Few are the times that the Vagabond is permitted to listen to the literature or the history of today. Except for occasional visiting speakers Harvard seems to fight shy of the moderns or to first with them spasmodically and surreptitiously. And so the Vagabond, medievalized by House plans and Lampoons and lectures will try to come back to earth this morning in a front row seat of Harvard 2. For there, at 10 o'clock Professor Murdock will treat the recent American novel.

If the transition from chivalry and castles to realism and red lights is not too severe for the Vagabond's gentle tastes, he will follow Professor Murdock across the yard, keeping out of sight as a well-bred Vagabond should, and slink into Sever 11 to listen to Professor Murdock on Mark Twain.

Mark Twain was of course the first good-humoured Vagabond, and so his lineal descendent may perhaps be pardoned for being a bit partial to him. Therefore he is quite sorry for anyone who has missed Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn from his cradle side, and almost as regretful over a lost soul who has failed to try "Life on the Mississippi" or "A Tramp Abroad" for his later and more travelsome years. Perhaps these unfortunates may be redeemed from the pulpit of Sever 11. But it is more likely that Professor Murdock will concern himself with the later years of Mark Twain's life, for post mortem critics have discovered the many bitter pills under his palatable coating of gentle wit. For Clemens was the first American to discover that Uncle Sam would swallow an unpleasant truth if sufficiently sugared. Will Rogers has followed somewhat haltingly in his train. Why not go back to the original?