Produced by Eric Eldred, Thomas Berger and the Distributed Proofreaders team. HENRY BLAKE FULLER UNDER THE SKYLIGHTS * * * * * PREFATORY NOTE The short concluding section of this book--that relating to Dr. Gowdy and the Squash--is reprinted by permission from _Harper's Magazine_. All the remaining material appears now for the first time. * * * * * CONTENTS THE DOWNFALL OF ABNER JOYCE LITTLE O'GRADY _VS._ THE GRINDSTONE DR. GOWDY AND THE SQUASH. * * * * * THE DOWNFALL OF ABNER JOYCE * * * * * THE DOWNFALL OF ABNER JOYCE I With the publication of his first book, _This Weary World_, Abner Joyce immediately took a place in literature. Or rather, he made it; the book was not like other books, and readers felt the field of fiction to be the richer by one very vital and authentic personality. _This Weary World_ was grim and it was rugged, but it was sincere and it was significant. Abner's intense earnestness had left but little room for the graces;--while he was bent upon being recognised as a "writer," yet to be a mere writer and nothing more would not have satisfied him at all. Here was the world with its many wrongs, with its numberless crying needs; and the thing for the strong young man to do was to help set matters right. This was a simple enough task, were it but approached with courage, zeal, determination. A few brief years, if lived strenuously and intensely, would suffice. "Man individually is all right enough," said Abner; "it is only collectively that he is wrong." What was at fault was the social scheme,--the general understanding, or lack of understanding. A short sharp hour's work before breakfast would count for a hundred times more than a feeble dawdling prolonged throughout the whole day. Abner rose betimes and did his hour's work; sweaty, panting, begrimed, hopeful, indignant, sincere, self-confident, he set his product full in the world's eye.