Lass o' Lowrie's' in 1877. The thoughtfully drawn
group of characters--Derrick the engineer, Grace the young minister,
Annie the rector's daughter, and Joan the pit girl,--are dramatic
figures, working out their life problems under the eyes and the comments
of half-cynical, half-brutalized miners. There is nothing in her history
to account for Joan, or for the fact that the strength of vice in her
father becomes an equal strength of virtue in her. Abused since her
babyhood, doing the work of a man among degrading companionships, she
yet remains capable of the noblest self-abnegation. Mrs. Burnett
delights in heroes and heroines who are thus loftily at variance with
their surroundings. Her stories are romantic in spirit, offering little
to the lover of psychologic analysis. Her character-drawing is the
product of quick observation and sympathetic intuition. She does not
write "tendency" novels, but appeals to simple emotions of love, hate,
revenge, or self-immolation, which sometimes, as in the case of her last
book, 'A Lady of Quality' (1895), verge on sensationalism. In 1873 Miss
Hodgson married Dr. Burnett of Washington. Her longest novel, 'Through
One Administration,' is a story of the political and social life of the
Capital. 'Little Lord Fauntleroy' (1886) is the best known of a series
of stories nominally written for children, but intended to be read by
their elders. 'Sara Crewe,' 'Giovanni and the Other,' 'Two Little
Pilgrims,' and 'Little Saint Elizabeth' are chronicles of superlunary
children. After those before mentioned, 'Esmeralda,' 'Louisiana,' 'A
Fair Barbarian,' and 'Haworth's' are her best known stories.

AT THE PIT

From 'That Lass o' Lowrie's'

The next morning Derrick went down to the mine as usual. There were
several things he wished to do in these last two days. He had heard that
the managers had entered into negotiations with a new engineer, and he
wished the man to find no half-done work. The day was bright and frosty,
and the sharp, bracing air seemed to clear his brain. He felt more
hopeful, and less inclined to view matters darkly.

He remembered afterward that as he stepped into the cage he turned to
look at the unpicturesque little town, brightened by the winter's sun;
and that as he went down he glanced up at the sky, and marked how
intense appeared the bit of blue which was framed in by the mouth of the
shaft.

Even in the few hours that had elapsed since the meeting, the rumor of