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
is the cesioner!' (Secessionist! I was never a good hand
at spelling)."'1
Since Howard was now old enough to gain something
by a little study, his parents sent him to school-first, to the
old Friends' School, and then to Clark and Taylor's. Here
by his own confession he was far more interested in drawing pictures on iis slate or in the margins of his books, than
he was in the intricacies of grammar or arithmetic. He
continued to go for a number of years, but the training received at the hands of his mother during these same years
was to prove far more valuable than that given by schools.
One of the books to which his mother introduced him during
this period was Percy's Reliques of Ancient English Poetry,
which gave him a vigorous interest in Robin Hood, and
which was soon followed by Ritson's charming old collection
of popular ballads that centered around the life of England's outlaw hero. From these early introductions was to
spring one of the best of children's books some twenty years
later. Other literature was occupying his attentionMalory's Morte d'Arthur and many collections of German
folk and fairy tales-and through it all his pencil was
seldom still. Rough, crude sketches surrounded the family
on all sides.
He was not to any considerable extent a sociable boy.
While he joined in the play of his school companions, and
was popular in a way among them, he was far easier when
off by himself, sketching away with some romantic idea
in his head, or when peacefully sitting at home happily
intent on some tale of the Middle Ages. These signs of
"1 "When I Was a Little Boy," Woman's Home Companion, April, i9x2,
vol. xxxix, p. 5.
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