Kevin, Thank you in advance for your kindness as demonstrated in your, "Please send me a carbuncle" program. And let me begin by assuming that this is not an actual carbuncle, but merely a story relating to a carbuncle. Since I currently have no Twain collection, this piece will hold an honored part in it. Sadly, this writer is without anything to trade. A few years ago, I had a grand splinter, which I got oiling a bookcase. Unfortunately the physician who removed it cast it aside. And much like the carbuncle in Twain legend, my splinter was, at first, mistaken for a boil at . . . hm, let me see, no, it never was mistaken. Both my wife and I knew what it was right from the beginning. It had such a sudden and forthright origin. Splinters are like that. Sincerely, Horace J. Digby