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
and shouting and pointing out into the darkness, the others
rising from the table where they were sitting at a grame
of cards.
"I begged Mr. Parsons to allow me to make the picture
instead of handing it over to Mr. Abbey or to Mr. Reinhart
or Mr. Frost, or to some other of the young Olympians to
elaborate into a real picture. With some hesitating reluctance he told me that I might try, and that, in the event
of my failure, Harper's would pay me ten dollars, I think
it was, or fifteen for the idea. I believe I worked upon it
somewhat over six weeks, and I might indeed have been
working upon it today (finding 'it impossible to satisfy myself with it) had I not, what with the cost of my models
and the expense of living in New York, reduced myself to
my last five-cent piece in the world. Then it was that my
fate or my poverty, or whatever you may choose to call
it, forced me to take the drawing down to Harper's instead
of drawing it over as I should have liked to have done.
"I think it was not until I stood in the awful presence
of the art editor himself that I realized how this might be
the turning point in my life-that I realized how great
was to be the result of his decision on my future endeavor.
I think I have never since passed such a moment of intense
trepidation-a moment of such confused and terrible blending of hope and despair at the same time. I can recall
just how the art editor looked at me over his spectacles, and
to my perturbed mind it seemed that he was weighing in
his mind (for he was a very tender man) how best he might
break the news to me of my unsuccess. The rebound was
almost too great when he told me that Mr. Harper had
liked the drawing very much and that they were going to
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