Short Stories of Various Types, by Various, the Project Gutenberg Ebook, Short Stories of Various Types, by Various, Edited by Laura F
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Short Stories of Various Types, by Various, The Project Gutenberg eBook, Short Stories of Various Types, by Various, Edited by Laura F. Freck This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restr ictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms o f the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenb erg.org Title: Short Stories of Various Types Author: Various Editor: Laura F. Freck Release Date: March 15, 2007 [eBook #20831] Language: English Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 ***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SHORT STORIES OF VARIOUS TYPES*** E-text prepared by Suzanne Lybarger, Brian Janes, and the Project Gutenberg Onli ne Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustrations. See 20831-h.htm or 20831-h.zip: (http://www.gutenberg.n et/dirs/2/0/8/3/20831/20831-h/20831-h.htm) or (http://www.gutenberg.net/dirs/2/0 /8/3/20831/20831-h.zip) Transcriber's Note: This text contains both footnotes and endnotes. The three footnotes are marked with an upper case letter (i.e., [A]). The endnotes are marked with both a page number and a note number (i.e., [126-1] ). Merrill's English Texts SHORT STORIES OF VARIOUS TYPES Edited with an Introduction and Notes by LAURA F. FRECK, Head of the English Department in the High School, Jamestown, Ne w York [Illustration: JAMES MATTHEW BARRIE] Charles E. Merrill Company New York and Chicago Merrill's English Texts This series of books includes in complete editions those masterpieces of English Literature that are best adapted for the use of schools and colleges. The edito rs of the several volumes are chosen for their special qualifications in connect ion with the texts issued under their individual supervision, but familiarity wi th the practical needs of the classroom, no less than sound scholarship, charact erizes the editing of every book in the series. In connection with each text, the editor has provided a critical and historical introduction, including a sketch of the life of the author and his relation to t he thought of his time, critical opinions of the work in question chosen from th e great body of English criticism, and, where possible, a portrait of the author . Ample explanatory notes of such passages in the text as call for special atten tion are supplied, but irrelevant annotation and explanations of the obvious are rigidly excluded. CHARLES E. MERRILL COMPANY Copyright, 1920 by Charles E. Merrill Co. TO THE TEACHER These stories have been chosen from authors of varied style and nationalities fo r use in high schools. The editor has had especially in mind students of the fir st 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 exper iences 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, wit h 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 cha racter; of nature; of realism; and of idealism. The settings give glimpses of th e far West, the middle West, the East, of several foreign countries, of great ci ties, of little villages, and of the open country. Each story should be read for the first time at a single sitting so that the pup il's mind may receive the single dramatic effect in its unity of impression as t he 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 arr ive 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 o f the introductory notes, as the teacher feels they are needed for the closer st udy 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 b y 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, a re 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. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Acknowledgment for permission to use the stories printed in this book is gratefu lly made to Doubleday, Page and Company for "The Gift of the Magi" from Stories of the Four Million by O. Henry; to Hamlin Garland for "A Camping Trip" from Boy Life on the Prairie, published by Harper and Brothers; to Henry Holt and Compan y for "A Thread without a Knot" from The Real Motive, by Dorothy Canfield Fisher ; to Charles Scribner's Sons for "Friends" from Little Aliens by Myra Kelly, and for the story, "American, Sir," by Mary Raymond Shipman Andrews; to Booth Tarki ngton for "A Reward of Merit" from Penrod and Sam. The stories by Katherine Mayo , Bret Harte, and Nathaniel Hawthorne are used by permission of, and by special arrangement with, Houghton Mifflin Company, the authorized publishers. Special acknowledgment should be made to Mr. Garland for so kindly revising the selection from Boy Life on the Prairie, to meet our needs; and to Mr. Carlson fo r the translation from the Swedish of Miss Lagerl?f's story. CONTENTS Page Introduction 7 I. O. Henry: The Gift of the Magi 11 II. Booth Tarkington: A Rewa rd of Merit 19 III. Mary Raymond Shipman Andrews: "American, Sir!" 48 IV. Kather ine Mayo: John G. 68 V. Myra Kelly: Friends 77 VI. Hamlin Garland: A Camping Tri p 97 VII. Dorothy Canfield Fisher: A Thread Without a Knot 114 VIII. Francis Bre t Harte: Chu Chu 141 IX. Nathaniel Hawthorne: Feathertop 173 X. Arthur Conan Doy le: The Red-Headed League 203 XI. James Matthew Barrie: The Inconsiderate Waiter 238 XII. Alphonse Daudet: The Siege of Berlin 266 XIII. Selma Lagerl?f: The Sil ver Mine 276 Notes 295 Suggested Reading List of Short Stories 317 Suggestions f or Study 321 INTRODUCTION The Short Story. In the rush of modern life, particularly in America, the short story has come to be the most popular type of fiction. Just as the quickly seen, low-priced moving picture show is taking the place of the drama, with the avera ge person, so the short stories that are found so plentifully in the numerous pe riodicals of the day are supplanting the novel. The short story may be read at a single sitting. It is a distinct type of litera ture; that is, it is not just a novel made short or condensed; it is in its inne r plan of a wholly different nature. It relates only some single important incid ent or a closely related series of events, taking place usually in a short space of time, and acted out by a single chief character. It is like a cross section of life, however, from which one may judge much of the earlier as well as the la ter life of the character. Its History. The idea of the short story is a decidedly modern conception. It wa s in the first half of the last century that Edgar Allan Poe worked out the idea that the short story should create a single effect. In his story, "The Fall of the House of Usher," for example, the single effect is a feeling of horror. In t he first sentence of the story he begins to create this effect by words that sug gest to the reader's imagination gloom and foreboding. This he consciously carri es out just as an artist creates the picture of his dreams with many skillful st rokes of his brush. Poe gave attention also to compressing all the details of th e plot of the story instead of expanding them as in a long story or novel. He be lieved, too, that the plot should be original or else worked out in some new way . The single incident given, moreover, should reveal to the imagination of the r eader the entire life of the chief character. Almost at the same time, Nathaniel Hawthorne, with a less conscious effort to create a single effect, based his ta les upon the same ideas, with a tendency towards romance. In the latter part of the nineteenth century, Guy de Maupassant, a French author without acquaintance with the work of the American writers, conceived the same idea of the short story, adding to it the quality of dramatic effect; that is, t he idea that the single main incident should appeal to the imagination of the re ader just as if it were a little play presented to him. Bret Harte followed in this country with short stories that brought out, less pr ecisely, the same idea of the short story, with the addition of local color, the atmosphere of California and the West.