SHORT STORIES OF THE NEW AMERICA SELECTED AND EDITED BY MARY A. LASELLE - act. OF THE NEWTON, MASSACHUSETTS, HIGH SCHOOLS NEW YORK HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY 1919 PREFACE THE purpose of this book of short stories of modern American life is twofold. First, these narratives give an interpretation of certain great forces and movements in the life of this age. All the authors represented are especially quali fied to describe with force and feeling some phase of contemporary life. Thinking people everywhere real ize that it is not enough to place before young folks the bare facts in regard to community and national life. The heart must be warmed, the feelings must be stirred, before the will can be aroused to noble action in any great movement. The first aim of this book, then, is to help to place clearly before young people the ideals of America through the medium of literature that will grip the attention and quicken the will to action. Second librarians have stated that there are very few compilations of modem short stories of interest and significance with which to meet the needs of young people who turn to the libraries for help in reading. It is hoped that this book may supply the need of libraries and homes for a book of live and valuable short stories. CONTENTS Page I. A LITTLE KANSAS LEAVEN. Canfidd i II. THE SURVIVORS. Singmaster 43 III. THE WILDCAT. Terhune 55 IV. THE CITIZEN. Dwyer 85 V. THE INDIAN OF THE RESERVATION. Coohdge 109 VI. THE NIGHT ATTACK. Pier 119 VII. THE PATH OF GLORY Pufoer . . . 133 VIII. SERGT. WARREN COMES BACK FROM FRANCE. Ames, , 171 IX THE COWARD. Empey 181 X. CHATEAU-THIERRY. Sartlett 199 SOMETHING ABOUT THE AUTHORS AND THE STORIES DOROTHY CANFIELD DorotheaFrances Canfield Fisher, the author of Home Fires in France from which A Little Kansas Leaven was taken, is one of the most convincing and brilliant writers of the times. She always writes with a purpose, but as all of her work is characterized by originality, clearness, and the vital quality of human sympathy, there is not a dull line in any of her fiction or her educational writings. Home Fires in France is a truthful record of Mrs. Fishers impressions of life in tragic, devastated France during the Great War. During much of this period the author was working for the relief of those made blind by war. The tremendous appeal to America made by this book testifies to the sincerity and the genius of the author. Dorothy Canfield was born in Lawrence, Kansas, in 1879. She obtained degrees from Ohio State Uniyer sity and from Columbia and studied and traveled abroad extensively, becoming an accomplished linguist. She is the author, under the name of Dorothy Can field, of some of the most brilliant fiction of the day, The Squirrel-Cage, The Bent Twig, and other novels, and under her married name, Dorothy Canfield Fisher, viii THE AUTHORS AND THE STORIES of some valuable educational works, The Montessori Mother, Mothers and Children, and other books of pro gressive ideas in education. Mrs. Fisher is now in France 1918 carrying on her work of mercy for the French soldiers and their families. ELSIE SINGMASTER Mrs. Harold Lewars lives in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and has written most en tertaining stories of that historic region and also of the life of the descendants of the Dutch settlers of Pennsylvania. Among her many stories are When Sarah Saved the Day, The Christmas Angel, The Flag ofEliphalet, and Stories of the Red Harvest and the After math. This author is a frequent contributor to maga zines. In The Survivors we watch the conflict in the breast of stubborn old Adam Foust and rejoice with tears in our eyes when in the time of his friends need, love conquers, and Adam and Henry march arm-in arm down the village street. The story is told with the realism and beauty that characterize all of this authors work, much of which describes the everyday happenings of commonplace people with absolute fidelity...