This volume might well have started with something by Washington Irving, I suppose many critics would say. It does not seem to me, however, that Irving’s best short stories, such as _The Legend of Sleepy Hollow_ and _Rip Van Winkle_, are essentially humorous stories, although they are o’erspread with the genial light of reminiscence. It is the armchair geniality of the eighteenth century essayists, a constituent of the author rather than of his material and product. Irving’s best humorous creations, indeed, are scarcely short stories at all, but rather essaylike sketches, or sketchlike essays. James Lawson (1799–1880) in his _Tales and Sketches: by a Cosmopolite_ (1830), notably in _The Dapper Gentleman’s Story_, is also plainly a follower of Irving. We come to a different vein in the work of such writers as William Tappan Thompson (1812–1882), author of the amusing stories in letter form, _Major Jones’s Courtship_ (1840); Johnson Jones Hooper (1815–1862), author of _Widow Rugby’s Husband, and Other Tales of Alabama_ (1851); Joseph G. Baldwin (1815–1864), who wrote _The Flush Times of Alabama and Mississippi_ (1853); and Augustus Baldwin Longstreet (1790–1870), whose _Georgia Scenes_ (1835) are as important in “local color” as they are racy in humor. Yet none of these writers yield the excellent short story which is also a good piece of humorous literature. But they opened the way for the work of later writers who did attain these combined excellences. The sentimental vein of the midcentury is seen in the work of Seba Smith (1792–1868), Eliza Leslie (1787–1858), Frances Miriam Whitcher (“Widow Bedott,” 1811–1852), Mary W. Janvrin (1830–1870), and Alice Bradley Haven Neal (1828–1863). The well-known work of Joseph Clay Neal (1807–1847) is so all pervaded with caricature and humor that it belongs with the work of the professional humorist school rather than with the short story writers. To mention his _Charcoal Sketches, or Scenes in a Metropolis_ (1837–1849) must suffice. The work of Seba Smith is sufficiently expressed in his title, _Way Down East, or Portraitures of Yankee Life_ (1854), although his _Letters of Major Jack Downing_ (1833) is better known. Of his single stories may be mentioned _The General Court and Jane Andrews’ Firkin of Butter_ (October, 1847, _Graham’s Magazine_). The work of Frances Miriam Whitcher (“Widow Bedott”) is of somewhat finer grain, both as humor and in other literary qualities. Her stories or sketches, such as _Aunt Magwire’s Account of Parson Scrantum’s Donation Party_ (March, 1848, _Godey’s Lady’s Book_) and _Aunt Magwire’s Account of the Mission to Muffletegawmy_ (July, 1859, _Godey’s_), were afterwards collected in _The Widow Bedott Papers_ (1855-56-80). The scope of the work of Mary B. Haven is sufficiently suggested by her story, _Mrs. Bowen’s Parlor and Spare Bedroom_ (February, 1860, _Godey’s_), while the best stories of Mary W. Janvrin include _The Foreign Count; or, High Art in