Contents include: The Little Gold Miners of the Sierras by Joaquin Miller, A Modern hero by Marion Harland, Benny's Wigwam by Mary Catherine Lee, Benny's Disappearance by Mary Catherine Lee, How Two Schoolboys Killed a Bear by H. F. Marsh, Pete's Printing Press by Kate Gannett Wells, Aunt Elizabeth's Fence by George H. Hebard, The Button Boy by A. M. Griffin, Dan Hardy's Crippy by James Otis, His Three Trials by Kate Gannett Wells, In the Second Dormitory by John Preston True, The Doughnut Bait by George Varney and A Real Happening by Mary B. Claflin. The first work in the collection is by Joaquin Miller, which was the pen name of the colourful American poet, essayist and fabulist Cincinnatus Heine (or Hiner) Miller.