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

PHILOSOPHER AND MYSTIC
to read them many times over to get all there is in them;i
but as it is I have got out very much.
"Sincerely your friend,
"W. D. HOWELLS.'"
"Wilmington, Delaware,
"June 14, 1891.
"My dear Friend:
"I hope you do not think me the most ungrateful and
ungracious man of your acquaintance; I am sure (that is
upon the face of appearances) you have amply sufficient
ground for so thinking. But I am not ungrateful for your
kind and thoughtful reading of my thoughts, and I do fully
appreciate what you said in your letter.
"It-the letter-was received just upon the eve of my
going away for a holiday for a couple of weeks or so to an
out-of-the-way corner of the world-a queer, shabby little
seaside resort among the salt marshes and bald white sand
hills of Cape Henlopen. I go there-or rather my family
goes there-every summer, and I must say that there is
something very delightful to me in the 'squalor' of our surroundings and the delightful unconventionality of the home
life in our little barn of a cottage.
"However, that is apart from the question; what I began
by saying was that this summer I was compelled to take my
holiday earlier than usual, for we hope shortly to have that
greatest of all blessings befall us-to give another life to
this dear, beautiful old world.
"I tried once or twice to write you while there, but was
unable to gather my thoughts together-they fly abroad like
guinea hens when I open the closed doors of my work-a-day
life.
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