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They all stood round and laughed at him
MODERN SHORT STORIES
PREFACE
For many years high school teachers have wished for booksof short stories edited for high school use. They have knownthat most novels, however interesting, are too long to holdattention, and that too few novels can be read to give properappreciation of form in narration. The essay, as seen in TheSir Roger de Coverley Papers, and in Irving’s Sketch Book,has been a poor substitute for the short story. High schoolstudents have longed for action, for quickness, for life, forclimax, for something new and modern. Instead, they havehad hundreds of pages, long expositions, descriptions, leisurelytreatment, and material drawn from the past. They haveread such material because they must, and have turned, forrelief, to short stories in the cheaper magazines.
The short story is to-day our most common literary product.It is read by everyone. Not every boy or girl will read novelsafter leaving school, but every boy or girl is certain to readshort stories. It is important in the high school to guidetaste and appreciation in short story reading, so that thereading of days when school life is over will be healthfuland upbuilding. This important duty has been recognizedin all the most recent suggestions for high school reading.The short story is just beginning to take its important placein the high school course. To make use of a book of shortstories in high school work is to fall in line with the mostmodern developments in the teaching of literature in thehigh school.
Most collections of short stories that have been prepared,for school use, up to the present, are more or less alike inivdrawing much of their material from the past. Authors andcontent alike are dead. Here is a collection that is entirelymodern. The authors represented are among the leadingauthors of the day, the stories are principally stories ofpresent-day life, the themes are themes of present-day thought.The students who read this book will be more awake to thepresent, and will be better citizens of to-d