"Another month's work will knock Morton into 'pi,'" was a remark that
caught my ear as I fumed from the composing-room back to my private
office. I had just irately blamed a printer for a blunder of my own,
and the words I overheard reminded me of the unpleasant truth that I
had recently ...
Months since, with much doubt and diffidence, I began this simple
story. I had never before written expressly for young people, and I
knew that the honest little critics could not be beguiled with words
which did not tell an interesting story. How far I have succeeded,
the readers of this ...
At the beginning of the Civil War there was a fine old residence on
Meeting Street in Charleston, South Carolina, inhabited by a family almost
as old as the State. Its inheritor and owner, Orville Burgoyne, was a
widower. He had been much saddened in temperament since the death of the
wif ...
As may be gathered from the following pages, my title was obtained
a a number of years ago, and the story has since been taking form
and color in my mind. What has become of the beautiful but discordant
face I saw at the concert garden I do not know, but I trust that
that the countenance ...
Hopeless indeed must that region be which May cannot clothe with
some degree of beauty and embroider with flowers. On the 5th day
of the month the early dawn revealed much that would charm the
eyes of all true lovers of nature even in that section of Virginia
whose characteristics so grim ...
On a cloudy December morning a gentleman, two ladies, and a boy
stepped down from the express train at a station just above the
Highlands on the Hudson. A double sleigh, overflowing with luxurious
robes, stood near, and a portly coachman with difficulty restrained
his spirited horses whil ...
The dreary March evening is rapidly passing from murky gloom to obscurity.
Gusts of icy rain and sleet are sweeping full against a man who, though
driving, bows his head so low that he cannot see his horses. The patient
beasts, however, plod along the miry road, unerringly taking their c ...
The following story has been taking form in my mind for several years,
and at last I have been able to write it out. With a regret akin to
sadness, I take my leave, this August day, of people who have become
very real to me, whose joys and sorrows I have made my own. Although a
Northern m ...
Land hunger is so general that it may be regarded as a natural
craving. Artificial modes of life, it is true, can destroy it, but
it is apt to reassert itself in later generations. To tens of
thousands of bread-winners in cities a country home is the dream
of the future, the crown and rew ...
Egbert Haldane had an enemy who loved him very dearly, and he sincerely
returned her affection, as he was in duty bound, since she was his
mother. If, inspired by hate and malice, Mrs. Haldane had brooded over
but one question at the cradle of her child, How can I most surely
destroy this ...
A great, rudely built stone chimney was smoking languidly one
afternoon. Leaning against this chimney, as if for protection and
support, was a little cabin gray and decrepit with age. The door of
the cabin stood wide open, for the warm spring was well advanced in
the South. There was no n ...
"I am getting very tired," said a hard brain-worker to me once. "Life is
beginning to drag and lose its zest." This is an experience that can
scarcely happen to one who has fallen in love with Nature, or become
deeply interested in any of her almost infinite manifestations. Mr. and
Mrs. C ...
In sending this, my fourth venture, out upon the uncertain waters of
public opinion, I shall say but few words of preface. In the past I
have received considerable well-deserved criticism from the gentlemen
of the caustic pen, but so far from having any hard feeling toward
them, I have ra ...
No race of men, scarcely an individual, is so devoid of intelligence
as not to recognize power. Few gifts are more courted. Power is
almost as varied as character, and the kind of power most desired
or appreciated is a good measure of character. The pre-eminence
furnished by thew and musc ...
Clara Heyward was dressed in deep mourning, and it was evident
that the emblems of bereavement were not worn merely in compliance
with a social custom. Her face was pallid from grief, and her dark
beautiful eyes were dim from much weeping. She sat in the little
parlor of a cottage located ...
As society in our land grows older, and departs from primitive
simplicity, as many are becoming rich, but more poor, the changes that
I have sought to warn against become more threatening. The ordinary
avenues of industry are growing thronged, and it daily involves a more
fearful risk for a ...
Just ten years ago I took my first hesitating and dubious steps
toward authorship. My reception on the part of the public has been
so much kinder than I expected, and the audience that has listened
to my stories with each successive autumn has been so steadfast and
loyal, that I can scarc ...
When Madge Alden was seventeen years of age an event occurred which
promised to be the misfortune of her life. At first she was almost
overwhelmed and knew not what to do. She was but a young and
inexperienced girl, and for a year or more had been regarded as an
invalid.
The August morning was bright and fair, but Herbert Scofield's
brow was clouded. He had wandered off to a remote part of the
grounds of a summer hotel on the Hudson, and seated in the shade
of a tree, had lapsed into such deep thought that his cigar had
gone out and the birds were becomin ...
It was the beginning of a battle. The skirmish line of the Union
advance was sweeping rapidly over a rough mountainous region in
the South, and in his place on the extreme left of this line was
Private Anson Marlow. Tall trees rising from underbrush, rocks,
bowlders, gulches worn by sprin ...
The Christmas holidays had come, and with them a welcome vacation
for Hedley Marstern. Although as yet a briefless young lawyer, he
had a case in hand which absorbed many of his thoughts--the
conflicting claims of two young women in his native village on the
Hudson. It must not be imagine ...
Picnicking in December would be a dreary experience even if one
could command all the appliances of comfort which outdoor life
permitted. This would be especially true in the latitude of Boston
and on the bleak hills overlooking that city and its environing
waters. Dreary business indeed ...
It was the day before Thanksgiving. The brief cloudy November
afternoon was fast merging into early twilight. The trees, now
gaunt and bare, creaked and groaned in the passing gale, clashing
their icy branches together with sounds sadly unlike the
slumberous rustle of their foliage in Jun ...