and women bare of the chaff of petty circumstances
which covered them. His stories all contain at least a minor chord of
sentiment, but are usually free from the sentimentality which mars
some of Harte's sketches. He is not ashamed to employ pathos, but his
tragic situations are rarely overstrained and maudlin. He has all the
tenderness of Dickens; his _Christmas Eve at Topmast Tickle_ may well
be compared with _A Christmas Carol_. Norman Duncan never married, but
few Canadian or American authors have understood women as did the
creator of high-spirited Bessie Roth and her noble mother in _Doctor
Luke of the Labrador_, of naive little Patty Batch, and of Millie
Slade, glorified by her love for her son. In the delicacy and
sensibility of his delineation of women he undoubtedly surpasses Bret
Harte, most of whose women are either exaggerated or colorless.
Moreover, Norman Duncan possessed a very genuine understanding of
children, particularly of young boys, of whom he was exceedingly fond.
There are few more sympathetic pictures of children in American
literature than those of David Roth and the Lovejoy twins in _Doctor
Luke of the Labrador_, and of Donald, Pale Peter's lad, in _The
Measure of a Man_; and in Billy Topsail Duncan has created a real boy,
a youngster as red-blooded and manly and keen for excitement in his
numerous thrilling adventures in the frozen North as are any of
Stevenson's boy heroes.

Variety and color in characters and situations, vividness of
descriptions--especially in those of the stormy sea--rapidity of
movement and dramatic intensity in narratives, genuine sentiment and
real tenderness, humor, and pathos, and, above all, a healthy,
vigorous, Anglo-Saxon morality--all of these qualities make of Norman
Duncan's books and short-stories literature that is distinctly worthy
and permanent in character.

* * * * *

I

MADMAN'S LUCK

* * * * *

I

MADMAN'S LUCK

It was one thing or the other. Yet it might be neither. There was a
disquieting alternative. No doubt the message disposed of the delicate
affair for good and all in ten terse words. The maid had made up her
mind; she had disclosed it in haste: that was all. It might be,
however, that the dispatch conveyed news of a more urgent content. It
might be that the maid lay ill--that she called for help and comfort.
In that event, nothing could excuse th