s pleasant--part of it! It didn't sell so well as I
hoped it would. The publishers said I couldn't expect it, as I
hadn't much reputation, and it takes reputation to make poetry
sell. They said it was good verse, and the editors had been so
hospitable to me I counted on the public--" She shook her head with
a sad little smile. "I even counted on my friends--that was the
hardest part of the whole business!"

"Surely your friends would buy it!" cried Polly.

"I don't know whether they did or not--I didn't mean that. I mean,
giving away my books--that was the heart-breaking part!"

"I don't understand. Miss Twining."

"Before it was published--years before," went on the little woman
reminiscently, "I used to think that if I ever did have books to
give to my friends, how beautiful it would be! I thought it all
out from beginning to end--the end as I saw it! I wrote
inscriptions by the dozen long before the book was even planned.
It looked to me the most exquisite pleasure to give to my friends
the work of my own brain, and I pictured their joy of receiving!"
She gave a short laugh.

"But, Miss Twining, you don't mean--you can't mean--that they
didn't like it!"

"Oh, a few did! But I never heard from many that had read
it--that's the trouble! Almost everybody thanked me before reading
the book at all. When they wrote again they probably didn't think
of it. One man even forgot that I had given him a copy! The funny
part was that at the time he had praised the verses. Then
afterwards he told me that he had never seen my book, but should so
like to read it. I was dumfounded! I believe I laughed. In a
moment the truth dawned upon him, and he fairly fell over himself
with apologies! I made light of his blunder, but of course it
hurt."

"How could he! He must have been a queer man!"

"Oh, no! he was very nice, only he didn't care enough about me or
the verses to remember. I have never seen him since. But what
grieved me most of all," Miss Twining went on, "was to send books
to friends--or those I called so--and never receive even a
thank-you in return."

"Oh, nobody could--!"

"Yes, more than once that happened--more than twice!"

"It doesn't seem possible!" Polly's face expressed her sympathy.

"I don't think I required too much," Miss Twining went on. "I
didn't want people to pour out a punch bowl of flattery. But just
a word of appreciation--of my thought of them, even if they didn't
care