Howard Pyle, a chronicle by Charles D. Abbott, with an introduction by N. C. Wyeth and many illustrations from Howard Pyle's works.

HOWARD PYLE: A CHRONICLE
festivities. After he had been home a few months, however, there arose an occasion when it would have been very
undiplomatic for him to refuse to sing. A group of young
intellectuals had established a lyceum, a sort of club,
where literature and other cultural subjects could be
weighed and discussed. This lyceum was about to have
a picnic, and in elaborating the plans for the gyay occasion,
the members had decided that they must have some singing,
since otherwise the day would not be complete. All details
in regard to the chorus were arranged, but there was one
vital lack; they needed another tenor. A helpful member
mentioned the fact that young Pyle, who had just lately
returned from New York, had an excellent tenor voice and
suggested that he be asked to supply the deficiency in the
chorus. Accordingly, Howard Pyle was pressed into service
and told that the first rehearsal would take place at the
Pooles', a family which he had known only in the way in
which everyone knew everyone else in Wilmington in those
days. On the appointed evening he went to the Pooles',
where he was the first' to arrive. 'Miss Anne Poole met
him at the door. She did not know precisely who the
strange young man was, but she readily guessed that he
was the new tenor and therefore engaged him in conversation concerning some triviality of singing or of the weather.
When the other singers came they found Miss Poole and
Howard Pyle congenially talking and supposed, of course,
that they were old friends. Consequently the evening's
rehearsal went by and they were not introduced. And in
Wilmington society in the late 'seventies for two people to
become well acquainted without being properly introduced
was a most unconventional thing. Nevertheless, it hap[ 74]1