Chapter I: Introduction: REQUIREMENTS OF THE SHORT STORY xi

HOW THIS BOOK MAY BE USED xviii

THE FIRST CHRISTMAS-TREE Henry van Dyke 1

A FRENCH TAR-BABY Joel Chandler Harris 27

SONNY’S CHRISTENIN’ Ruth McEnery Stuart 35

CHRISTMAS NIGHT WITH SATAN John Fox, Jr. 51

A NEST-EGG James Whitcomb Riley 67

WEE WILLIE WINKLE Rudyard Kipling 79

THE GOLD BUG Edgar Allan Poe 95

THE RANSOM OF RED CHIEF O. Henry 143

THE FRESHMAN FULL-BACK Ralph D. Paine 159

GALLEGHER Richard Harding Davis 181

THE JUMPING FROG Mark Twain 221

THE LADY OR THE TIGER? Frank R. Stockton 231

THE OUTCASTS OF POKER FLAT Francis Bret Harte 243

THE REVOLT OF MOTHER Mary E. Wilkins Freeman 259

MARSE CHAN Thomas Nelson Page 283

“POSSON JONE’” George W. Cable 315

OUR AROMATIC UNCLE Henry Cuyler Bunner 341

QUALITY John Galsworthy 361

THE TRIUMPH OF NIGHT Edith Wharton 373

A MESSENGER Mary Raymond Shipman Andrews 407

MARKHEIM Robert Louis Stevenson 431