_How the Old Hoss Won
the Bet_ tells with rollicking humor what the parson's nag did at a race.
_The Boys_, with its mingled humor and pathos, written for the thirtieth
reunion of his class, is one of the best of the many poems which he was so
frequently asked to compose for special celebrations. No other poet of his
time could equal him in furnishing to order clever, apt, humorous verses
for ever recurring occasions.
PROSE.--He was nearly fifty when he published his first famous prose work.
He had named the _Atlantic Monthly_, and Lowell had agreed to edit it only
on condition that Holmes would promise to be a contributor. In the first
number appeared _The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table._ Holmes had hit upon
a style that exactly suited his temperament, and had invented a new prose
form. His great conversational gift was now crystallized in these breakfast
table talks, which the Autocrat all but monopolizes. However, the other
characters at the table of this remarkable boarding house in Boston join in
often enough to keep up the interest in their opinions, feelings, and
relations to each other. The reader always wants to know the impression
that the Autocrat's fine talk makes upon "the young man whom they call
'John.
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