It is a pleasant task to thank the authors and publishers who have assented to the reprinting of these pieces. To the authors themselves, and to the following publishers, I admit my sincere gratitude for the use of material copyrighted by them:--Doubleday Page and Company for the extracts from books by John Macy, Stewart Edward White and Pearsall Smith; Charles Scribner's Sons for Rupert Brooke's _Niagara Falls_; the New York _Sun_ for Don Marquis's _Almost Perfect State_; the George H. Doran Company for the essays by Joyce Kilmer and Robert Cortes Holliday; Mr. James B. Pinker for permission to reprint Mr. Conrad's Preface to _A Personal Record_; Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., for the essays by H. M. Tomlinson, A. P. Herbert and Philip Guedalla; Lady Osler for the essay by the late Sir William Osler; Henry Holt and Company for Thomas Burke's _The Russian Quarter_; E. P. Dutton and Company for _A Word for Autumn_, by A. A. Milne; the New York _Evening Post_ for the essays by Stuart P. Sherman and Harry Esty Dounce; Harper and Brothers for Marian Storm's _A Woodland Valentine_; Dodd, Mead and Company for Simeon Strunsky's _Nocturne_, from his volume _Post-Impressions_; the Macmillan Company for _Beer and Cider_, from Professor Saintsbury's _Notes on a Cellar Book_; Longmans Green and Company for Bertrand Russell's _A Free Man's Worship_, from _Mysticism and Logic_; Robert M. McBride and Company for the selection from James Branch Cabell; Harcourt, Brace and Company for the essay by Heywood Broun; _The Weekly Review_ for the essays by O. W. Firkins, Harry Morgan Ayres and Robert Palfrey Utter. The present ownership of the copyright of the essay by Louise Imogen Guiney I have been unable to discover. It was published in _Patrins_ (Copeland and Day, 1897), which has long been out of print. Knowing the purity of my motives I have used this essay, hoping that it might introduce Miss Guiney's exquisite work to the younger generation that knows her hardly at all. CHRISTOPHER MORLEY OCTOBER, 1921 CONTENTS PAGE Preface iii AMERICAN LITERATURE _John Macy_ 3 MARY WHITE _William Allen White_ 22 NIAGARA FALLS _Rupert Brooke_ 30 THE ALMOST PERFECT STATE _Don Marquis_ 39 "THE MAN O' WAR'S 'ER 'USBAND" _David W. Bone_ 49 THE MARKET _William McFee_ 60 HOLY IRELAND _Joyce Kilmer_ 67 A FAMILIAR PREFACE _Joseph Conrad_ 81 ON DRAWING _A. P. Herbert_ 94 O. HENRY _O. W. Firkins_ 100 THE MOWING OF A FIELD _Hilaire Belloc_ 113