Pond School_, a short story, had been written in 1857; it was not
published, however, till it appeared in the November and December,
1869, numbers of a Southern magazine, _The New Eclectic_, over the
pseudonym "Philemon Perch." His famous _Dukesborough Tales_
(1871-1874) was largely a republication of the earlier book. Other
noteworthy collections of his are: _Mr. Absalom Billingslea and Other
Georgia Folk_ (1888), _Mr. Fortner's Marital Claims, and Other
Stories_ (1892), and _Old Times in Middle Georgia_ (1897). Among
individual stories stand out: _The Organ-Grinder_ (July, 1870, _New
Eclectic_), _Mr. Neelus Peeler's Conditions_ (June, 1879, _Scribner's
Monthly_), _The Brief Embarrassment of Mr. Iverson Blount_ (September,
1884, _Century_); _The Hotel Experience of Mr. Pink Fluker_ (June,
1886, _Century_), republished in the present collection; _The Wimpy
Adoptions_ (February, 1887, _Century_), _The Experiments of Miss Sally
Cash_ (September, 1888, _Century_), and _Our Witch_ (March, 1897,
_Century_). Johnston must be ranked almost with Bret Harte as a
pioneer in "local color" work, although his work had little
recognition until his _Dukesborough Tales_ were republished by Harper
& Brothers in 1883.

Bret Harte (1839-1902) is mentioned here owing to the late date of his
story included in this volume, _Colonel Starbottle for the Plaintiff_
(March, 1901, _Harper's_), although his work as a whole of course
belongs to an earlier period of our literature. It is now well-thumbed
literary history that _The Luck of Roaring Camp_ (August, 1868,
_Overland_) and _The Outcasts of Poker Flat_ (January, 1869,
_Overland_) brought him a popularity that, in its suddenness and
extent, had no precedent in American literature save in the case of
Mrs. Stowe and _Uncle Tom's Cabin_. According to Harte's own
statement, made in the retrospect of later years, he set out