E-text prepared by Suzanne Lybarger and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net/) THE BEST SHORT STORIES OF 1921 AND THE YEARBOOK OF THE AMERICAN SHORT STORY Edited by EDWARD J. O'BRIEN Editor of "The Best Short Stories of 1915" "The Best Short Stories of 1916" "The Best Short Stories of 1917" "The Best Short Stories of 1918" "The Best Short Stories of 1919" "The Best Short Stories of 1920" "The Great Modern English Stories," Etc Boston Small, Maynard & Company Publishers Copyright, 1920, by John T. Frederick, Charles J. Finger, The Dial Publishing Company, Inc., Charles Scribner's Sons, The International Magazine Company, Harper & Brothers, and Smart Set Company, Inc. Copyright, 1921, by The Boston Transcript Company. Copyright, 1921, by B.W. Huebsch, The Century Company, John T. Frederick, George H. Doran Company, The Dial Publishing Company, Inc., The Pictorial Review Company, The Curtis Publishing Company, The Crowell Publishing Company, Harper & Brothers, Charles Scribner's Sons, The International Magazine Company, and Smart Set Company, Inc. Copyright, 1921, by Boni & Liveright, Inc. Copyright, 1922, by Maxwell Struthers Burt, George H. Doran Co., Lincoln Colcord, Waldo Frank, Katharine Fullerton Gerould, Doubleday, Page & Co., Glasgow, Susan Glaspell Cook, Richard Matthews Hallet, Frances Noyes Hart, Fannie Hurst, Manuel Komroff, Frank Luther Mott, Vincent O'Sullivan, Wilbur Daniel Steele, Harriet Maxon Thayer, Charles Hanson Towne, and Mary Heaton Minor. Copyright, 1922, by Small, Maynard & Company, Inc. Printed in the United States of America Press of the Murray Printing Company Kendall Square, Cambridge TO A.E. COPPARD BY WAY OF ACKNOWLEDGMENT Grateful acknowledgment for permission to include the stories and other material in this volume is made to the following authors, editors and publishers: To the Editor of _The Century Magazine_, the Editor of _The Bookman_, the Editor of _The Dial_, the Editor of _The Pictorial Review_, the Editor of _The Saturday Evening Post_, the Editor of _The American Magazine_, the Editor of _Scribner's Magazine_, the Editor of _Good Housekeeping_, the Editor of _Harper's Magazine_, the Editor of _The Cosmopolitan_, the Editors of _The Smart Set_, The Editor of _The Midland_, Boni & Liveright, Inc., George H. Doran Co., B.W. Huebsch, Doubleday, Page & Co., Sherwood Anderson, Konrad Bercovici, Maxwell Struthers Burt, Irvin S. Cobb, Lincoln Colcord, Charles J. Finger, Waldo Frank, Katharine Fullerton Gerould, Ellen Glasgow, Susan Glaspell, Richard Matthews Hallet, Frances Noyes Hart, Fannie Hurst, Manuel Komroff, Frank Luther Mott, Vincent O'Sullivan, Wilbur Daniel Steele, Harriet Maxon Thayer, Charles Hanson Towne, and Mary Heaton Vorse. Acknowledgments are specially due to _The Boston Evening Transcript_ for permission to reprint the large body of material previously published in its pages.