In _Chateau Thierry_ he has portrayed very clearly a certain type of easy-going, prosperous American,—the American who was aroused to the knowledge of higher ideals and to the exigencies of a world at war by the shock and the thrill that followed upon the active participation of the American forces in the great conflict. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Thanks are due to the following authors and publishers for permission to use the selections contained in this book: Henry Holt and Company and Mrs. Dorothy Canfield (Fisher) for “A Little Kansas Leaven” from _Home Fires in France_. (Copyright, 1918, by Henry Holt and Company.) The Outlook Company and Elsie Singmaster Lewars for “The Survivors.” (Copyright, 1915, by The Outlook Company; copyright, 1916, by Elsie Singmaster Lewars.) Mr. Albert Payson Terhune for “The Wild Cat.” (Copyright, 1918, by The Curtis Publishing Company.) P. F. Collier and Son and James Francis Dwyer for “The Citizen.” (Copyright, 1915, by P. F. Collier and Son; copyright, 1916, by James Francis Dwyer.) The Four Seas Publishing Company and Grace Coolidge for “The Indian of the Reservation.” (Copyright, 1917, by The Four Seas Company.) _The Youth’s Companion_ and Arthur Stanwood Pier for “A Night Attack.” (Copyright, 1918, by _The Youth’s Companion_.) The Curtis Publishing Company and Mary Brecht Pulver for “The Path of Glory.” (Copyright, 1917, by The Curtis Publishing Company; copyright, 1918, by Mary Brecht Pulver.) To _The Youth’s Companion_ and Fisher Ames, Jr., for “Sergt. Warren Comes Back from France.” (Copyright, 1918, by _The Youth’s Companion_. G. P. Putnam’s Sons and Arthur Guy Empey for “The Coward” from _Over the Top_. (Copyright, 1917, by G. P. Putnam’s Sons.) Mr. Frederick Orin Bartlett for “Chateau Thierry.” (Copyright, 1918, by The Curtis Publishing Company.) Grateful acknowledgment is made also to Miss Alice M. Jordan of the Boston Public Library, and Miss Gladys M. Bigelow of the Newton Technical High School Library for suggestions and help. SHORT STORIES OF THE NEW AMERICA I—A LITTLE KANSAS LEAVEN Between 1620 and 1630 Giles Boardman, an honest, sober, well-to-do English master-builder found himself hindered in the exercise of his religion. He prayed a great deal and groaned a great deal more (which was perhaps the Puritan equivalent of swearing), but in the end he left his old home and his prosperous business and took his wife and young children the long, difficult, dangerous ocean voyage to the New World. There, to the end of his homesick days, he fought a hand-to-hand battle with wild nature to wring a living from the soil. He died at fifty-four, an exhausted old man, but his last words were, “Praise God that I was allowed to escape out of the pit digged for me.”