photographing Colonel Lupton beside my dining-room fireplace for
the father in the story. At eleven I was dressing and posing Miss
Lizzie Huart for the princess. At twelve I was picturing in one
of my bed rooms a child who served finely for Little Sister, and
an hour later the same child in a cemetery three miles in the
country where I used mounted butterflies from my cases, and
potted plants carried from my conservatory, for a graveyard
scene. The time was early November, but God granted sunshine that
day, and short focus blurred the background. At four o'clock I
was at the schoolhouse, and in the best-lighted room with five or
six models, I was working on the spelling bee scenes. By six I
was in the darkroom developing and drying these plates, every one
of which was good enough to use. I did my best work with
printing-out paper, but I was compelled to use a developing
paper in this extremity, because it could be worked with much
more speed, dried a little between blotters, and mounted. At
three o'clock in the morning I was typing the quotations for the
pictures, at four the parcel stood in the hall for the six
o'clock train, and I realized that I wanted a drink, food, and
sleep, for I had not stopped a second for anything from the time
of reading Mr. Maxwell's letter until his order was ready to
mail. For the following ten years I was equally prompt in doing
all work I undertook, whether pictures or manuscript, without a
thought of consideration for self; and I disappointed the
confident expectations of my nearest and dearest by remaining
sane, normal, and almost without exception the healthiest woman
they knew."

This story and its pictures were much praised, and in the
following year the author was asked for several stories, and even