2. Think of a good, emphatic, or surprising climax, and then make a plot that will lead to the climax with absolute certainty. 3. Tell your story in a way that will be different from the way employed by any of your classmates. In general, the stories in this book are to be read and enjoyed, worked over, and talked about, in a simple manner, as one might discuss stories at a reading club. To treat the stories in any other way would be to make displeasing work out of what should be pure pleasure. In the back of the book is a small amount of biographical and explanatory material, such as a friendly teacher might tell to his class. There are also a few questions that will help you to appreciate and enjoy the best effects in every story. The notes have been given merely for reference, as if they were contained in a sort of handy encyclopedia. They are not for hard, systematic study. A class studying this book should forget that it is a class in school, and resolve itself into a reading club, whose object,—written in its constitution, in capital letters,—is pure enjoyment of all that is best in short stories, and in short story telling. VI WHERE TO FIND SOME GOOD SHORT STORIES Baldwin, Charles American Short Sears Stories Cody, Sherwin The World’s Best Short Stories Dawson, W. J. and C. Great English Short W. Story Writers Esenwein, Joseph Short Story Berg Masterpieces Firkins, I. T. E. Index to Short Stories Hawthorne, Julian Library of the World’s Best Mystery and Detective Stories Jessup, Alexander Little French Masterpieces Jessup, A. and The Book of the Canby, H. S. Short Story Matthews, Brander The Short Story Patten, William Great Short Stories Patten, William Short Story Classics Charles Scribner’s Stories by American Sons Authors Charles Scribner’s Stories by English Sons Authors Charles Scribner’s Stories by Foreign Sons Authors VII SOME INTERESTING SHORT STORIES