constantly been measuring his work by standards of recognized
excellence in form and in creative power; as a result he has
learned to appreciate the short story from the art side. Moreover,
he has had a large freedom in his work that has relieved it of
drudgery. And, best of all, he has been doing original work with
plastic material; and to work with plastic material is always a source
of joy, whether it be the mud that the child makes into pies, the clay
that the artist moulds into forms of beauty, or the facts of life that the
creative imagination of the writer shapes into literature.






THE FIRST CHRISTMAS TREE

A STORY OF THE FOREST

BY HENRY VAN DYKE

This story is placed first because it is of the type that first
delighted man. It is the story of high adventure, of a struggle
with the forces of nature, barbarous men, and heathen gods. The
hero is "a hunter of demons, a subduer of the wilderness, a
woodman of the faith." He seeks hardships and conquers them. The
setting is the illumitable forest in the remote past. The forest,
like the sea, makes an irresistible appeal to the imagination.
Either may be the scene of the marvellous and the thrilling. Quite
unlike the earliest tales, this story is enriched with description