Produced by Al Haines. [Illustration: "_It’s a storm!_" _he cried._ (See page 90.)] _*The*_* POTTER *_*and*_* *_*The*_* CLAY* A ROMANCE _of_ TODAY _By_ MAUD HOWARD PETERSON ILLUSTRATED BY CHARLOTTE HARDING LOTHROP PUBLISHING COMPANY BOSTON COPYRIGHT, 1901, _By_ LOTHROP PUBLISHING COMPANY. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ENTERED AT STATIONERS’ HALL Published May 7, 1901. 6th Thousand, June 11, 1901. 10th Thousand, July 19, 1901. 13th Thousand, Aug. 16, 1901. Norwood Press: Berwick & Smith, Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. To M. C. P. and M. T. C. WHOSE LIVES REVEAL THE POTTER’S TOUCH *AUTHOR’S NOTE* The comparatively unknown rendering of the verse from the Rubáiyát of Omar Kháyyám, quoted on the succeeding page, is to be found in the _first_ edition of Fitzgerald’s translation of the Persian poem. "For in the Market-place, one Dusk of Day, I watch’d the Potter thumping his wet clay: And with its all-obliterated Tongue It murmur’d—’Gently, Brother, gently, pray!’" _From the Rubáiyát._ PERMISSION to use the poem, "The Potter’s Wheel," which appears on the next page, was granted by the owners of the English copyright of Browning’s works through Messrs. Smith, Elder & Co., London, and by the American publishers of Browning, Messrs. Houghton, Mifflin & Co., Boston. *The Potter’s Wheel* Ay, note that Potter’s wheel, That metaphor! and feel Why time spins fast, why passive lies our clay,— Thou, to whom fools propound, When the wine makes its round, "Since life fleets, all is change; the past gone, seize to-day!" Fool! All that is, at all, Lasts ever, past recall; Earth changes, but thy soul and God stand sure: What entered into thee, _That_ was, is, and shall be: Time’s wheel runs back or stops: Potter and clay endure.