Short Stories of Various Types

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"As he came closer to the cart, the prisoner turned towards him,
saying, 'You will soon be the only one who knows where the silver mine
is.'

"'What is that you say, Olaf?'

"'You see, minister, since we heard that it is a silver mine we have
found, my brother and I have not remained such good friends as
formerly. We often have come to disputes, and last night we had an
argument over which one of us five first found the mine. We came to
blows, and I have killed my brother and he has given me a deep mark on
my forehead.[290-1] I shall hang now and you will then be the only one
who knows the site of the mine. I should like to request something of
you.'

"'Speak up,' said the minister. 'I will do all in my power for you.'

"'You know I shall leave several little children behind me,' said the
soldier.

"'So far as that is concerned,' interrupted the minister, 'you may rest
easy. Whatever is your share they shall have.'

"'No,' said Olaf, 'it is another thing I wanted to ask of you. Do not
let them have any part of that which comes out of the mine.'

"The minister fell back a few steps, then remained motionless, unable
to reply.

"'If you do not promise me this, I cannot die in peace.'

"The minister at last promised reluctantly, and the cart continued on
its way, bearing the murderer to his doom.

"The minister stood there in the road, deliberating on how he should
keep the promise he had just given. All the way home he thought over
the riches which he had expected would bring such joy.

"'If it should prove,' he mused, 'that the people of this parish are
unable to endure wealth, since already four have died who had been
strong practical men, ought I not to give up the idea of working the
mine?' He pictured his whole parish going to destruction because of the
silver. Would it be right that he, who was placed as a guardian over
the souls of these poor people, should put into their hands something
which might be the cause of their ruin?"

The King raised himself upright in his chair and stared at the speaker.
"I might say that you give me to understand that the pastor of this
isolated community must be a real man."

"But this that I have related was not all," continued the minister,
"for as soon as the news of the mine spread over the neighboring
parishes, workers ceased to labor and went about light-heartedly,
awaiting the time when the great riches should pour in on them. All
idlers in that section roamed into the hamlet. Drunkenness, quarreling,
and fighting became constant problems for the minister's solution. Many
people did nothing but wander around through fields and forest looking
for the mine. The minister noted, also, that as soon as he left home,
men spied upon him to see whether he visited the silver mine, so that
they might steal the secret of its location from him.

"When things had come to this pass, the minister called the farmers to
a meeting. He reminded them of the many tragedies that the discovery of
the silver mine had brought to their community and asked if they were
going to allow themselves to be ruined or if they wished to save
themselves. And then he asked if they wanted him, who was their pastor,
to contribute to their ruin. He himself had decided that he would not
reveal to anyone the location of the mine, nor would he ever attempt to
derive any wealth therefrom.

"He then asked the farmers how they would vote for the future. If they
desired to continue seeking after the mine and awaiting riches, he
intended to go so far from them that no news of their misery would ever
reach him. If, on the other hand, they would give up thinking of the
silver mine, he would remain among them. 'But however you choose,'
repeated the minister, 'remember that no one will ever hear from me any
information about the location of the silver mine.'"

"Well," said the King, "what did the farmers decide?"

"They did as the minister desired of them. They understood that he
meant well for them when he was willing to remain in poverty for their
sake. They urged him to go to the forest and take every precaution to
conceal the vein so that no one would ever find it."

"Since then the minister has remained here as poor as the others?"

"Yes, as poor as the others."

"Has he, in spite of this, married and built a new parsonage?"

"No, he has not had the means. He lives in the same old place."

"That is a beautiful story," said the King, bending his head.

The minister stood silent before the King. In a few minutes the latter
continued: "Was it of the silver mine that you were thinking when you
said that the minister here could furnish me with as much money as I
should need?"

"Yes," said the other.

"But I can't put thumb-screws on him; and how otherwise could I bring a
man like him to show me the mine--a man who has forsaken his beloved
and all material blessings?"

"That is another matter," said the minister. "If it is the Fatherland
that needs help, he will undoubtedly give up the secret."

"Do I have your assurance for that?"

"Yes, I will answer for it."

"Does he not care, then, how it goes with his parishioners?"

"That shall stand in God's hands."

The King arose from his chair and walked over to the window. He stood
for a moment observing the people outside. The longer he stood, the
clearer his large eyes glistened. His whole stature seemed to expand.

"You may present my compliments to the minister of this parish," said
the King, "and say to him that there is given no more beautiful sight
to Sweden's King than to see such a people as these."

Thereupon the King turned from the window and looked smilingly at the
minister. "Is it true that the minister of this parish is so poor that
he takes off his black robe as soon as the service is over and dresses
as one of the peasants?"

"Yes, he is as poor as that," said the minister, and a flush of
embarrassment spread over his rough but noble face.

The King again stepped to the window. He apparently was in his best
mood. All that was great and noble within him had been awakened. "He
shall let the silver mine rest in peace. Since through all his life he
has starved and worked to perfect a people such as these, he shall be
permitted to keep them as they are."

"But if the kingdom is in danger----"

"The kingdom is better served with men than with money." When he had
said these words, the King shook hands with the minister and stepped
out of the study.

Outside stood the people, as impassive as when he went in. But when the
King came down the steps, one of the farmers approached him.

"Have you talked with our minister?"

"Yes, I have talked with him."

"Then you have also received answer from us," said the farmer.

"Yes, I have received your answer."

--_Translated from the Swedish by_ C. Frederick Carlson.

NOTES

O. HENRY (Page 11)

Sydney Porter, whose pen name was O. Henry, was an American journalist
who lived during the years 1862 to 1910. For several years he wandered
in the South and Southwest, gathering the many and varied experiences
of a journalistic career. These he aptly used in his numerous short
stories, and he was ever a beguiling story teller.

He finally settled down in New York City and there wrote his best
stories. Instead of writing of the Four Hundred, or the social set of
the great city, as so many other writers were fond of doing, with his
clever pen he revealed to us through little sketches the real life of
the four million others in New York. Laundresses, messenger boys,
policemen, clerks, even the tramps ever present in the parks were
pictured for us as real everyday people whom one could find anywhere.
Read his stories in _The Four Million_, from which "The Gift of the
Magi" is taken, for you will like them.

O. Henry, while his stories usually lack the qualities of enduring
literature, those of a cultured style and a universal theme--a theme
that will be true to human experience through the ages--is yet master
of the composition of the short story. Examine "The Gift of the Magi"
and you will find that it develops one main incident carried out in a
single afternoon with all the necessary details compressed; that is,
the details are suggested in a few words but not developed. The story
has originality and appeals to the imagination of the reader, for the
whole life of the two characters is suggested through this brief,
rather touching sketch. The end, though it is a surprise and comes like
the crack of a whip, was nevertheless carefully prepared for. Then the
writer is through, and we are left with the feeling that we know this
everyday young couple, who after all have the priceless gift, an
unselfish love, which, hidden from the eyes of the world, glorifies
their commonplace existence.

O. Henry approaches true literature here, for he has a theme that has
lived and will ever live to uplift human life. His style too,
influenced by his theme, is raised somewhat from his usual slangy
expression.

The Gift of the Magi

11, 1. The Magi. Wise men who brought gifts to the infant Christ as he
lay in the manger at Bethlehem.

13, 1. Queen of Sheba. A queen of Old Testament history, who is
reported to have sought an alliance with Solomon, King of Israel, in
the tenth century B.C., bringing to him fabulous gifts of gold and
jewels.

* * * * *

BOOTH TARKINGTON (Page 19)

Booth Tarkington was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, in 1869. The
author's love for and knowledge of his native state is revealed to us
in several of his best novels. He was educated at Exeter Academy, at
Purdue University, and at Princeton.

Mr. Tarkington may truly be said to be a literary man. Unlike most of
our other authors, he has had no other formal occupation except that of
writing. To this work, since he left Princeton, he has given all of his
time and energy. For eight years he wrote stories that were always
rejected. His courage and perseverance, however, were finally richly
rewarded. With his first accepted work, _The Gentleman from Indiana_,
he attained a secure position as a writer of distinction.

Mr. Tarkington is said to be exceedingly companionable and entirely
without self-consciousness and egotism. He is a ready and entertaining
talker and tells a story as well as he writes one. He has, too, a keen
sense of the humorous. This naturalness and this sense of humor may be
noticed readily in the story, "A Reward of Merit" selected from _Penrod
and Sam_.

The books, _Penrod_, _Penrod and Sam_, and _Seventeen_ are studies of
the human boy, presented in a series of chapters that read like so many
short stories.

A Reward of Merit

21, 1. Obedient to inherited impulse. The boys followed an unreasoning
impulse in their nature, inherited from their savage ancestors, who got
their living by pursuing and killing running animals.

2. Automatons of instinct. Creatures guided, not by reason or will, but
by tendencies inherited from savage ancestors.

22, 1. Practioner of an art, etc. A humorous way of saying that
gambling by the method of throwing dice dates back probably further
than the time of the Romans.

30, 1. Sang-froid. A French word meaning coolness under trying
circumstances.

36, 1. Gothic. A term applied to certain types of architecture of the
Middle Ages. Whitey, with bones and ribs showing, suggested the pillars
and pointed arches of a Gothic building.

43, 1. Nemesis. An ancient goddess in Greek literature who justly
punished any one who sinned.

* * * * *

MARY RAYMOND SHIPMAN ANDREWS (Page 48)

Mary Raymond Shipman Andrews is a well-known short story writer of the
present day. She was born in Mobile, Alabama. Her present home is in
Syracuse, New York.

Mrs. Andrews is perhaps best known by her story of Lincoln, "The
Perfect Tribute," the one of her stories which will surely endure the
test of time and rank high as literature. Among her best work are also
stories of camping trips in the Canadian woods--stories which show her
keen delight in life out-of-doors, for Mrs. Andrews says of herself, "I
paddle a canoe much better than I write a story."

In "American, Sir!" the story of the World War given in this book, one
finds Mrs. Andrews's usual qualities of sentiment, dramatic effect, and
distinctive style. To readers of "The Perfect Tribute," it is enough to
say that in her stories of the recent war Mrs. Andrews writes with the
same exalted spirit of American patriotism that she showed in that
story of the Civil War. She believes that out of the sorrow and
suffering of the war have come the glory of courage and self-sacrifice
and a new and deeper love for America.

"American, Sir!"

49, 1. "Tapped" for "Bones" or "Scroll and Key." "Bones" and "Scroll
and Key" are two fraternities at Yale to which the students deem it a
great honor to belong. On the great day when new members are chosen,
every one assembles on the campus, where the new members are tapped on
the shoulder by old members and told to go to their rooms.

52, 1. Croix de Guerre. The French War Cross, a decoration given by
France to soldiers for extreme bravery and self-sacrifice.

2. Caporetto disaster. The Italian army was overwhelmingly defeated by
the Germans near the village of Caporetto on October 24, 1917. This
disaster was brought about by fraternization, or friendly relations,
between the soldiers of the Austro-German and Italian armies. Skillful
German propaganda had led the Italians to believe that fighting would
be brought to an end if the Italian soldiers would do no more shooting.
Then new German troops were brought forward to make a deadly attack
upon the Italian army. So thoroughly had the Germans played their game
that the Italians lost more than 250,000 prisoners and 2300 guns before
they realized how they had been duped.

3. Lombardy and Venetia. Provinces in northern Italy, which are noted
for their beautiful scenery and places of interest to tourists.

4. Tagliamento. A small river in northern Italy. The Italian army made
a stand here in a bloody encounter with the Germans.

5. Piave. Another river in northern Italy, south of the Tagliamento.
Here the Italians brought the Germans to a stand and held them for
several months. They did this by a system of lagoon defenses from the
lower Piave to the Gulf of Venice. This is most interesting to read
about in any of the histories of the World War.

55, 1. Bersagliari. Italian sharp-shooters.

* * * * *

KATHERINE MAYO (Page 68)

Katherine Mayo was born in Ridgway, Pennsylvania, but she was educated
at private schools in Boston and Cambridge, and her home has long been
in New York City.

She is a contributor to our best periodicals, _The Atlantic Monthly_,
_Scribner's_, _The North American_, _The Outlook_, and _The Saturday
Evening Post_. Her stories are almost all founded on facts. The story
"John G." in this collection of short stories is selected from _The
Standard Bearers_, which is a group of true narratives concerning the
Pennsylvania State Police. These tales are told by Miss Mayo in a
finely distinctive way which makes vivid the gallant deeds of these
brave men.

Miss Mayo's interest in the history and deeds of the Pennsylvania State
Police was aroused by her personal experience of the helplessness of
country districts in New York state to prevent or punish crime. Miss
Mayo had heard that Pennsylvania years ago had acknowledged its duty to
protect all its people, and to that end had established a rural patrol
known as the State Police. Finding little in print concerning this
force, she went to Pennsylvania to study the facts first hand.

The results of her investigations she published early in 1917 in her
book, _Justice to All_, with an introduction by ex-President Roosevelt,
in which he declares the volume to be so valuable that it should be in
every public library and every school-library in the land.

In _The Standard Bearers_, she tells of some of the special feats of
early members of that now famous force. No detective stories, no tales
of the Wild West can exceed in thrilling human interest these true
narratives of events that have happened in our own time and in our own
country.

Miss Mayo during the world war has done active work over seas in the
"Y." True stories of her experiences with the doughboys have appeared
in _The North American_, and in _The Outlook_.

John G.

68, 1. Barrack-Room Ballads. Poems by Rudyard Kipling with the
atmosphere of the far East.

69, 1. Pennsylvania State Police. See sketch of Katherine Mayo.

2. I. W. W. Industrial Workers of the World, a revolutionary labor
organization. The members have given much trouble by their extreme
views, such as eternal war against their employers. They believe that
they should organize as a class and take possession of the earth,
abolishing the wage system.

70, 1. Blue ribbon. A sign of distinction; a blue ribbon worn by a
horse at a horse show denotes that he has won the first prize.

2. Atlantis. A mythical island of vast extent mentioned by Plato and
other ancient writers and placed by them in the distant unknown West.

72, 1. Two by twelves. A plank two inches thick by twelve inches wide.

* * * * *

MYRA KELLY (Page 77)

Myra Kelly, who later became Mrs. Allan Macnaughton, was born in
Dublin, Ireland, in 1876 and died in England in 1910. She lived almost
all of her short life, however, in New York City. Here she was educated
in the public schools and at Teachers College, Columbia University.

She was an American teacher and author. She taught in the New York
public schools from 1899 to 1901 and at Teachers College in 1902 and
1903. She first became known by her stories of children in the primary
schools of New York City. She wrote chiefly of the children of the East
Side, with whom she had had first-hand experience, while teaching in
the public schools. Her stories give the Yiddish dialect inimitably and
they show a fine, wise tolerance as well as a shrewd knowledge of child
character.

Mrs. Macnaughton's published volumes include _Little Citizens_, _Wards
of Liberty_, _Rosnah_, _Little Aliens_, _New Faces_, and _Her Little
Young Ladyship_. The story "Friends," presented in this collection, is
taken from _Little Aliens_.

_Little Aliens_ contains nine stories, of which the settings are all in
the homes of the children. Most of the stories in her first volume,
_Little Citizens_, have their settings in the schools. The stories
reveal a rich humor, an underlying pathos, a deep understanding of
child nature, and a full grasp of the conditions with which all aliens,
big or little, must contend.

Friends

77, 1. Friends. The dialect spoken by the child in this story is the
American adaptation of the Yiddish, which is a German dialect spoken by
the Jews of eastern Europe, containing many Hebrew and Slav
expressions.

78, 1. Board of Monitors. A group of children appointed by the pupils
to help the teacher in various ways.

79, 1. Krisht. Christian.

82, 1. Rabbi. A Jewish title for a teacher or interpreter of the law,
also a pastor of a Jewish congregation. Kosher law refers to special
Jewish laws. The laws regarding food specify how animals must be
slaughtered in order that the meat may be ceremonially clean.

89, 1. Vis-a-vis. Opposite to one another.

* * * * *

HAMLIN GARLAND (Page 97)

Hamlin Garland is a poet and novelist, whose stories are set mostly in
the Middle West. He was born in 1860 on a farm near the present site of
West Salem, Wisconsin. In 1869 his family moved out on the prairie of
Mitchell County, Iowa, the scene of his _Boy Life on the Prairie_, and
of many of the stories in _Main-Traveled Roads_. The selection, "A
Camping Trip," given in this volume, is taken from _Boy Life on the
Prairie_.

Mr. Garland's education was different from that of most of his
contemporaries. When about sixteen, he became a pupil at the Cedar
Valley Seminary, Osage, Iowa, though he worked on a farm during six
months of the year. He graduated in 1881 from this school and for a
year tramped through the eastern states. His people having settled in
Brown County, Dakota, he drifted that way in the spring of 1883 and
took up a claim in McPherson County, where he lived for a year on the
unsurveyed land, making studies of the plains country, which were of
great value to him later. _The Moccasin Ranch_ and several of his short
stories resulted from this experience.

In the fall of 1884 he sold his claim and returned to the East, to
Boston, intending to qualify himself for teaching. He soon found a
helpful friend in Professor Moses True Brown, and became a pupil, and a
little later an instructor, in the Boston School of Oratory. During
years from 1885 to 1889 he taught private classes in English and
American literature, and lectured in and about Boston on Browning,
Shakespeare, the drama, etc., writing and studying meanwhile in the
public library. In Boston he made the acquaintance of Oliver Wendell
Holmes, William Dean Howells, Edward Everett Hale, Edwin Booth, and
other leaders in literature and art.

Mr. Garland wrote his stories from first-hand experience with men under
certain typical American conditions. His stories of _Boy Life on the
Prairie_ and of _Main-Traveled Roads_ are grim stories of farm life in
the West. They portray the conditions under which people lived on the
prairies only a generation or two ago. He shows us that men may become
true and strong because of their battle with such conditions. His books
are as truly American as any our country has produced.

As a writer of literature, these books show Mr. Garland to be a
realist, that is, a writer who deals with the facts of real life, but
as you read _Boy Life on the Prairie_, you will see that he is fond of
the ideal, of the fanciful, and of descriptions of simple rural scenes.
The latter quality is very plain, when he writes of the birds and of
the thrill of the open country that comes to the boys on their camping
trip.

A Camping Trip

100, 1. A prairie schooner. A long canvas-covered wagon used especially
by emigrants crossing the prairies.

105, 1. Skimmer-bugs. Bugs that skip or glide over the surface of the
water.

111, 1. Luff. To turn the head of a vessel towards the wind.
Hard-a-port is a direction given to the helmsman, meaning to put the
helm quickly to the port or left side.

* * * * *

DOROTHY CANFIELD FISHER (Page 114)

Dorothea Canfield, the author of "A Thread Without a Knot," is one of
the most brilliant and forceful writers in America to-day. She was born
in Lawrence, Kansas, in 1879. The daughter of a teacher and writer, her
education was intensive and varied. As a child she learned to speak
several languages. She received her B.A. from Ohio State University and
a Ph. D. from Columbia University. She has studied and traveled
extensively in Europe as well as in America.

Both as a person and as a writer, Dorothea Canfield has been
extraordinarily well liked. As an author she is characterized by
originality, clearness, and the vital quality of human sympathy. She
always writes with a purpose, both in her works of fiction and in her
educational writings. The writer's own ideals and common sense are
revealed in her work and her stories are thoroughly interesting. Under
the name, Dorothy Canfield, she has written some notable fiction. _The
Bent Twig_ is a graphic American novel in which are portrayed the
influences of environment upon a most interesting character.
_Understood Betsy_ is a girl's story of warm sympathy and strong common
sense. _The Real Motive_ is a volume of short stories from which the
story, "A Thread Without a Knot," is taken. The stories in the volume
range in their settings from Paris to a middle western university town.
As the title suggests, they are studies in human motives.

Under her married name, Dorothea Canfield Fisher, she has written some
valuable educational works, as _The Montessori Mother_ and _Mothers and
Children_. During the World War, Mrs. Fisher spent her time in France
working for the relief of those made blind by the war. _Home Fires in
France_ and _The Day of Glory_ are truthful records of Mrs. Fisher's
impressions of life in that tragic, mutilated land.

A Thread without a Knot

114, 1. Doctor's dissertation. Before a student can obtain the highest
degree a university gives, the doctor's degree, he must write a
dissertation, that is, a formal and elaborate essay on some original
research work he has done. The degree Mr. Harrison was working for was
that of Doctor of Philosophy, or Ph. D.

2. Archives. A place where public records and historical documents are
kept.

116, 1. Munich. A city in Germany where one of the largest and oldest
German universities is located.

2. Treaty of Utrecht. A treaty of peace in 1713 which concluded the war
of the Spanish succession, a war fought by most of the other countries
of Europe against the armies of France and Spain.

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