who published much of her other work at the time, and
apparently was never published again. Shortly thereafter I found a copy
of her autobiography.

Kate Douglas Wiggin (nee Smith) was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,
on September 28, 1856. She was raised for the most-part in Maine, which
forms a backdrop to much of her fiction. She moved to California in
the 1870s, and became involved in the "free kindergarten" movement. She
opened the Silver Street Free Kindergarten in San Francisco, the first
free kindergarten in California, and there she worked until the late
1880s (meantime opening her own training school for teachers). Her first
husband, Samuel Wiggin, died in 1889. By then famous, she returned to
New York and Maine. She moved in international social circles, lecturing
and giving readings from her work. In 1895 she married for the second
time (to George Riggs).

At her home in San Francisco, overlooking the Golden Gate and Marin
County, she wrote her first book, "The Birds' Christmas Carol", to raise
money for her school. The book also proved to be her means of entrance
into publishing, translation, and travel in elite circles throughout
Europe. The book was republished many times thereafter, and translated
into several languages. In addition to factual and educational works
(undertaken together with her sister, Nora Archibald Smith) she also
wrote a number of other popular novels in the early years of the 20th
century, including "Rebecca", and "The Story of Waitstill Baxter"
(1913). She died in 1923, on August 23, at Harrow-on-Hill, England.

Beverly Seaton observed, in "American Women Writers", that Mrs. Wiggin
was "a popular writer who expressed what her contemporaries themselves
thought of as 'real life'" (p. 413). "The Village Watch-Tower" I think
is a perfect example of that observation; it captures vividly a few
frozen moments of rural America, right at the twilight of the 19th
century. Most of it was written in the village of Quillcote, Maine,
her childhood home--and certainly the model for the village of these
stories.

No attempt has been made to edit this book for consistency or to
update or "correct" the spelling. Mrs. Wiggin's spelling is somewhat
transitional between modern American and British spellings. The only
liberty taken is that of removing extra spaces in contractions. E.g.,
I have used "wouldn't" where the original has consistently "would
n't"; this is true for all such contractions w