wished me to write humorous stories, I was truly rejoiced.  My first venture in this line was Rudder Grange.  And, after all, I had difficulty in getting the series published in book form.  Two publishers would have nothing to do with them, assuring me that although the papers were well enough for a magazine, a thing of ephemeral nature, the book-reading public would not care for them.  The third publisher to whom I applied issued the work, and found the venture satisfactory.”

The book-reading public cared so much for this book that it would not remain satisfied with it alone.  Again and again it demanded of the author more about Pomona, Euphemia, and Jonas.  Hence The Rudder Grangers Abroad and Pomona’s Travels.

The most famous of Mr. Stockton’s stories, The Lady or the Tiger?, was written to be read before a literary society of which he was a member.  It caused such an interesting discussion in the society that he published it in the Century Magazine.  It had no especial announcement there, nor was it heralded in any way, but it took the public by storm, and surprised both the editor and the author.  All the world must love a puzzle, for in an amazingly short time the little story had made the circuit of the world.  Debating societies everywhere seized upon it as a topic; it was translated into nearly all languages; society people discussed it at their dinners; plainer people argued it at their firesides; numerous letters were sent to nearly every periodical in the country; and public readers were expounding it to their audiences.  It interested heathen and Christian alike; for an English friend told Mr. Stockton that in India he had heard a group of Hindoo men gravely debating the problem.  Of course, a mass of letters came pouring in upon the author.

A singular thing about this story has been the revival of interest in it that has occurred from time to time.  Although written many years ago, it seems still to excite the interest of a younger generation; for, after an interval of silence on the subject of greater or less duration, suddenly, without apparent cause, numerous letters in relation to it will appear on the author’s table, and “solutions” will be printed in the newspapers.  This ebb and flow has continued up to the present time.  Mr. Stockton made no attempt to answer the question he had raised.

We both spent much time in the South at different periods.  The dramatic and unconsciously humorous side of the negroes pleased his fancy.  He walked and talked with them, saw them in their homes, at their “meetin’s,” and in the fields.  He has drawn with an affectionate hand the genial, companionable Southern negro as he is—­or rather as he was—­for this type is rapidly passing away.  Soon there will be no more of these “old-time darkies.”  They would be by the world forgot had they not been embalmed in literature by Mr. Stockton, and the best Southern writers.