and although of Kentucky, he was not merely a "Kentucky Colonel," for he was actually appointed Colonel on the staff of the governor of Kentucky. At the time of his death he was about to be made a brigadier-general and was planning to raise a brigade of Kentucky mountaineers for service in the Great War. As he had just struck his stride in short story writing, the loss to literature was even greater than the patriotic loss.

Gideon (April, 1914, Century), by Wells Hastings (1878- ), the story with which this volume closes, calls to mind the large number of notable short stories in American literature by writers who have made no large name for themselves as short story writers, or even otherwise in letters. American literature has always been strong in its "stray" short stories of note. In Mr. Hastings' case, however, I feel that the fame is sure to come. He graduated from Yale in 1902, collaborated with Brian Hooker (1880- ) in a novel, The Professor's Mystery (1911) and alone wrote another novel, The Man in the Brown Derby (1911). His short stories include: The New Little Boy (July, 1911, American), That Day (September, 1911, American), The Pick-Up (December, 1911, Everybody's), and Gideon (April, 1914, Century). The last story stands out. It can be compared without disadvantage to the best work, or all but the very best work, of Thomas Nelson Page, it seems to me. And from the reader's standpoint it has the advantage—is this not also an author's advantage?—of a more modern setting and treatment. Mr. Hastings is, I have been told, a director in over a dozen large corporations. Let us hope that his business activities will not keep him too much away from the production of literature—for to rank as a piece of literature, something of permanent literary value, Gideon is surely entitled.

ALEXANDER JESSUP.

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION Alexander Jessup

THE LITTLE FRENCHMAN AND HIS WATER LOTS (1839) George Pope Morris

THE ANGEL OF THE ODD (1844) Edgar Allan Poe

THE SCHOOLMASTER'S PROGRESS (1844) Caroline M.S. Kirkland

THE WATKINSON EVENING (1846) Eliza Leslie

TITBOTTOM'S SPECTACLES (1854) George William Curtis

MY DOUBLE; AND HOW HE UNDID ME (1859) Edward Everett Hale

A VISIT TO THE ASYLUM FOR AGED AND DECAYED PUNSTERS (1861) Oliver Wendell Holmes

THE CELEBRATED JUMPING FROG OF CALAVERAS COUNTY (1865) Mark Twain

ELDER BROWN'S BACKSLIDE (1885) Harry Stillwell Edwards

THE HOTEL EXPERIENCE OF MR. PINK FLUKER (1886) Richard Malcolm Johnston

THE NICE PEOPLE (1890) Henry Cuyler Bunner

THE BULLER-PODINGTON COMPACT (1897) Frank Richard Stockton

COLONEL STARBOTTLE FOR THE PLAINTIFF (1901) Bret Harte

THE DUPLICITY OF HARGRAVES (1902) O. Henry

BARGAIN DAY AT TUTT HOUSE (1905)
  George Randolph Chester

A CALL (1906)
  Grace MacGowan Cooke

HOW THE WIDOW WON THE DEACON (1911)
  William James Lampton

GIDEON (1914)
  Wells Hastings

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The Nice People, by Henry Cuyler Bunner, is republished from his volume, Short Sixes, by permission of its publishers, Charles Scribner's Sons. The Buller-Podington Compact, by Frank Richard Stockton, is from his volume, Afield and Afloat, and is republished by permission of Charles Scribner's Sons. Colonel Starbottle for the Plaintiff, by Bret Harte, is from the collection of his stories entitled Openings in the Old Trail, and is republished by permission of the Houghton Mifflin Company, the authorized publishers of Bret Harte's complete works. The Duplicity of Hargraves, by O. Henry, is from his volume, Sixes and Sevens, and is republished by permission of its publishers, Doubleday, Page & Co. These stories are fully protected by copyright, and should not be republished except by permission of the publishers mentioned. Thanks are due Mrs. Grace MacGowan Cooke for permission to use her story, A Call, republished here from Harper's Magazine; Wells Hastings, for permission to reprint his story, Gideon, from The Century Magazine; and George Randolph Chester, for permission to include Bargain Day at Tutt House, from McClure's Magazine. I would also thank the heirs of the late lamented Colonel William J. Lampton for permission to use his story, How the Widow Won the Deacon, from Harper's Bazaar. These stories are all copyrighted, and cannot be republished except by authorization of their authors or heirs. The editor regrets that their publishers have seen fit to refuse him permission to include George W. Cable's story, "Posson Jone'," and Irvin S. Cobb's story, The Smart Aleck. He also regrets he was unable to obtain a copy of Joseph C. Duport's story, The Wedding at Timber Hollow, in time for inclusion, to which its merits—as he remembers them—certainly entitle it. Mr. Duport, in addition to his literary activities, has started an interesting "back to Nature" experiment at Westfield, Massachusetts.

[Footnote 1: This I have attempted in Representative American Short
Stories (Allyn & Bacon: Boston, 1922).]

[Footnote 2: Will D. Howe, in The Cambridge History of American
Literature, Vol. II, pp. 158-159 (G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1918).]

[Footnote 3: A History of American Literature Since 1870, p. 317
(The Century Co.: 1915).]

[Footnote 4: A History of American Literature Since 1870, pp 79-81.]

[Footnote 5: "The Works of Bret Harte," twenty volumes. The Houghton
Mifflin Company, Boston.]

[Footnote 6: The Cambridge History of American Literature, Vol. II, p. 386.]

[Footnote 7: See this Introduction.]

[Footnote 8: The Cambridge History of American Literature, Vol. II, p. 385.]

[Footnote 9: Fred Lewis Pattee, in The Cambridge History of American
Literature, Vol. II, p. 394.]

* * * * *

To: CHARLES GOODRICH WHITING, Critic, Poet, Friend

* * * * *

THE LITTLE FRENCHMAN AND HIS WATER LOTS

BY GEORGE POPE MORRIS (1802-1864)

[From The Little Frenchman and His Water Lots, with Other Sketches of the Times (1839), by George Pope Morris.]

  Look into those they call unfortunate,
  And, closer view'd, you'll find they are unwise.—Young.

  Let wealth come in by comely thrift,
  And not by any foolish shift:
        Tis haste
        Makes waste:
  Who gripes too hard the dry and slippery sand
  Holds none at all, or little, in his hand.—Herrick.

Let well alone.—Proverb.

How much real comfort every one might enjoy if he would be contented with the lot in which heaven has cast him, and how much trouble would be avoided if people would only "let well alone." A moderate independence, quietly and honestly procured, is certainly every way preferable even to