Hawthorne is better known as a novelist, the author of The Scarlet Letter, The House of the Seven Gables, Blithedale Romance, and Marble Faun, than as a short-story writer; but he alone among Americans has approached Poe as a teller of tales. His reputation was first made by two volumes of short stories called Twice-Told Tales, among which are the deeply interesting “Gray Champion,” “The Great Carbuncle,” “David Swan,” “Howe’s Masquerade,” “The Ambitious Guest,” and “The Three-fold Destiny.” Many like the Mosses from an Old Manse better, considering “The Birthmark” his masterpiece. “Drowne’s Wooden Image” is a remarkable tale, and “Rapaccini’s Daughter” (the girl who was brought up on poisons and whose kiss was poison) is most weird. The most popular story for children is “The Snow Image,” and “The Great Stone Face” (which I like best of all) appeals alike to young and old. “Ethan Brand” is another good story in this volume, and children will be fascinated by “Little Daffydowndilly.” Hawthorne’s stories are all more or less fantastic allegories, written in unexceptionably beautiful and perfect English. The author was a recluse, and his stories are stories of loneliness in one form or another. Those who like solitude will be very fond of him; those who like gaiety, liveliness, and society, will find him depressing. The other great American short story writers include Bret Harte, author of “The Luck of Roaring Camp” and “The Outcasts of Poker Flat”; Edward Everett Hale, author of “The Man Without a Country”; Frank Stockton, author of “The Lady or the Tiger?” and Mary E. Wilkins. With these may be included Thomas Hardy’s “Life’s Little Ironies,” which are full of fun. More perfect in his art than either Poe or Hawthorne is the modern writer Guy de Maupassant. His stories are most of them very short; but not a word is wasted, and they tell as much as stories much longer. His most perfect tales are not accessible in English because they are slightly improper. The two best are said to be “Boule de Suif” (Butter-Ball) and “La Maison Tellier” (Madame Tellier’s Girls, or The Tellier Establishment). The thirteen tales translated by Jonathan Sturgis in “The Odd Number” are unexceptionable, however, and intensely interesting. The French have perfected the artistic short story or _conte_ as they call it, and there are many good tales in that language. One of the most famous is the old-fashioned “Paul and Virginia,” a simple rustic love story, and Prosper Mérimée, the contemporary of Balzac, wrote some excellent tales. One might mention also Daudet with his “Pope’s Mule,” Gauthier, and Zola’s “Attack on the Mill.”