eth Stuar

tes Ajar," "A Sin

"THE TENTH OF JANUARY."-WHITTIER AND HIGGINSON.

and a slow, delicious drive in the family carryall through sand flats and pine woods, and past the largest bed of the sweetest violets that ever dared the blasts of a New England spring. To the pages of the gazetteer Lawrence would have been known as a manufacturing town of importance. Upon the map of our young fancy the great mills were sketched in lightly; we looked up from the restaurant ice-cream

; but this was an idle, ?sthetic pleasure. We did not think about the mill-people; they seemed as far from us as the coal-miners of a vague West, or the down-gatherers on the crags of shores whose name

hands being at the time on duty, withou

spot in the too thin wall of the pillar had bided its time, and yielded. The roof, the walls, the machinery, fell upon seven hundred and fifty living men and women, and buried them. Most of

red and awful glare went up. The mill had taken fire. A lantern, overturned in the hands of a man who was groping to save an imprisoned life, h

souls took courage from the familiar sound of one another's voices. They sang the hymns and songs which they had learned in the schools and churches. No classical strains, no "music for music's sake," ascended from that furnace; no

gather at

alk and wo

eneath the glare of the burning mills, and it was l

e other people; but no more than that. My brother, being of the privi

ced negative came back to form under the chemical of s

use of it, and little enough about art. We did not talk about realism then. Of critical phraseology I knew nothing; and of critical standards only what I had observed by reading

remove of time which might give the data. I visited the rebuilt mills, and studied the machinery. I consulted engineers and officials and physicians, newspaper men, and persons who had been in the mill at the time of its fall. I scoured the files of old local papers, and from these I took certa

ibly be now to any reader, because it distinctly marked for m

t thing which goes so far towards keeping the courage of young writers above sinking point, and which, to a self-distrustful nature, may be little less than a life-preserver. Both have done similar k

d numbness down one's spine and through the top of one's head, which exceptional tragedy must produce in any sensitive organization; nor can I ever trust myself to hear it

ees in the wonderful Andover Junes, and "noticing" new books-with which Boston publishers kept me supplied. For whatever reason, the weeklies gave me all I could do at this sort of thing. In its course I formed some pleasant acquaintances; among others that of Jean Ingelow. I

this book, that perhaps I need crave no pardon of whatever readers these papers may command, for giving mo

oved from the usual class of emotions or motives which move men and women to write, as Wachusett was from the June lilies burning beside the moonlit cross in my father's garden. Lit

of inspiration, whether what is called spiritualistic, or of any other sort. I have always promptly said "No," t

ll the complete unconsciousness of the young author as to their probable nature, there are mom

's self which makes for uses in which one's self is extinguished, that there are times when it seems to me as if I had no m

unto me "Writ

1869. My impressions are that it may have been towards the close of 1864 that the work began; for there was work i

-school books and hack work occupied from one to two years without interruption; but I have no more temperament for dates in my own affairs th

was dark with sorrowing women. The regiments ca

red men kept invisible march to the drum-beats, and lifted to the stained and tat

t the grave of the boy whose enviable fortune it was to be brought home in time to die in his mother's room. Towards the nameless mounds of Arlington, of Gettysburg

invisible flow covers all the little resistance of common, human joyousness. It is like a material

suppose that incredible privilege possible-of the women whose misery crowded the land. The smoke of their torment ascended, and the sky was blackened by it. I do not think I thought so much about the suffering of men-the fathers, the brothers, the sons-

knows how to comfort his own daughter when her heart is broken? What can the doctrines do for the desolated by death? They were chains of rusty iron, eating into raw hearts. The prayer of the preacher were not much better; it sounded like the language of an unknown race to a

lass. I was reared in circles which did not concern themselves with what we should probably have called agitators.

a purely selfish, personal way, beyond which I had evolved neither theory nor conscience;

ghts and feeling, and came to the writing of my little book, not ignorant of what had been written for and by the mourning.

rude and young as it looks to me now; and often as I have wondered, from my soul, why it has known the history that it has, I have at least a certain respect for it, myself, in that it did not r

youth to give. I wrote and rewrote. The book was revised so many times that I could have said it

little room whose one window looked upon the garden cros

who always moved the sods beneath him and the skies above him to care for a sick child, had managed to insert a little stove into the room, to soften its chill when needed. But I did not ha

table, or in the corner by the register, that it should occur to any member

mal luxuries. I therefore made the best of my condit

about the grounds, chasing each other through the large house, up and down the cellar stairs, and through the wide halls, a whirlwind of vigor and fun. They were merry, healthy boys, and everything was done to keep them so. I sometimes doubt if there are any happier children growing anywhere than the boys and girls of Andover used to be. I was very fond of the boys, and cherished no objection to their

preaching? It certainly was the one s

rnamented with Bible and hymn-books, confronted them; behind it, on a cricket, towered the bigger brother, loudly holding forth. The little brother represented the audience-it was usually

ttle minister, "is, 'Suffer the

; Joseph; and Moses

ndeed, strike me; for I remembered an old fur cape, or pelisse, of my mother's, out of fashion, but the warmer for that

to the attic, or into some unfrequented closet, to escape the noise of the house, while at work. I rememb

The girl who is never "domestic" is trial enough at her best. She cannot cook; she will not sew. She washes dishes Mondays and Tuesdays under protest, while the nurse and parlor maid are called off from their natural avocations, and dusts the drawing-room with obedient resentment. She

this elemental fact; but her eyes wander away to the cold sky above the Andover mud, with passionate entreaty. To this day I cannot hear the thick chu-chunk! of heavy wheels on March mud wi

writer, no person was in any fault. They were doubtless good for me, in their way. We all know that some of the greatest of brain-workers have selected the poorest and bares

room of his son at Harvard College. The friend was a man of plain life, but of rich mental ach

ather, "don't you think

gentle candor, "you'll never r

grew one thing for which I have all my life been

often interrupted a regimen of study which ought to have been more continuous; but, so far as I may venture to offer an opini

nothing (so far as I can rememb

e the consequences of its publication ever occurred to my fancy. But I did distinctly understand that I had s

nd at that time the illness which condemned him to thirty years of invalid suffering was beginning to make itself manifest. I can remember more often throwing down my pen to fly out and beg the children to be quiet in the garden while the sleepless man s

se existence I have admitted, had qu

pathy and interest were unfailing, and his criticism only too ge

as a verb, instead of its proper synonym, "approaches." He read the dedication quietly, thanked me tenderly for it, and said nothing. It was left for me to find out my blunder for myself, as I did, in du

ntic" and "Our Young Folks," I did not come as quite a stranger. Still, the fate of the book hung upon a delicate scale. It was two years from the time the sto

the reading of the manuscript. "Take it," she said at last, decidedly; and the fiat went forth. The lady afterwards became a personal friend, and I

head spin. I had lived among book-makers too much to expect the miracle

experience being so far from my first of its kind. The usual note of thanks was returned to the publishers, and quiet fell again. Unco

e, who was the quickest of men to do a kindness, and surest to give to young writers the encouragi

ke pleasure in sending you-" He enclosed a check for six hundred dollars, the largest sum on which I had

the courteous and generous house on wh

RIAL

D DOLLARS FOR

s by eminent authors, but we should like to get more good stories from writers whose fame is yet to be made. We therefore announce a liberal policy in regard to paym

sand words in length, and not less than fifty stories a year for young people, about two thousand words in length. Of these stories thir

intention to report upon every manuscript within a week after it is received. We al

S "EARLY LIF

out of print, and the "Early Life of Lincoln" was published mainly to meet a demand we could not fill with the magazine. It contains a great deal more, both in text and pictures, than appeared

'S NEW "LIF

securing the collaboration of Mr. Hamlin Garland to write this life of Grant. Mr. Garland was selected for this work for two reasons-first, he has always loved and admired Grant; second, he is familiar in general with the conditions of life in the m

sh the best Life of

our "Life of Lincoln." Every one who has a contribution, either in picture or incident, to our knowledge of this great man ought to

URES OF

tographs are of the greatest value in adding to our knowledge of Lincoln. We hope to reach one h

SCHOOL OF SCIENCE

debate the students carried a banner on which was inscribed "Knox for Lincoln." In April, 1860, before he was nominated for the Presidency, Knox College conferred the degree of LL.D. on Abraham Lincoln. At their recent midwinter m

d opportunity to young men and women of limited means. The editors of this magazine can afford to pay the living expenses and tuition for one year at this co

owing that students who go there will live under the best possible influences and receive a sound educa

NCOLN'S PARENTS WERE

by mistake to the Oldroyd collection. The photograph from which the reproduction was made came from the Oldroyd collection; but this photograp