snarling and growling and choking cries of the maddened seals. As he
fell, they closed in upon him. His screams wheeled through the night
like mad birds. With desperate fury he struggled to free himself.
The great bull pinned him to the rock; a dozen others tore at his
white flesh, till his spouting blood made the rocks scarlet in the
white shine of the moon.
For a few seconds he still fought savagely, tearing with teeth and
hands. Once, a red irrecognisable mass, he staggered to his knees. A
wild cry burst from his lips, when from the shore-end of the reef
came loud and clear the lilt of the rune of his fate.
The next moment he was dragged down and swept from the reef into the
sea. As the torn and mangled body disappeared from sight, it was
amid a seething crowd of leaping and struggling seals, their eyes
wild with affright and fury, their fangs red with human gore.
And Gloom Achanna, turning upon the reef, moved swiftly inland,
playing low on his feadan, as he went.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
CRITICAL COMMENT
THE ADVENTURES OF SIMON AND SUSANNA
By JOEL CHANDLER HARRIS
NO one knows when story telling began. It is as old as the human
race. It goes beyond history into the unknown darkness of the past.
Some of the stories we still read originated far back in primitive
life. Such stories, that have been told for many years, and are
common to the race, we call “Folk-Lore” stories.
Every Folk-Lore story probably began in the simplest form. Something
happened,—and someone tried to tell about the event. If the story
was interesting enough to repeat, it gradually became exaggerated.
Thus the germ of _The Adventures of Simon and Susanna_ is the
common-enough story of a successful elopement in which the
cleverness of the young people,—of the girl in particular,—eluded
the pursuing father. Their means of making their escape must have
been quite ordinary, but when the story was told again and again,—if
this really is a Folk-Lore story, the cleverness was exaggerated and
gradually turned into magic.
In reading this story we come into close touch with the origin of
all story telling. We see one man, a common, ignorant man, telling a
story to an interested listener, and undoubtedly “putting in a few
extra touches” to make the story more wonderful. The primitive
stories must always have been presented orally, and at first to few
listeners. Then came the days of story tellers for the crowd, and
finally the written story.
The author of _The Adventures of Simon and Susanna_, Joel Chandler
Harris, retold many folk-lore stories. He was born in Georgia in
1848, and died there in 1908. He devoted all his mature life to
journalism and literature. His many books about Uncle Remus
presented that person so clearly that the good-natured negro story
teller has almost ceased to be merely a book-character, and has
become a living reality.
Every story that Mr. Harris wrote has plot interest, but it also has
pith and wisdom.
THE CROW-CHILD
By MARY MAPES DODGE
The ordinary “Fairy Story” is a developed form of the “Folk-Lore”
story. Instead of having the roughness, and naïve simplicity
characteristic of primitive ways of story telling it has polish, and
definite literary or moral purpose. It is not a mere wonder story
told in the first person by some definite individual, and made by
the exaggeration of an actual event. It is a written rather than a
spoken story, based, in the remote past, on some actual event, but
now told in the third person, and directed strongly to an artistic,
literary purpose,—frequently to a moral purpose. In every way the
best type of “Fairy Story” is a distinct advance towards developed
story telling.
_The Crow Child_ is not an actual “Fairy Story,” but it illustrates
remarkably well the way in which “Fairy Stories” developed. Every
event in _The Crow Child_ is strictly true, but much of the story
appears to be based on magic. A true story of this sort, told in
primitive times, and retold again and again, with new emphasis
placed on the elements of wonder, would have developed into a pure
story of wonder,—a “Fairy Story.”
The author of this original, and modern, “Fairy Story,” Mary Mapes
Dodge, was born in New York in 1838. For many years she was the
efficient editor of _St. Nicholas_, a young people’s magazine of the
highest type. In addition to her editorial work she wrote many books
for young people, the most famous being _Hans Brinker, or the Silver
Skates_. She died in 1905.
THE SOUL OF THE GREAT BELL
By LAFCADIO HEARN
Very often the earliest stories are not crude accounts of ordinary
events, exaggerated enough to be worthy of note. They are poetic
narratives founded on matters of deep significance in the life of a
people. All primitive people are poetic, because they see the world
through the eyes of emotion rather than of scientific understanding.
They also have an instinctive recognition of fundamental nobility.
Therefore we have such stories as the legends of Hiawatha, in which
an ideal man is presented, bringing benefit to his kind. Any story
that is handed down from generation to generation, and that presents
as facts matters that have no other verification, is legendary. The
highest type of legendary story is one that presents high ideals.
The Chinese, whose literature is exceedingly ancient, have always
been an idealistic people. It is not surprising that they should
create such an appealing legendary tale as _The Soul of the Great
Bell_. Although the elements are quite simple the story has been
turned from being a simple account of tragic self-sacrifice, and has
become an explanation of the music of the bell, as well as an
example of filial devotion. The preservation of such stories shows
natural appreciation of short story values.
The present rendering of _The Soul of the Great Bell_ undoubtedly
far surpasses the Chinese version. The story has been appropriately
introduced, amplified and given added poetic and dramatic effect by
careful choice of words, descriptive passages, suspense,
onomatopœia, and climax.
Lafcadio Hearn was born in 1850, of Irish and Greek parentage, in
Leucadia, of the Greek Ionian Islands. At 19 he came to America and
engaged in newspaper work, living at various times in New Orleans
and in New York. From 1891 until his death in 1904 he made his home
in Japan, where he became a Buddhist and a naturalized Japanese
citizen under the name of Yakumo Koizumi. He learned to know the
oriental peoples as few others have known them. His literary work is
marked by poetic treatment, and an atmosphere of the Orient. He
wrote _Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan_, _Out of the East_, _Some
Chinese Ghosts_, and many other books on oriental subjects.
=Ta-chung sz’.= Temple of the Bell. A building in Pekin, holding the
bell that is the subject of the story. The bell was made in the
reign of Yong-lo, about 1406 A. D. It weighs over 120,000 pounds,
and is the largest bell known to be in actual use.
=Kwang-chan-fu.= The Broad City. Canton.
THE TEN TRAILS
By ERNEST THOMPSON SETON
The fable and the proverb are much alike in that both are highly
condensed, and both are told to instruct. The short, direct, applied
narratives known as “Fables” are among the oldest ancestors of the
short story. Even in the most ancient times there were fables, those
of Æsop having been told perhaps as early as the sixth century, B.C.
Many familiar fables have animals for their characters, their known
characteristics needing no comment. Thus the fox and the wolf appear
frequently, their mere names suggesting traits of character. The
fable, as a type of wisdom literature, is always short, simple, and
emphatic. It always emphasizes marked human characteristics, and
usually ends with a “moral” that adds to the emphasis. The influence
of the fable helped to make the story short, condensed, vivid,
pointed, and based on character.
_The Ten Trails_ is a modern imitation of older fables. Its
directness, simplicity, clear story, and appended moral are
characteristic of the type.
Ernest Thompson Seton, born in England in 1860, has written many
stories in which he presents animal life with appealing sympathy. He
has devoted himself particularly to cultivating a love for outdoors
life, and for animate nature. _Wild Animals I Have Known_, _The
Biography of a Grizzly_, and similar books, are full of original
interest.
WHERE LOVE IS, THERE GOD IS ALSO
By COUNT LEO TOLSTOI
An allegory is a story that has an underlying meaning or moral. It
is in some ways an expanded fable, with the meaning understood
rather than presented. The chief difference between the “Fable” and
the “Allegory” lies in length and complexity of treatment, and in
the way of presenting the underlying meaning. The “Fable” is short
and usually appends the moral. The “Allegory” is usually long, and
tells the story in such a way that the reader is sure to grasp the
meaning without further comment. The purpose, as in the “Fable,” is
double,—to tell a story, and to teach a truth. All literatures have
numerous allegories, Spenser’s _Faerie Queene_, Bunyan’s _Pilgrim’s
Progress_, and Tennyson’s _Idylls of the King_ being notable
examples in English literature.
_Where Love Is, There God Is Also_ is an allegorical story of a
pleasing type that is often found in our present-day literature. The
story has such evident good humor, appreciation of the needs of
humble life, and such an unselfish spirit of sympathy that it
appeals to any reader. Its strong realism, effective plan, and
clear, emphatic presentation make the story one of the best of its
kind.
Count Leo Tolstoi, born at Yasnaya Polyana, in Russia, in 1828, and
dying at Astapovo in 1910, is one of the greatest and most
interesting figures in all modern literature. The story of his
career, with its surprising changes from the life of a nobleman to
that of a peasant, from a life given over to pleasure to a life
devoted to the moral uplift of a whole people, is even more
astonishing than any of the stories he told in his many works of
fiction. Student, soldier, traveler, lover of social life,
philosopher, reformer, and self-sacrificing idealist, he developed a
personality unique in the extreme, and became a world-wide influence
for good. His best known novels are _War and Peace_, and _Anna
Karenina_. In them, as in all that he wrote, the notable qualities
are realism, dramatic force, original thought, and courageous
expression of beliefs.
=Grivenki.= A grivenka is 10 copecks, or about five cents.
WOOD-LADIES
By PERCEVAL GIBBON
There is a strange fascination about the supernatural, for men of
all races instinctively believe that they are surrounded by a world
of good and evil that lies just beyond their touch. Some have
thought the woods and mountains peopled with unseen divinities;
others have believed in strange gnomes and dwarfs who are thought to
live in the depths of the earth; some have believed in pale ghosts,
specters that move by night, haunting the scenes of unattoned crime.
One of the most pleasing beliefs is that in fairies, or “Little
Folk,”—unseen, beautiful, and usually beneficent beings who live in
woodland places and are endowed with all powers of magic.
Stories of the unseen world that may lie about us have appeared in
all ages. Sometimes such stories have been beautiful and fanciful,
and sometimes filled with the spirit of fear. In the latter part of
the eighteenth century and the first of the nineteenth it became
quite the fashion to tell stories of ghosts and strange terrors.
Ernst Hoffmann and Ludwig Tieck in Germany set an example that was
followed by Washington Irving, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Edgar Allan
Poe in this country, as well as by many other writers since their
time.
There is another and more healthful attitude of mind. Instead of the
horror of Gothic romance it presents the fancy of Celtic thought. In
stories of this gentler type one does not feel that the unseen world
is wholly to be feared.
Such a story is _Wood-Ladies_, in which the spirit of Celtic fancy
has found full play. In this story everything is woodsy, delicate,
half-seen, as though one were treading the very edges of fairyland
without knowing it. Mother-love fills the whole story and gives it a
noble beauty. And yet, in a certain sense, the child, conscious of
another world, is wiser than the mother. A story of this sort,
dealing with the supernatural, rests the mind like sweet music.
Perceval Gibbon was born in Carmarthenshire in South Wales, in 1870.
He has spent much time in the merchant service on British, French,
and American vessels. He has done unusual work as war correspondent.
Among his literary works are _Souls in Bondage_, _The Adventures of
Miss Gregory_, _The Second Class Passenger_, and a collection of
Poems. His work is marked by originality, and a clever mastery of
technique.
ON THE FEVER SHIP
By RICHARD HARDING DAVIS
Love is so essential a part of life that it must also be a part of
literature; therefore romantic love has been a leading literary
theme for centuries. Some of the world’s greatest stories of love
flash into our minds when we repeat the names of Juliet, Rosalind,
Portia, Elaine, and Evangeline. Such stories suggest depth of
emotion, charm, womanly worth, pure and innocent love, or a love
that lasts beyond the years. In the days of chivalry the knight bore
his lady’s token, and fought in her honor. to-day men love just as
deeply, and fight for land and hearth and sweetheart just as truly
as men did in the long ago.
_On the Fever Ship_ is the story of a modern knight,—a soldier who
went into his country’s war, bearing in his heart the memory of one
he loved. When he is wounded, and lies fever-stricken on the deck of
a transport, he does not think at all of himself but only of the one
who is far away. That is the story, an abiding love in absence, with
dreams at last made true.
The author makes the story notably strong and tender. Without formal
introduction he presents the realistic picture of the fever
ship,—the inexplicable monotony, the dream-world, the child-likeness
of the wounded man’s life. Old scenes and faces come before the
wounded soldier in tantalizing dreams. Little by little the author
draws us closer into sympathy with the central figure. He makes us
share in the man’s intensity of feeling. We feel the force of the
strong episode of the somewhat unfeeling nurse, and become indignant
in the man’s behalf. Finally, lifted by the power of the story, we
rise with it into full comprehension of the depth of the hero’s
love. Then, quickly and with artistic effect, the story comes to an
end. Simply, surely, strongly, with real sentiment instead of
sentimentality, it has made us realize the all-powerful force of
love.
The story is written with much sympathy and evident tenderness of
spirit, and is so touched with real pathos, that it comes to us as a
transcription of some real story the author had found in his work as
war correspondent.
Richard Harding Davis was one of the most romantic figures in recent
literary life. As war correspondent he saw fighting in the
Spanish-American War, the Boer War, the Japanese-Russian War, and
the Great War. He traveled in all parts of Europe, in Central and in
South America, and in the little-visited districts of the Congo in
Africa. He saw the magnificent coronation ceremonies of the King of
Spain, the King of England, and the Czar of Russia. He attended
gorgeous state occasions in various lands. He also lived the hard
field and camp life of a soldier and an explorer.
He wrote a number of extraordinarily good short stories, several
stirring novels,—among which are _The King’s Jackal_, _Ransom’s
Folly_, _The White Mice_, and _The Princess Aline_,—several plays,
and a number of works of travel and war correspondence.
Richard Harding Davis was born in Philadelphia in 1864, and died in
New York in 1916.
=San Juan.= A fortified hill position in Cuba, near Santiago de
Cuba, captured in the Spanish-American War by the United States
soldiers July 1, 1898.
=Maitre d’hotel.= Chief attendant—head-waiter.
=Embankment.= The Thames Embankment, a noted part of London.
=Chasseur.= Footman.
=Numero cinq, sur la terrace, un couvert.= Number five, on the
terrace, one place.
=Baiquiri.= A landing place in Cuba near Santiago de Cuba. The
United States soldiers landed here, June 21-23, 1898.
=Tampa.= A seaport in Florida.
A SOURCE OF IRRITATION
By STACY AUMONIER
An interesting type of story shows an ordinary person in an
extraordinary situation. In _Robinson Crusoe_, for example, an
ordinary Englishman is left alone on an uninhabited island; in
Stockton’s _The Casting Away of Mrs. Lecks and Mrs. Aleshine_ two
good old New England women with little worldly experience are
wrecked on a mysterious island in the Pacific; in Howard Pyle’s _The
Ruby of Kishmore_ a peace-loving Philadelphia Quaker is suddenly
involved in a series of bloody encounters in the West Indies. Such
stories always arouse interest or develop humor by the astonishing
contrast between setting and characters, and they always emphasize
character by showing how it acts in unusual circumstances. Thus
_Robinson Crusoe_ at once attracts our interest and awakens
admiration for the hero.
_A Source of Irritation_ is especially clever in every way. There
could be no greater contrast than that between old Sam Gates’ usual
hum-drum, eventless life, and the sudden transfer to an aeroplane, a
foreign land, the trenches, battle, and the search for a spy. Very
rarely, too, is a character presented so emphatically as this
69-year-old gardener, with his irritable moods, his insistence on
the habits of a life-time, his stolidity, and his real manliness.
Equally rare is a story told so effectively, with just the proper
combination of realism and romance, with quick touches of comedy and
of tragedy, with a closeness to life that is indisputable, and a
romance that is unusual. In its every part the story is a
masterpiece of construction.
Stacy Aumonier is an Englishman of Huguenot descent.
=Swede.= A Swedish turnip.
=Shag.= A fine-cut tobacco.
“=Mare vudish.=” Merkwürdig, remarkable.
=A fearful noise.= The English made an attack on the German
aeroplane.
=Uglaublich.= Incredible.
=A foreign country.= Evidently Flanders.
=Boche.= German.
=G.H.Q.= General Head Quarters.
=Norfolk.= One of the eastern counties of England, bordering on the
North Sea.
MOTI GUJ—MUTINEER
By RUDYARD KIPLING
One of the pleasures of life is to travel and see the world. If we
are unable to travel far in reality we may at least see much of
strange lands through short stories of distant places and ways of
life different from the ordinary.
_Moti Guj—Mutineer_ is a story of life in India, of elephants and
mahouts and strange events. It has all the atmosphere of India,
given by half-humorous realistic touches that transport us from the
land of everyday. It is a story of animal life, told with an
intimate knowledge that shows close familiarity with “elephanthood.”
Beyond that, it has what every story must have,—close relation to
human character as we see it in any land at any time. Even the
elephant is made to act and to think as if he were a human being.
The humorous style, and the quickness with which the story is told,
as well as the vivid pictures it gives, are typical of its author’s
work.
Rudyard Kipling was born in Bombay, India, in 1865. After education
in England he became a sub-editor of a paper published in Lahore,
India, where he lived for some years, becoming intimate with all the
life of the land. He has lived at various times in India, the United
States, South Africa, and England. He has written a great number of
astonishingly clever stories, poems, and novels, all in quick,
vigorous style, with freedom from restraint, with rough realism, and
with genuine humor and pathos. Among his most notable books are:
_Plain Tales from the Hills_, _The Jungle Book_, _Captains
Courageous_, _The Day’s Work_, and _Puck of Pook’s Hill_.
=Arrack.= A fermented drink.
=Coir-swab.= A mop made from cocoanut fiber.
GULLIVER THE GREAT
By WALTER A. DYER
There is a wonderfully close sympathy between man and the animal
world,—a sympathy that is especially strong in the case of either
the horse or the dog, animals that are the close associates of man.
Ancient literature,—_The Bible_ and _The Odyssey_,—tell of the
faithfulness of the dog, man’s friend and protector. In recent times
writers have turned to the whole world of nature for subjects,—the
stag, the grizzly bear, the wolf, and other animals, but stories of
dogs still awaken interest and sympathy, and will continue to do so
as long as the faithfulness of dogs endures,—which is forever.
_Gulliver the Great_ is told in an interestingly suggestive manner,
every part of the story being rich with hints on which our
imaginations build. The pleasant calm of the setting adds much to
the effect. The man’s character is emphasized from the start, making
the story he tells have full meaning. The story is dramatic, but its
power rests far more on sympathy than on events. The art of the
story is in the clever way in which the almost human soul of the dog
is revealed, acting upon the soul of the man.
Walter A. Dyer was born in Massachusetts in 1878. Since his
graduation from Amherst College in 1900 he has been engaged in
editorial and other literary work. His natural fondness for dogs has
led to such books as _Pierrot: Dog of Belgium_, and _Gulliver the
Great_.
=Early Victorian comforts.= The comforts characteristic of the first
part of the reign of Queen Victoria of England, before city life
and commercial life were highly developed.
=Mr. Pickwick.= The humorous hero of Charles Dickens’ famous novel,
_Pickwick Papers_.
=James G. Blaine.= An American statesman, 1830-1893. He held many
high offices, and was once candidate for the Presidency.
=Simplicissimus.= A humorous and satirical German periodical.
=Brunos.= From the Latin “brunus”—brown. A name frequently given to
dogs.
=Moros.= The Malay inhabitants of certain islands of the
Philippines.
=Great Dane.= A type of dog noted for great size and graceful build.
=Vohl’s Vulcan.= A famous dog.
=Wurtemburg breed.= A well-known breed of dogs.
=Mauna Loa.= A noted Hawaiian volcano nearly 14,000 feet in height.
=Bulls of Bashan.= _The Bible_ makes frequent mention of the bulls
of Bashan, a section of Palestine east of the valley of the
Jordan.
SONNY’S SCHOOLIN’
By RUTH McENERY STUART
Laughter is a legitimate part of life, especially when it clarifies
the mind. The short story has seized upon all the elements of humor
and made them its own, especially the anecdote. Some writers have
used whimsical humor to give relief from sombre tales, or have told
stories lightly and fancifully humorous, like several in this book.
Others have written with broader effects. Every one of the many
types of humorous story is good.—the unusual situation, the
surprising climax, the fantastic character, the utter absurdity,—but
every type must follow the dictates of good taste. Humor need never
be coarse, or vulgar, or in any way aimed at personal satire. It may
criticize, but it must do so with friendly good will.
_Sonny’s Schoolin’_ is a series of connected anecdotes, told in
monologue. The humor of the anecdotes lies in their absurdity—in the
presence of Sonny every one is so helpless! Any modern teacher would
deal with Sonny in a way that he would understand. The humor of the
narration lies partly in the events, partly in the speaker’s naïve,
unconscious exposition of self, and partly in the amusing dialect.
Two qualities illuminate the story: one, the gradual presentation of
Sonny’s really lovable nature, seen to better advantage by the
father-and-mother-love behind it; the other, the gradual criticism
of the older system of education, and the suggestion of a type well
adapted to quick, active, original minds like Sonny’s.