>From Richard O'Connor's bio of Bierce: The first time he [Bierce] met Twain, as he would frequently recall fotr his intimates, wqas in the offices of the News-Letter. The lank red-haired Twain stroled in and looked around the outer office with disdain. "Young man," Twain drawled. himself in his early thirties, " this room is so nude I shoould think you and the owner would be ashamed of yourselves." Bierce kept on working. "Young man," Twain said, "where is the owner?" "Somewhere around town,"Bierce replied. "He'll be back shortly." "Young man," said Twain glowering at Bierce, "are you sure he is not in the next room drunk?" Bierce insisted that he wasn't covering up for his employer, the publisher Marriott would return soon, and asked if there was anythioing he could do to help the caller. "I've come to repay Marriott a loan,"Twain explained. "You could leave the money with me." "Young man," Twain demanded, staring intently at Bierce, "look me in the eyes and speak as though you were talking to your God. If I gave you that money, are you sure your employer would ever see it?" That broke the ice, and Twain chatted amiably until Marriott returned. Twain included several fables of Bierce's in his Mark Twain's Library of Humor edition. Alan C. Reese