I have a great deal to say to you; I cannot write it—­much is of Melvin and his last moments, painful details, yet not without reconciling features, for he met death calmly and bravely.  It will gratify you to know that my own health is steadily improving; the others are very hearty.  The second edition of my books, issued by Scribner’s Sons, is selling like hot-cakes.  Four thousand sets have already been disposed of.  I intend to publish a new volume of poems next spring.

  Ever sincerely yours,

  EUGENE FIELD. 
  December 17th, 1890.

With what diligence and enthusiasm Field threw himself into the work of preparing other books for publication may be gleaned from a letter to Mr. Gray, dated June 7th, 1891: 

DEAR MR. GRAY:  Your kind and interesting letter should have been answered before this but for many professional duties which have led me to neglect very many of the civilities of life.  I have been preparing my translations of the Odes of Horace for publication in book form, and this has required time and care.  Roswell has joined me in the task, and will contribute about forty per cent. of the translations.  The odes we have treated number about fifty, and they are to be published in fine style by the Cambridge printers.  The first edition will be an exceedingly small one; the scheme at present is to print fifty copies only, but a cheap popular edition will soon follow.  The expensive publication is undertaken by my friend Francis Wilson, the actor, and he is to give me the plates from which to print the popular edition.  It will interest, and we are hoping that it will please, you to know that we shall dedicate this volume to you as a slight, though none the less sincere, token of our regard and affection to you as the friend of our father and as a friend to us.  Were our father living, it would please him, we think, to see his sons collaborating as versifiers of the Pagan lyrist whose songs he admired; it would please him, too, we are equally certain, to see us dedicating the result of our enthusiastic toil to so good a man and to so good a friend as you.  The lyrics which we have treated are in the majority of cases of a sportive character, those appealing most directly to us and, we think, to the hearts of people of these times.  Yet the more serious songs are those which please me best, for in them I find a certain touch which softens my feelings, giving me gentler thoughts and a broader charity.  It is my intention to pursue the versification of Horace still further, but whether my plan shall be fulfilled is so very dubious that I set no store by it.  I am wanting to print a volume of my miscellaneous poems next fall, dedicating them to Julia, but I have not yet begun to collect the material.

On Thursday, the 28th ultimo, we laid Melvin’s remains to rest finally in Graceland