Success as a writer came to her instantly. She suffered none of the rebuffs and delays and discouragements usual to the young author. Her earliest work was done for children and took the form of short stories and poems in juvenile magazines. Her first grown-up story was _The Old Lovers_, sent to _Harper’s Bazar_. Miss Mary L. Booth, then editor of that periodical, upon receiving this contribution, written in a cramped and unformed handwriting, evidently that of a child, determined upon a hasty reading, but was so struck in the opening paragraphs with the humor and the pathos of the story that she promptly sent Mrs. Freeman a check. In the same mail with the _Bazar_ acceptance came a notification that her story, _The Shadow Family_, had captured the prize in a competition conducted by the Boston _Sunday Budget_. Both the checks seemed very large to the new writer. “My delight and astonishment knew no bounds.” Mrs. Freeman is a rather small woman, singularly unaffected, cordial, frank. A friend once described her thus: “A little, frail-looking creature, with a splendid quantity of pale-brown hair, and dark-blue eyes with a direct look and a clear, frank expression--eyes that readily grow bright with fun.” Mrs. Freeman has plenty of humor, is quiet and whimsical, is fond of country ways, but confesses to fear of cows, caterpillars and all creeping things. Her popularity has been sufficient to bring about the translation of a number of her books into various European languages. BOOKS BY MARY E. WILKINS FREEMAN _The Debtor._ _The Fair Lavini._ _A Humble Romance_, 1887. _A New England Nun_, 1891. _Young Lucretia_, 1892. _Jane Field_, 1892. _Giles Corey_, 1893. _Pembroke_, 1894. _Madelon_, 1896. _Jerome--A Poor Man_, 1897. _Silence_, 1898. _Evelina’s Garden_, 1899. _The Love of Parson Lord_, 1900. _The Hearts of Highway_, 1900. _The Portion of Labor_, 1901. _Understudies_, 1901. _Six Trees_, 1903. _The Wind in the Rose Bush_, 1903. _The Givers_, 1904. _Doc Gordon_, 1906. _By the Light of the Soul_, 1907. _Shoulders of Atlas_, 1908. _The Winning Lady_, 1909. _The Green Door_, 1910. _The Butterfly House_, 1912. _Yates Pride_, 1912. _The Copy-Cat and Other Stories_, 1914. _The Jamesons._ _People of Our Neighborhood._ _Edgewater People_, 1918. _Published by Harper & Brothers, New York; but The Butterfly House is published by Dodd, Mead & Company, New York._ CHAPTER XVI ANNA KATHARINE GREEN