'd. Crown 8vo 1.50

FROM VAN-DWELLER TO COMMUTER. Illustrated. Post 8vo 1.50

LIFE OF THOMAS NAST. Illustrated. 8vo _net_ 5.00

* * * * *

HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS, N. Y.

Copyright, 1898, by JAMES GORDON BENNETT
Copyright, 1899, by FRANK MUNSEY
Copyright, 1899, by THE CENTURY CO.
Copyright, 1898, 1899, 1901, by ROBERT HOWARD RUSSELL
Copyright, 1900, by HARPER & BROTHERS

Acknowledgments are due to the New York _Herald_, _The Puritan_,
_Harper's Bazar_, and _The Century Magazine_, in which periodicals these
stories were originally printed.

TO FRIENDS, OLD AND NEW

I suppose the very best pay that ever comes to anyone who writes a book
is to know that the ones he wrote it for really like it. When they like
it well enough to write and tell him so, though they have never seen
him, and perhaps never will, then he feels very proud indeed, and happy.
Perhaps he even looks at himself in the looking-glass to make sure he is
really the one who did it, though of course he wouldn't have anyone see
him doing it, or think him vain, for anything.

The publisher is only going to let me print one of the ever-so-many nice
letters that have come for the man who wrote the Hollow Tree stories and
the other man who drew the pictures for them. So I've picked out one
that is for both of us, and that is signed by three, which makes it
equal to six letters, three for each of us, and as nice letters as
anyone who writes books for other folks to read could ever wish to have.

NEW YORK CITY, 107 SIXTY-NINTH STREET, EAST,
_Oct. 18th, 1900_.

DEAR MR. PAINE:

Won't you please write another book about the 'Coon and the
'Possum and the old black Crow? We know these two by heart,
now. We like that story about the "Rain In The Night"
because that is the way we do when there is a thunderstorm.
_Please_ write some more and make them friends with poor Mr.
Dog, and we want Mr. Conde to draw the pictures, too.

Your sincere friends,
AMY C. HUTTON,
JACK HUTTON, JR.,
M. KATHERINE HUTTON.

Don't you think that is a very nice letter to get? I am sure no one
could be blamed for taking just one little look in the glass after that,
or for trying to "write another book" to please readers who have learned
the others "by heart."

But, dear me, it couldn't be done, because you see there were only