Another bit of verse was inspired by this incident which is worth preserving: One night I was dining at the house of a friend on the North Side where the "Fair Unknown" was one of the company—a fact of which Field only became possessed when I left the office late in the afternoon. The dinner had not progressed quite to the withdrawal of the ladies when, with some confusion, one of the waiting-men brought in and gave to me a large packet from the office marked "Personal; deliver at once." Thinking it had something to do with work for the Morning News, I asked to be excused and hastily tore the enclosure open. One glance was enough to disclose its nature. It was a poem from Field, neatly arranged in the form of a pamphlet, with an illustration by Sclanders. The outside, which was in the form of a title page, ran thus:
HOW THE GOOD KNIGHT ATTENDED
UPON SIR SLOSSON:
BEING A WOEFUL TALE
OF
THE MOST JOYOUS AND DIVERTING DAYS
WHEREIN
KNIGHTS ERRANT DID COURTEOUSLY
DISPORT THEMSELVES
AND ACHIEVE PRODIGIES OF VALOR,
AND
MARVELS OF SWEET FRIENDSHIP.
And inside the plaintive story was told in variegated ink in the following lines:
One chilly raw November night
Beneath a dull electric light,