who happens to be alive to think it. So I try to be in the fashion. A. B. [18 Iowa Circle, Washington, D. C., January 19, 1901.] MY DEAR STERLING, I've been a long while getting to your verses, but there were many reasons--including a broken rib. They are pretty good verses, with here and there _very_ good lines. I'd a strong temptation to steal one or two for my "Passing Show," but I knew what an avalanche of verses it would bring down upon me from other poets--as every mention of a new book loads my mail with new books for a month. If I ventured to advise you I should recommend to you the simple, ordinary meters and forms native to our language. I await the photograph of the pretty sister--don't fancy I've forgotten. It is 1 a. m. and I'm about to drink your health in a glass of Riesling and eat it in a pate. My love to Grizzly if you ever see him. Yours ever, A. B. [Washington, D. C., January 23, 1901.]