possibility of telling a complete and symmetrical story within the compass of a few words. That is what the

short story aims to do. And therein chiefly it differs from the oldtime tale. The latter relates an episode in the life of one or more persons, and it is felt to be only an episode. The short story tries to combine with brevity of expression many of the elements of the long novel. It seizes upon what is characteristic or typical. If it is a single incident, it may be the great shaping power of a life, or it may be the crisis of one, the inevitable outcome of habit and character. It will be seen at once that success in this field will depend, more than upon anything else, upon the writer's mastery of the art of selection. The questions kept constantly before him will be, What more can I exclude and yet tell my story? How can I give a history in a chapter, a chapter in a sentence? make a word serve for a scene, a deed for a character? To grasp a situation at the climax and reproduce it for the reader without further explanation or eircumlocution that is the task.

The following are very good examples of what can be done in this line even by inexpert writers:

THE RIVALS.

There were two rivals in our class. It was near the close of the year and they had maintained nearly equal standing. We were taking the final examination in arithmetic. The last example was particularly hard. One of the rivals sat in front of me, the other just across the aisle.

The hour was drawing to a close and the boy in front of me had completed his paper. The boy opposite had worked rapidly till he came to the last example; then he hesitated, and stopped.

The hour was nearly up when the teacher left the room for a moment. From a few seats back came a loud whisper: "How

The boy

do you work the last?" The answer was given. opposite brightened up and leaned forward to complete his work. Then he hesitated, blushed, laid down his pen, and folded his paper. J. A. L.

IN THE CEMETERY.

A few Sundays since I strolled out to the cemetery. Here and there upon the mounds were seated groups of young girls talking and laughing loudly. A man, leading a smiling child, a little girl perhaps four years old, passed by with bowed head and approached a long newly made grave. The father knelt uncovered at its side. The little one glanced up with smiling wonderment, then knelt beside him. I looked again; the father had risen and before leaving was reverently replacing the dirt of the mound, where a careless foot had marred its symmetry. The child stopped, made a few similar gestures with a tiny hand, then turned with a satisfied smile to the father and they passed on. The laughing of the heedless groups jarred upon me and I walked

away.

A.

The above are single situations merely, and may not be pure fiction. But the short story may be much wider of scope, may be indeed a novel in miniature. The resources of this literary form have as yet been only partially developed by English and American writers. The reader who is interested in the subject is referred to the many short stories of Francis Bret Harte, Frank R. Stockton, Richard Harding Davis, Mary E. Wilkins.

It will be seen further that in the writing of fiction in its broadest sense there is scarcely a device or principle of composition which we have alluded to that will not come into play. Indeed what form of discourse is useless here? Certainly not narration or description; nor exposition. Is it argument or persuasion? You will find actual sermons in the novels

of George Eliot; and public speeches, trials at law, philosophical dialogues and disquisitions, abound in works of pure fiction. Mastery therefore of the whole art of composition is a requisite to the novelist's highest

success.

To be sure, something more is needed- the power of genius, the creative touch, which alone can make a work of fiction live, whether that work aim to portray life as it is or life as it ought to be. But this something is incommunicable save by inspiration. Here then we stop, full in the front too of the highest form of creative literature - poetry - which, like fiction, would require a special treatise even for its technical side.

INDEX.

[Titles of exercises are in SMALL CAPITALS; titles of models are in italics]