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THE CHILDREN OF THE PUBLIC 1

A PIECE OF POSSIBLE HISTORY 58

THE SOUTH AMERICAN EDITOR 78

THE OLD AND THE NEW, FACE TO FACE 100

THE DOT AND LINE ALPHABET 116

THE LAST VOYAGE OF THE RESOLUTE 130

MY DOUBLE, AND HOW HE UNDID ME 171

THE MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY 199

THE LAST OF THE FLORIDA 242

THE SKELETON IN THE CLOSET 253

CHRISTMAS WAITS IN BOSTON 270

THE CHILDREN OF THE PUBLIC.

[This story originated in the advertisement of the humbug which it
describes. Some fifteen or twenty years since, when gift
enterprises rose to one of their climaxes, a gift of a large sum of
money, I think $10,000, was offered in New York to the most
successful ticket-holder in some scheme, and one of $5,000 to the
second. It was arranged that one of these parties should be a man
and the other a woman; and the amiable suggestion was added, on the
part of the undertaker of the enterprise, that if the gentleman and
lady who drew these prizes liked each other sufficiently well when
the distribution was made, they might regard the decision as a
match made for them in Heaven, and take the money as the dowry of
the bride. This thoroughly practical, and, at the same time,
thoroughly absurd suggestion, arrested the attention of a
distinguished story-teller, a dear friend of mine, who proposed to
me that we should each of us write the history of one of the two
successful parties, to be woven together by their union at the end.
The plan, however, lay latent for years,--the gift enterprise of
course blew up,--and it was not until the summer of 1862 that I
wrote my half of the proposed story, with the hope of eliciting the
other half. My friend's more important engagements, however, have
thus far kept Fausta's detailed biography from the light. I sent my
half to Mr. Frank Leslie, in competition for a premium offered by
him, as is stated in the second chapter of the story. And the story
found such favor in the eyes of the judges, that it received one of
his second premiums. The first was very properly awarded to Miss
Louisa Alcott, for a story of great spirit and power. "The