The triumph of naturalness, the perfect fidelity to the life of the child; these explain _Rebecca_ and _Rebecca’s_ success, signalized less in the selling of hundreds of thousands of copies, in the acting of the play made from the book for months and months and months, than in the joyous recognition with which Mrs. Wiggin’s heroine was greeted. Rebecca inditing the couplet: “When Joy and Duty clash Let Duty go to smash”-- Rebecca playing on the tinkling old piano, “Wild roved an Indian girl, bright Alfarata,” Rebecca doing this, thinking that, saying the thing that needs to be said--generous, romantic, resourceful and brighter than her surroundings--is a person it does us all good to know. Copies of the book in libraries are read to shreds. The world, which can see through any sham, loves this story. The world is right. To learn, in the words of one of Conrad’s heroes, to live, to love and to put your trust in life is all that matters. Mrs. Wiggin shows us how. BOOKS BY KATE DOUGLAS WIGGIN _The Birds’ Christmas Carol_, 1886. _The Story of Patsy_, 1889. _A Summer in a Canyon_, 1889. _Timothy’s Quest_, 1890. _The Story Hour_, 1890. (With Nora A. Smith, her sister.) _Children’s Rights_, 1892. (With Nora A. Smith.) _A Cathedral Courtship_ and _Penelope’s English Experiences_, 1893. _Polly Oliver’s Problem_, 1893. _The Village Watch-Tower_, 1895. _Froebel’s Gifts_, 1895. (With Nora A. Smith.) _Froebel’s Occupations_, 1896. (With Nora A. Smith.) _Kindergarten Principles and Practice_, 1896. (With Nora A. Smith.) _Marm Lisa_, 1896. _Nine Love Songs, And A Carol_, 1896. (Music by Mrs. Wiggin to words by Herrick, Sill, and others.) _Penelope’s Progress_, 1898. _Penelope’s Scottish Experiences_, 1900. _Penelope’s Irish Experiences_, 1901. _The Diary of a Goose Girl_, 1902. _Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm_, 1903. _The Affair at the Inn_, 1904. (With Mary and Jane Findlater and Allan McAulay.) _Rose o’ the River_, 1905. _New Chronicles of Rebecca_, 1907. _Finding a Home_, 1907. _The Flag Raising_, 1907. _The Old Peabody Pew_, 1907. _Susanna and Sue_, 1909. _Robinetta_, 1911. (With Mary and Jane Findlater and Allan McAulay.) _Mother Carey’s Chickens_, 1911. _A Child’s Journey With Dickens_, 1912. _The Story of Waitstill Baxter_, 1913. _Penelope’s Postscripts_, 1915. _The Romance of a Christmas Card_, 1916. _Golden Numbers_, 1917. _The Posy Ring_, 1917. _Ladies in Waiting_, 1919. _Published by Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston._ CHAPTER XI MARY JOHNSTON “Didn’t you ever notice, Aunt Lucy,” asks Molly Cary on page 32 of Mary Johnston’s novel, _The Long Roll_, “how everybody really belongs in a book?”