committee of my department for its criticism, with a view to arranging for its publication under the auspices of the Co-opolitan Association. As this committee had proven whenever it deemed a work sufficiently meritorious to warrant it, to proceed with its publication and defray the expenses from the so-called publication fund, it occurred to me that, if my judgment should be approved, this novel could be published by our department and would distinguish the admission of its author into the Association. We had, up to that time, never undertaken the publication of a novel, but our plant was sufficiently extensive and commodious to enable us to do so. Hitherto we were contented to confine our publications to text books for our schools, a monthly magazine devoted to co-operation, the Daily Co-opolitan and a large number of pamphlets. To my great joy the committee, composed of the very brightest literary men in the city, including our educational chief, Mr. Edmunds, pronounced it a production of such merit as to be worthy of publication at the public expense. I had not disclosed to them the name of the author and they supposed it was some member. On the evening of the day when this decision was communicated to me I went over to the Preston cottage to see my affianced and tell her the result of my venture with the committee. She was delighted with the news. It was her first novel, and to find that the committee had received it with favor was an event which, as she often told me, gave her more genuine pleasure than anything ever did before or has since. We spent an hour or more that evening talking over the novel, its characters and plot. The name was “The West Parish.” The opening scene was laid in the West Parish of Gloucester, Cape Ann, Essex County, Massachusetts. There were, as everybody knows, wonderful descriptions of white sandy beaches, the blue old ocean, ships sailing, marshes and sea birds a-wing. There were two little boys and an old aunt. The former were orphans, the latter infirm and impoverished, but doing her best, which was as bad as could be, to keep the little ones alive. Their father had been a railroad engineer, but a series of misfortunes deprived him of his savings, and then, in one of the perils common to his dangerous employment, he was killed and the mother soon after died.