Chapter 13

Chapter 132,161 wordsPublic domain

36. Then the old woman, with an air of mystery which drew the circle closer round the fire, informed them that she had provided her grave-clothes some years before--a nice linen shroud, a cap with a muslin ruff, and everything of a finer sort than she had worn since her wedding day. But this evening an old superstition had strangely recurred to her. It used to be said in her younger days that if anything were amiss with a corpse--if only the ruff were not smooth or the cap did not set right--the corpse, in the coffin and beneath the clods, would strive to put up its cold hands and arrange it. The bare thought made her nervous.

37. "Don't talk so, grandmother," said the girl, shuddering.

38. "Now," continued the old woman, with singular earnestness, yet smiling strangely at her own folly, "I want one of you, my children, when your mother is dressed and in the coffin,--I want one of you to hold a looking-glass over my face. Who knows but I may take a glimpse at myself and see whether all's right?"

39. "Old and young, we dream of graves and monuments," murmured the stranger youth. "I wonder how mariners feel when the ship is sinking and they, unknown and undistinguished, are to be buried together in the ocean, that wide and nameless sepulcher?"

40. For a moment the old woman's ghastly conception so engrossed the minds of her hearers that a sound abroad in the night, rising like the roar of a blast, had grown broad, deep and terrible before the fated group were conscious of it. The house and all within it trembled; the foundations of the earth seemed to be shaken, as if this awful sound were the peal of the last trump. Young and old exchanged one wild glance and remained an instant pale, affrighted, without utterance or power to move. Then the same shriek burst simultaneously from all their lips:

41. "The slide! The slide!"

42. The simplest words must intimate, but not portray, the unutterable horror of the catastrophe. The victims rushed from their cottage and sought refuge in what they deemed a safer spot, where, in contemplation of such an emergency, a sort of barrier had been reared. Alas! they had quitted their security and fled right into the pathway of destruction. Down came the whole side of the mountain in a cataract of ruin. Just before it reached the house the stream broke into two branches, shivered not a window there, but overwhelmed the whole vicinity, blocked up the road and annihilated everything in its dreadful course. Long ere the thunder of that great slide had ceased to roar among the mountains the mortal agony had been endured and the victims were at peace. Their bodies were never found.

43. The next morning the light smoke was seen stealing from the cottage chimney up the mountainside. Within, the fire was yet smouldering on the hearth, and the chairs in a circle round it, as if the inhabitants had but gone forth to view the devastation of the slide and would shortly return to thank Heaven for their miraculous escape. All had left separate tokens by which those who had known the family were made to shed a tear for each. Who has not heard their name? The story has been told far and wide, and will forever be a legend of these mountains. Poets have sung their fate.

44. There were circumstances which led some to suppose that a stranger had been received into the cottage on this awful night, and had shared the catastrophe of all its inmates; others denied that there were sufficient grounds for such a conjecture. Woe for the high-souled youth with his dream of earthly immortality! His name and person utterly unknown, his history, his way of life, his plans, a mystery never to be solved, his death and his existence equally a doubt,--whose was the agony of that death moment?

THE END

INDEX

Action: implied by plot, 45; of characters, 102; advanced by speech, 107; advanced by preliminary climax, 177.

Adjectives, 197.

Adverbs, 198.

_Allegory_, 29.

"Ambitious Guest, The:" as paradigm, 46; observes unities, 48, 150-152, 154; "elemental" or "true" plot of, 58; "theme" of, 58; "skeleton" or "working plot" of, 59-61; facts in, 90-93; characters in, 97; compression of dialogue in, 115; beginning of, 134, 146; scene of, 144; suspense in, 162; preparation for climax in, 167-169; climax of, 172, 183; conclusion of, 183; text of, 234-249.

Author, intrusion of, 120-122.

Balance, 160.

Beginning: crucial test, 132, 146 148; length of, 132; introduces foundation facts, 132-138; dilatory, 138-140; prefatory, 141; locates scene, 143, 145; best method of, 146.

Best twelve American short stories, 24.

"Bookish" conversation, 109.

_Burlesque_, 39.

Chapters, 149.

Characters: names of as titles, 72, 76; necessity of, 94; based on fact, 94; composites, 95; descriptions of, 96, 98-102; characteristics of, 97, 102; appearance of, 97; active, 102; few, 103; interest in 104; names of, 105; speech of, 106-116; models, 118.

_Character Sketch_, 32.

_Character Study_: defined, 32; _Dialect Story_ related to, 33; plot of, 48.

Classification of Short Stories: use of, 26; _Tale_, 27; _ True Story_, 27; _Imaginative Tale_, 27; _Moral Story_, 28; _Fable_, 28; _Story with a Moral_, 29; _Allegory_, 29; _Weird Story_, 30; _Ghost Story_, 30; _Fantastic Tale_, 31; _Study in Horror_, 31; _Character Study_, 32; _Character Sketch_, 32; _Dialect Story_, 33; _Parable of the Times_, 35; _Instructive Story_, 35; _Story of To-day_, 36; _Story of Ingenuity_, 36; _Story of Wonder_, 37; _Detective Story_, 37; _Humorous Story_, 38; _Nonsense Story_, 38; _Burlesque_, 39; _Dramatic Story_, 39-41.

Climax: how estimated, 161; preparation for, 161-170, 177-179; logical and inevitable, 165; anticipated, 166, 169; too obvious, 166; in "Ambitious Guest," 167-169; in stories of premonition, 169; as a test, 171; defined, 171; length of, 172; proper, 172; position of, 173; ends suspense, 174; not tragic, 175-177; preliminary, 177-179; "false" or "technical," 179-182; coincident with conclusion, 183.

Collections of short stories, 41-44.

Commonplaces: in title, 71; not literary, 86; in dialogue, 110, 112-114; in style, 191-195.

Conclusion: defined, 171; length of, 182; coincident with climax, 183; padded, 184; conventional, 185-188.

Conversation: see Dialogue.

Crane, Stephen, style of, 200.

Criticism, 222, 231.

Curiosity, 161.

Denouement: see Climax and Conclusion.

Description of characters, 96, 98-102; of scene 143, 145.

_Detective Story_: defined, 37; plot of, 48.

Dialect, 117.

_Dialect Story_: defined, 33; as literature, 116.

Dialogue: advances action, 106; modern use of, 107; natural and interesting, 108; "bookish," 109; commonplace, 110, 112-114; attempted humor in, 111; unimportant, 115; in _Dialect Story_, 116-118; introduces foundation facts, 134.

Diary, narration by, 125.

Dickens, Charles: search for types, 78; intensified characters, 96; names of characters, 105.

Didacticism: inartistic, 157; veiled, 158.

Double titles: sensational, 72-74; too long, 75.

Drama: tendency toward, 107; influence of, 175.

_Dramatic Story_: defined, 39; _in Form_, 40; _in Effect_, 40.

Editor: method of approaching, 223, 228; needs of, 224, 225-227; letter to, 229, 230; opinion of, 231; rejection by, 232, 233.

Elaboration of facts, 89.

Elemental Plot: defined, 58; in "Ambitious Guest," 59.

Element of Surprise: defined, 162; genuine, 165.

Element of Suspense: defined, 161; relief of, 162-164, 177-179; ended by climax, 174.

End: see Conclusion.

Epistolary form, 125.

Epoch of the Short Story, 12.

_Fable_, 28.

Facts: source of plots, 50; in fiction, 78; acquisition of, 78, 84; familiar, 80; unfamiliar, 80, 81; about society, 81; historical, 82; utility of, 84; use of, 86, 87; not strange, 86; plausibility of, 89; suppression and elaboration of, 89; in "Ambitious Guest," 90-93; characters based on, 94; introduced in beginning, 132-138.

False Climax, 179-182, 183.

_Fantastic Tale_, 31.

Fantasy, 19.

Fashions in short stories, 226.

Fiction: founded on fact, 78; verisimilitude in, 87; life in, 88; derivation of characters in, 94; names in, 105; surprise in, 170.

Figures of speech, 195.

"Fine writing," 193.

First person narrative, 122-125.

Foreign words and phrases, 196.

Genius: value of, 209; dependence on, 214.

_Ghost Story_, 30.

Grammar: disregard of, 204; faults of, 219.

Greek unities: observance of, 47; in "Ambitious Guest," 48.

Happy ending, 185.

Hawthorne, Nathaniel: influence on short story, 11; his didactic stories, 28-30.

Hero: description of, 96, 97, 98-102; importance of, 103; as narrator, 122-125; an animal or a thing, 126-128.

Humor, 20; attempted, 111.

_Humorous Story_, 38.

Imagination, 51.

_Imaginative Tale_, 27.

Individuality: influences style, 189; cultivation of, 205.

Inspiration: value of, 212-214; dependence on, 214; creation of, 214-216.

_Instructive Story_, 35.

Irving, Washington: influence on short story, 11; used narration within narration, 131; used dilatory beginning, 138.

Italics, 191, 201.

Kipling, Rudyard: made hero an animal, 127; used prefatory beginning, 142.

Length: of short story, 17; of title, 75; of beginning, 132, 146; of climax, 172; of conclusion, 182.

Letters: narration by, 125; accompanying MSS., 229; of recommendation, 230.

Local Color, 156.

Love Element, 18.

Mailing MSS., 228.

Material, acquisition of, 84, 210-212.

Methods of Narration, 119-131.

_Moral Story_, 28.

MSS.: preparation of, 216, 218, 228; submitting, 222-227, 229-233; letter with, 229; record of, 232.

Manuscript record, 232.

Names: of characters, 105; in fiction, 105; of places, 145.

Narration: methods of, 119, 131; natural, 120; impersonal, 120-122; unity in, 122; in first person, 122-125; by letter or diary, 125; by an animal or a thing, 126-128; by multiplicity of narrators, 128; within narration, 129-131.

Nature, influence of, 143.

Newspapers, material from, 84.

_Nonsense Story_, 38.

Novel: short story a school for, 12; compared with short story, 23; influence of, 150, 155, 175.

"Or" in title: sensational, 72-74; too long, 75.

Padding, 156; in conclusion, 184; defined, 202.

_Parable of the Times_, 35.

Parts, 149.

Phrases: stereotyped, 192; foreign, 196.

Plausibility: in use of facts, 89; in "Ambitious Guest," 92.

Plot: necessity of, 17; defined, 45; implies action, 45; simple and complete, 47; observes Greek unities, 47; importance of, 48; in _Character Study_, 48; in _Detective Story_, 48; plot-germ, 49; test of, 50; derivation of, 51; freshness of, 52, 57; phases of 52-56; hackneyed, 57; "elemental" or "true," 58; "theme," 58; in "Ambitious Guest," 58-61; "skeleton" or "working," 59-61; relation to title, 66, 67, 68; effects surprise, 165; effects climax, 166, 179.

Poe, Edgar Allan: first recognized short story, 11; influence on short story, 11; originated _Story of Ingenuity_, 36.

Poetry, quoted, 194.

Preliminary Climax, 177-179.

Premonition, stories of, 169.

Price of short stories, 227, 229.

Punctuation, 200, 220.

Quotations, 194.

Realism, 21.

Religion: not literature, 159; influence of, 160.

Revision, 216-221.

Rhetoric: disregard of, 204; faults of, 219.

Romanticism, 21.

Scene: location of, 143, 145; importance of, 144; presentation of, 144.

Sensationalism: in title, 72-74; in style, 190, 192.

Sentences, 199.

Short Story: first recognized, 11; history of, 11; masters of, 11, 12; an American product, 12; epoch of, 12; school for novelist, 12; defined, 15-17; plot of, 17, 47-63; length of, 17; love element in, 18; ingenuity and originality in, 19; "touch of fantasy" in, 19; tends to comedy, 20, 46; realism and romanticism in, 21; technique of, 22; artificiality of, 22; compared with novel, 23; best twelve American, 24; classification of, 26-44; collections of, 41-44; unity in, 47, 149-155; title of, 64-77; facts in, 78-93; characters in, 94-118; methods of telling, 119-131; beginning of, 132-148; body of, 149-170; parts and chapters in, 149; influenced by novel, 150, 155, 175; padding in, 156; local color in, 156; didacticism in, 157-160; proportions of, 160; climax of, 161-182; suspense in, 161-164; surprise in, 162, 165; conclusion of, 182-188; style of, 189-208; labor in writing, 209-221; marketing of, 222-233; criticism on, 222, 231; timeliness of, 225-227.

Skeleton Plot: defined, 59; in "Ambitious Guest," 59-61; use of, 62.

Slang, 197.

Spelling, errors in, 220.

Stereotyped phrases, 192.

_Story of Ingenuity_: compared with _Imaginative Tale_, 27; defined, 36; _Humorous Story_ related to, 38.

_Story of To-day_, 36.

_Story of Wonder_, 37.

_Story with a Moral_, 29.

_Study in Horror_, 31.

Style: importance of, 189; a matter of individuality, 189; appropriate, 189; qualities of, 190; commonplace, 191; stereotyped phrasing, 192; "fine writing," 193; quotations, 194; figures of speech, 195; foreign words and phrases, 196; good English, 197; slang, 197; flowing, 198; ease of expression, 199; compression indispensable, 201; padding, 202; not exhaustive, 203; acquisition of, 204-208.

Suppression: of unimportant facts, 89; of unimportant dialogue, 115; of irrelevant matter, 155.

Surprise: see Element of.

Suspense: see Element of.

_Tale_, 27.

Technical Climax, 179-182, 183.

Test of good story: title, 64; beginning, 132, 146-148; conclusion, 171.

Theme: defined, 58; in "Ambitious Guest," 58.

Timeliness: seasonal, 225; fashionable, 226.

Title: test of story, 64; influences sale, 64-66; "text," 66, 76; relation to plot, 66; apt, 67; specific, 68-70; attractive, 71; name of character as, 72, 76; sensational, 72-74; new, 75; short, 75; from principal object, 77.

Tone Color, 199.

"Touch of Fantasy," 19.

True Plot: defined, 58; in "Ambitious Guest," 59.

_True Story_, 27.

Typewritten MSS., 228.

Unity, 149-155.

_Weird Story_, 30.

Wilkins, Mary E.: her moral stories, 160.

Words: foreign, 196; misuse of, 197; choice of, 199.

Working Plot: defined, 59; in "Ambitious Guest," 59-61; use of, 62.

End of Project Gutenberg's Short Story Writing, by Charles Raymond Barrett