the simplest and most
dusty elements in life, and it is my belief that it is along the lines
of his method and that of Miss Babcock that America is most likely
eventually to contribute something distinctively national to the world's
literary culture.

11. THE MISTRESS by _Fleta Campbell_ (Harper's Bazar) is a most highly
polished and sharply outlined story of the war. It makes an art out of
coldness in narration which serves to emphasize and bring out by
contrast the human warmth of the story's substance.

12. THE FOUNDLING by _Gunnar Cederschioeld_ (Collier's Weekly). Readers
who recall the fine series of stories by Alden Brooks published during
the past two years in Collier's Weekly and the Century Magazine will
find in "The Foundling" a story equally memorable as a ruthless
portrayal of the effects of war. Whether one approves or disapproves in
general of the ending is irrelevant in this case. This story must take
its place as one of the best dozen stories of the war.

13. BOYS WILL BE BOYS, 14. THE FAMILY TREE, and 15. QUALITY FOLKS by
_Irvin S. Cobb_ (all in the Saturday Evening Post). It is seven years
since Irvin Cobb published his first short story, "The Escape of Mr.
Trimm," in the Saturday Evening Post. During that short period he has
passed from the position of an excellent journalist to that of
America's most representative humorist, in the truer meaning of that
word. Upon him the mantle of Mark Twain has descended, and with that
mantle he has inherited the artistic virtues and the utter inability to
criticize his own work that was so characteristic of Mr. Clemens. But
the very gusto of his creative work has been shaping his style during
the past two years to a point where he may now fairly claim to have
mastered his material, and to have found the most effective human
persuasiveness in its presentation. Our grandchildren will read these
three stories, and thank God that there was a man named Cobb once born
in Paducah, Kentucky.

16. LAUGHTER (Harper's Magazine), and 17. OUR DOG (Pictorial Review) by
_Charles Caldwell Dobie_. The rapid rise of Mr. Dobie in less than two
years from the date when his first short story was published challenges
comparison with the similar career of Maxwell Struthers Burt. As Mr.
Burt's art has its analogies with that of Mrs. Gerould, so Mr. Dobie's
art has its analogies with that of Wilbur Daniel Steele. I am not
certain that Mr. Dobie's talent is not essentially that of a