e. The plot and plan of the story were clear in my mind; and
the moral of it, which was not to be paraded in set terms, was even
more clearly defined than the plot and plan.

Circumstances prevented the carrying out of this purpose, and the
story was not written at that time. Several years afterwards, my
publishers, after the issue of a tolerably successful book of mine
for grown-up people,--for I had written a great many stories,
though none for young people,--asked me to write a juvenile book. I
assured them I could not do it; I had never attempted anything of
the kind. The publishers insisted, and finally I promised to see
what I could do. I had but little faith in my ability in this
direction; but the plot and plan of the story I had arranged for my
Sunday-school class came back to me, and I went to work upon it.
The result of my efforts was "The Boat Club."

When I began to write stories for the young I had a distinct
purpose in my mind. How well I remember the books I read, unknown
to my parents, when I was a boy! They were "The Three Spaniards,"
"Alonzo and Melissa," "The Mysteries of Udolpho," "Rinaldo
Rinaldini," "Freemantle the Privateersman," and similar works, not
often found at the present time on the shelves of the booksellers,
though I am sorry to say that their places have been filled with
books hardly less pernicious. The hero of these stories was a
pirate, a highwayman, a smuggler, or a bandit. He was painted in
glowing colors; and in admiring his boldness, my sympathies were
with this outcast and outlaw. These books were bad, very bad;
because they brought the reader into sympathy with evil and wicked
men. It seemed to me that stories just as interesting, just as
exciting if you please, could be written, without any of the evil
tendencies of these harmful books. I have tried to do this in the
stories I have written for young people. I have never written a
story which could excite the love, admiration, and sympathy of the
reader for an evil-minded person, a bad character. This has been my
standard; and however others may regard it, I still deem it a safe
one. I am willing to admit that I have sometimes been rather more
"sensational" than I now wish I had been; but I have never made a
hero whose moral character, or whose lack of high aims and
purposes, could mi