These stories have been chosen from authors of varied style and
nationalities for use in high schools. The editor has had especially in
mind students of the first year of the high school or the last year of
the junior high school. The plots are of various types and appeal to
the particular interests and awakening experiences of young readers.
For instance, there will be found among these tales the detective story
by the inimitable Conan Doyle; the true story of adventure, with an
animal for the central figure, by Katherine Mayo; the fanciful story by
the great stylist Hawthorne; tales of humor or pathos; of simple human
love; of character; of nature; of realism; and of idealism. The
settings give glimpses of the far West, the middle West, the East, of
several foreign countries, of great cities, of little villages, and of
the open country.
Each story should be read for the first time at a single sitting so
that the pupil's mind may receive the single dramatic effect in its
unity of impression as the author desired, and more especially that the
pupil may enjoy the story first of all as a story, not as a lesson. The
pupil of this age, however, will not arrive at the other desirable
points to be gained unless he then studies each story with the help of
the study questions, of the related biographical sketch, and of the
introductory notes, as the teacher feels they are needed for the closer
study of the particular story.
The stories may be studied happily in connection with the student's
composition work. For example, when he has read an adventure story and
his mind is stirred by it, why not assign for his next composition, a
story of an adventure in which he has been interested or has figured?
The mechanics of composition, moreover, are more interestingly learned
in connection with an admired author's work.
It is to be hoped that the students may be led to read other stories by
the same and by different authors. A supplementary list of short
stories has been added to the book for this purpose.