(1911) and alone wrote another novel, _The Man in the Brown Derby_
(1911). His short stories include: _The New Little Boy_ (July, 1911,
_American_), _That Day_ (September, 1911, _American_), _The Pick-Up_
(December, 1911, _Everybody's_), and _Gideon_ (April, 1914,
_Century_). The last story stands out. It can be compared without
disadvantage to the best work, or all but the very best work, of
Thomas Nelson Page, it seems to me. And from the reader's standpoint
it has the advantage--is this not also an author's advantage?--of a
more modern setting and treatment. Mr. Hastings is, I have been told,
a director in over a dozen large corporations. Let us hope that his
business activities will not keep him too much away from the
production of literature--for to rank as a piece of literature,
something of permanent literary value, _Gideon_ is surely entitled.

ALEXANDER JESSUP.



CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION
_Alexander Jessup_

THE LITTLE FRENCHMAN AND HIS WATER LOTS (1839)
_George Pope Morris_

THE ANGEL OF THE ODD (1844)
_Edgar Allan Poe_

THE SCHOOLMASTER'S PROGRESS (1844)