and One Afternoons." The prefacer confesses failure. It is the turn of the
reader. He may welcome the sketches in book form; he may turn scornfully
from them and leave them to moulder in the stock-room of Messrs.
Covici-McGee. To paraphrase an old comic opera lyric:

"You never can tell about a reader;
Perhaps that's why we think them all so nice.
You never find two alike at any one time
And you never find one alike twice.
You're never very certain that they read you,
And you're often very certain that they don't.
Though an author fancy still that he has the strongest will
It's the reader has the strongest won't."

Yet I think that the book will succeed. It may succeed so far that Mr.
Hecht will hear some brazen idiots remarking: "I like it better than
'Dorn' or 'Gargoyles'." Yes, just that ruinous thing may happen. But if it
does Ben cannot blame his editor.

HENRY JUSTIN SMITH.

Chicago, July 1, 1922



CONTENTS

A Self-Made Man

An Iowa Humoresque