ontains the
same mixture of romance and nature interest as the others, and is
modelled on the same plan of introducing nature objects peculiar to the
location, and characters, many of whom are from life, typical of the
locality at a given period. The first thing many critics said of it was
that "no such people ever existed, and no such life was ever lived." In
reply to this the author said: "Of a truth, the home I described in
this book I knew to the last grain of wood in the doors, and I painted,
it with absolute accuracy; and many of the people I described I knew
more intimately than I ever have known any others. TAKEN AS A WHOLE IT
REPRESENTS A PERFECTLY FAITHFUL PICTURE OF HOME LIFE, IN A FAMILY WHO
WERE REARED AND EDUCATED EXACTLY AS THIS BOOK INDICATES. There was such
a man as Laddie, and he was as much bigger and better than my
description of him as a real thing is always better than its
presentment. The only difference, barring the nature work, between my
books and those of many other writers, is that I prefer to describe and
to perpetuate the BEST I have known in life; whereas many authors seem
to feel that they have no hope of achieving a high literary standing
unless they delve in and reproduce the WORST.

"To deny that wrong and pitiful things exist in life is folly, but to
believe that these things are made better by promiscuous discussion at
the hands of writers who FAIL TO PROVE BY THEIR BOOKS that their
viewpoint is either right, clean, or helpful, is close to insanity. If
there is to be any error on either side in a book, then God knows it is
far better that it should be upon the side of pure sentiment and high
ideals than upon that of a too loose discussion of subjects which often
open to a large part of the world their first knowledge of such forms
of sin, profligate expenditure, and waste of life's best opportunities.
There is one great beauty in idealized romance: reading it can make no
one worse than he is, while it may help thousands to a cleaner life and
higher inspiration than they ever before have known."

Mrs. Porter has written ten books, and it is not out of place here to
express her attitude toward them. Each was written, she says, from her
heart's best impulses. They are as clean and helpful as she knew how to
make them, as beautiful and interesting. She has never spared herself
in the least degree, mind or body, when it came to giving her best, and
she has never considered money in relat