h and wealth of his sympathies. If
he uses "memory" a little too often as a vehicle for his rural pictures,
the utter charm of the pictures is atonement enough. He has caught the
real American. He is the laureate of the bliss of laziness. His child
poems are the next best thing to the child itself; they have all the
infectious essence of gayety, and all the _naivete_, and all the
knife-like appeal. It could not reasonably be demanded that his prose
should equal the perfection of his verse, but nothing more eerie has
ever been done than the little story, "Where is Mary Alice Smith?" with
its strange use of rime at the end.

Of all dialect writers he has been the most versatile. Think of the
author of "The Raggedy Man" or "Orphant Annie" writing one of the finest
sonnets in the language! this one which I must quote here as a noble
ending to my halt praise:

"Being his mother, when he goes away
I would not hold him overlong, and so
Sometimes my yielding sight of him grows O
So quick of tears, I joy he did not stay
To catch the faintest rumor of them! Nay,
Leave always his eyes clear and glad, although
Mine own, dear Lord, do fill to overflow;

"Let his remembered features, as I pray,
Smile ever on me. Ah! what stress of love
Thou givest me to guard with Thee thiswise:
Its fullest speech ever to be denied
Mine own--being his mother! All thereof
Thou knowest only, looking from the skies
As when not Christ alone was crucified."

Life is the more tolerable, the more full of learned sympathy, and
thereby of joy and value, for the very existence of such a man.

* * * * *

LIST OF MR. RILEY'S BOOKS.

A CHILD WORLD. (NEW.) Tales in verse of childhood days. Cloth, 12mo,
$1.25. Half calf, $2.50. Hand-made Paper edition, bound uniform with
"Old Fashioned Roses," $2.

NEGHBORLY POEMS, including "The Old Swimmin' Hole," by Benjamin F.
Johnson, of Boone (James Whitcomb Riley.) Cloth, illustrated, 12mo,
$1.25. Half calf, $2.50.

SKETCHES IN PROSE, and Occasional Verses. Cloth, $1.25. Half calf,
$2.50.

AFTERWHILES. Sixtieth thousand. With Portrait. Cloth, $1.25. Half calf,
$2.50.

PIPES O' PAN AT ZEKESBURY. Five Sketches and fifty Poems. Cloth, $1.25.
Half calf, $2.50.

RHYMES OF CHILDHOOD. Dialect and other Verses. With Portrait. Cloth,
$1.25. Half calf, $2.50.

THE FLYING ISLANDS OF THE NIGHT. A Fantastic Drama in Verse. Cloth,
$1.25.