the gentle editor was firm. When it was found that it must go in or he
would go out, it went--and he stayed. When the conservative and
dignified _Atlantic_ wrote to the author soliciting something like it,
the publishers were reassured.

Harte had struck ore. Up to this time he had been prospecting. He had
early found color and followed promising stringers. He had opened some
fair pockets, but with the explosion of this blast he had laid bare the
true vein, and the ore assayed well. It was high grade, and the fissure
was broad.

"The Luck of Roaring Camp" was the first of a series of stories
depicting the picturesque life of the early days which made California
known the world over and gave it a romantic interest enjoyed by no other
community. They were fresh and virile, original in treatment, with real
men and women using a new vocabulary, with humor and pathos delightfully
blended. They moved on a stage beautifully set, with a background of
heroic grandeur. No wonder that California and Bret Harte became
familiar household words. When one reflects on the fact that the
exposure to the life depicted had occurred more than ten years before,
from very brief experience, the wonder is incomprehensibly great.
Nothing less than genius can account for such a result. "Tennessee's
Partner," "M'liss," "The Outcasts of Poker Flat," and dozens more of
these stories that became classics followed. The supply seemed
exhaustless, and fresh welcome awaited every one.

It was in September, 1870, that Harte in the make-up of the _Overland_
found an awkward space too much for an ordinary poem. An associate
suggested that he write something to fit the gap; but Harte was not
given to dashing off to order, nor to writing a given number of inches