, or event as harmonize with the emotional
character of the main situation. The necessity is most stringent, of
course, in the case of the short story, but it is a consideration to be
borne in mind in writing any type of fiction. It is merely another
aspect of the general question of preparation, which has been touched
upon before. The situations of a story must be prepared in a mechanical
sense, that is, the writer must prepare to place his people where each
situation demands that they be placed; the people themselves must be
developed and individualized, that the situations may have full dramatic
value; and the mind and heart of a reader of the story must be prepared
for the climax, which is the whole story in little.

If the main situation of any story is essentially tragic, it will never
do not to hint the fact until the climax is reached, when a reader will
be overwhelmed, rather than upborne and stimulated, by the torrent of
battle, murder, or sudden death. The opening scene of "Macbeth" presages
the lurid character of the whole play, and serves to key reader or
spectator for murder. Likewise, in the case of a story essentially light
and happy in content, the purpose of the writer is to develop and
present one of life's many attractive phases, and that purpose will be
defeated or at least hampered if woebegone people and unpleasant
situations are given place in the fiction.

Considerations of contrast may lead the writer to incorporate in his
story matter out of keeping with its general tone and main situation,
but the effort is really to emphasize the general tone by striking a few
discordant notes. Contrast is too delicate a matter to be discussed with
any profit; whether or not the device shall be employed in any story is
a problem that only the artistic sense of the writer of the particular
story can answer.

It is very easy to say that a story should be told so as to prepare a
reader for the climax, that he may accept it, yet, in a sense, the thing
can be achieved only by adequate practice of the whole art of fiction.
The general necessity is to make the whole course of events seem real
and actual; the more specific necessity is to give a reader a definite
clue to the nature of the story, that he may not be shocked into
disbelief by the climax. This must be done unobtrusively, as every other
technical device must be employed, under penalty of failing in its
office.

A quotation showing effective employmen