"And there the wooden-chuck doth tread; While from the oak trees' tops The red, red squirrel on thy head The frequent acorn drops." Abjuring, as I say, dinkiness in all its forms, we may still hope that those cleanly and respectable spinsters, the Sister Arts, will continue throughout the ages, rocking and drinking tea unterrified by the million-tongued clamor in the back yard and below stairs, where thumb and forefinger continue the question demanded by intellectual exhaustion: "L'arr! Kesker say l'arr?" [Illustration] [Illustration] [Illustration] CONTENTS PAGE I 1 II 12 III 21 IV 32 V 41 VI 48 VII 52 VIII 62 IX 73 X 85 XI 92 XII 100 XIII 104 XIV 111 XV 119 XVI 133 XVII 138 [Illustration] [Illustration] FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS FACING PAGE "The little things," he continued, delicately perforating the atmosphere as though selecting a diatom. _Frontispiece_ From a drawing by J. C. Leyendecker. "Simplicity," breathed Guilford--"a single blossom against a background of nothing at all" 22 From a drawing by J. C. Leyendecker. He paused; his six tall and blooming daughters, two and two behind him 54 From a drawing by Karl Anderson. Aphrodite's slender fingers, barely resting on the harp-strings, suddenly contracted in a nervous tremor 106 From a drawing by Karl Anderson. _Decorative drawings by Arthur C. Becker._ [Illustration] IOLE I [Illustration] "I ain't never knowed no one like him," continued the station-agent reflectively. "He made us all look like monkeys, but he was good to us. Ever see a ginuine poet, sir?" "Years ago one was pointed out to me," replied Briggs. "Was yours smooth shaved, with large, fat, white fingers?" inquired the station-agent. "If I remember correctly, he was thin," said Briggs, sitting down on his suit-case and gazing apprehensively around at the landscape. There was nothing to see but low, forbidding mountains, and forests, and a railroad track curving into a tunnel. The station-agent shoved his hairy hands into the pockets of his overalls, jingled an unseen bunch of keys, and chewed a dry grass stem, ruminating the while in an undertone: