for themselves as short story writers, or even otherwise
in letters. American literature has always been strong in its "stray"
short stories of note. In Mr. Hastings' case, however, I feel that the
fame is sure to come. He graduated from Yale in 1902, collaborated
with Brian Hooker (1880- ) in a novel, _The Professor's Mystery_
(1911) and alone wrote another novel, _The Man in the Brown Derby_
(1911). His short stories include: _The New Little Boy_ (July, 1911,
_American_), _That Day_ (September, 1911, _American_), _The Pick-Up_
(December, 1911, _Everybody's_), and _Gideon_ (April, 1914,
_Century_). The last story stands out. It can be compared without
disadvantage to the best work, or all but the very best work, of
Thomas Nelson Page, it seems to me. And from the reader's standpoint
it has the advantage--is this not also an author's advantage?--of a
more modern setting and treatment. Mr. Hastings is, I have been told,
a director in over a dozen large corporations. Let us hope that his
business activities will not keep him too much away from the
production of literature--for to rank as a piece of literature,
something of permanent literary value, _Gideon_ is surely entitled.

ALEXANDER JESSUP.

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION
_Alexander Jessup_

THE LITTLE FRENCHMAN AND HIS WATER LOTS (1839)
_George Pope Morris_

THE ANGEL OF THE ODD (1844)
_Edgar Allan Poe_

THE SCHOOLMASTER'S PROGRESS (1844)
_Caroline M.S. Kirkland_

THE WATKINSON EVENING (1846)
_Eliza Leslie_

TITBOTTOM'S SPECTACLES (1854)
_George William Curtis_

MY DOUBLE; AND HOW HE UNDID ME (1859)
_Edward Everett Hale_

A VISIT TO THE ASYLUM FOR AGED AND DECAYED PUNSTERS (1861)
_Oliver Wendell Holmes_

THE CELEBRATED JUMPING FROG OF CALAVERAS COUNTY (1865)
_Mark Twain_

ELDER BROWN'S BACKSLIDE (1885)
_Harry Stillwell Edwards_

THE HOTEL EXPERIENCE OF MR. PINK FLUKER (1886)
_Richard Malcolm Johnston_

THE NICE PEOPLE (1890)
_Henry Cuyler Bunner_

THE BULLER-PODINGTON COMPACT (1897)
_Frank Richard Stockton_

COLONEL STARBOTTLE FOR THE PLAINTIFF (1901)
_Bret Harte_

THE DUPLICITY OF HARGRAVES (1902)
_O. Henry_

BARGAIN DAY AT TUTT HOUSE (1905)
_George Randolph Chester_

A CALL (1906)
_Grace MacGowan Cooke_

HOW THE WIDOW WON THE DEACON (1911)
_William James Lampton_

GIDEON (1914)
_Wells Hastings_

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

_The Nice People_, by Henry Cuyler Bunner, is republished from his
volume, _Short Sixes_, by permiss