In 1859 appeared a volume of short tales entitled _Rose-colored Stories_ (_Cuentos de Color de Rosa_): these were followed by _Tales of the Country_ (_Cuentos campesinos_), _Popular Tales_ (_Cuentos popolares_), _Popular Narrations_ (_Narraciones popolares_), _Tales of Various Colors_, _Tales of the Dead and Living_, etc.[4] Before examining in detail any of these collections it may be well to learn the author's views of his task and definition of his subject. In the introduction to the _Popular Tales_ he says, addressing his friend Don Jose de Castro y Serrano: "The object of this preface is simply to tell you why I have given the name of _Popular Tales_ to those contained in this volume, what I understand by popular literature, and why I write tales instead of writing novels or comedies or cookbooks. There are two reasons why I have called these tales popular. First, because many of them are told by the people; and, secondly, because in retelling them I have used the simple and plain style of the people.... In my conception, popular literature can be defined in this manner: That literature which by its simplicity and clearness is within the reach of the intelligence of the people.... However, in popular literature the simplicity of form is not enough: it is necessary to reproduce Nature, because if not reproduced there will be no truth in it; and if there is no truth in it the people will not believe it; and if they do not believe it they will not feel it. For my part, I take such pains in studying Nature, in order that my pictures may be true, that I fear you will accuse me of extravagance, and will laugh at me when you read the two examples I am going to cite. On a very severe night in January I was writing in the fourth story of the street Lope de Vega, No. 32, the tale which I named _De Patas en el Infierno_ ('The Feet in Hell'), and when a detail occurred which consisted in explaining the changes in the sound made by water in filling a jar at a fountain, I found that I had never studied these changes, and I did not have in the house at that moment water enough to study them. The printers were going to send for the story early in the morning, and it must be finished that night. Do you know what I did to get out of my difficulty? At three o'clock in the morning, facing the darkness, rain and wind, I went to the little fountain near by with a jar under my cloak, and spent a quarter of an hour there listening to the sound of the water as it fell into the jar. A short time after I was preparing to write the rural tale called _Las Siembras y las Cosechas_ ('Seed-time and Harvest'), and the description of a sunrise in the country entered into my plan. I had often seen the sun rise in the country, but it was necessary to contemplate and study anew that beautiful spectacle in order to describe it exactly; and early one morning, long before the dawn, accompanied by two friends, I went to the