all, Mr. Edgar Lee Masters, Miss Gertrude Nafe,
Mr. Meredith Nicholson, Mr. Harvey J. O'Higgins, Mr. Lawrence Perry,
Mrs. Olive Higgins Prouty, Mrs. Mary Brecht Pulver, Mr. Benjamin
Rosenblatt, Mr. Herman Schneider, Professor Grant Showerman, Miss Mary
Synon, Mrs. Mary Heaton O'Brien, Mr. George Weston, and especially to
Mr. Francis J. Hannigan, to whom I owe invaluable cooperation in ways
too numerous to mention.

I shall be grateful to my readers for corrections, and particularly for
suggestions leading to the wider usefulness of this annual volume. In
particular, I shall welcome the receipt, from authors, editors, and
publishers, of stories published during 1918 which have qualities of
distinction, and yet are not printed in periodicals falling under my
regular notice. It is also my intention during 1918 to review all
volumes of short stories published during that year in the United
States. All communications and volumes submitted for review in "The Best
Short Stories of 1918" maybe addressed to me at _South Yarmouth,
Massachusetts_. For such assistance, I shall make due and grateful
acknowledgment in next year's annual.

If I have been guilty of any omissions in these acknowledgments, it is
quite unintentional, and I trust that I shall be absolved for my good
intentions.

E. J. O.

* * *

CONTENTS[1]

PAGE

INTRODUCTION. By the Editor xvii

THE EXCURSION. By Edwina Stanton Babcock 1
(From _The Pictorial Review_)

ONNIE. By Thomas Beer 20
(From _The Century Magazine_)

A CUP OF TEA. By Maxwell Struthers Burt 45
(From _Scribner's Magazine_)

LONELY PLACES. By Francis Buzzell 70
(From _The Pictorial Review_)

BOYS WILL BE BOYS. By Irvin S. Cobb 86
(From _The Saturday Evening Post_)

LAUGHTER. By Charles Caldwell Dobie 128
(From _Harper's Magazine_)

THE EMPEROR OF ELAM. By H. G. Dwight 147
(From _The Century Magazine_)

THE GAY OLD DOG. By Edna Ferber 208
(From _The Metropolitan Magazine_)

THE KNIGHT'S MOVE. By Katharine Fullerton Gerould 234
(From _The Atlantic Monthly_)