APPENDIX D
In a copy of “Echoes from the Sabine Farm,” given to Mr. Higinbotham by Eugene Field we find inscribed, on the fly leaf, the following:
Dear Mr. Higinbotham: I am sending you this book for several reasons. In the first place, I should like to have it serve as a token of that sense of pleasure which, in common with the rest of our townsmen, I feel to have you back in Chicago after months of absence in foreign lands. Then, again, I am glad to give you the book because I know that you will regard it with the appreciative and jealous tenderness which every author loves to see others bestow upon the creations of his brain and pen. But above all I am hoping, dear sir, that you will look upon this gift as a cordial expression (however modest) of my feeling of indebtedness to you for the goodness you have shown to me and to my friends for my sake.
(Signed) EUGENE FIELD.
Chicago, February, 1892.
And in Mr. Field’s hand writing this little poem referring to Mr. Higinbotham’s return from a three year’s absence in Europe.
Pompey, ’tis Fortune gives you back
To the friends and the gods who love you!
· · · · ·
Once more you stand in your native land,
With the stars and stripes above you!