Page:History of Oregon Literature.djvu/478

 humor, as possessing a deep and sustained cheerfulness. But there is her sad face as caught by a dozen photographers and there is the confirmation of her poems, several of which mention death and verge on the melancholy. Perhaps she can give the answer: "I have had a full, rich, everyday existence—extracting humor at my own expense from everything, to help me bear the tragedies of life."

All of her books except Alaska, the Great Country and the Tacoma edition of Mariella; of Out-West are out of print, but, though well-worn, they may still be found in many public libraries, where the records show they continue to be extensively read. Her songs are still sung in many states and different lands, and the school children still know her well, including those in Oregon, though they have not told her so. "It is a sadness," she says, "that for several years I have received letters from school-children—about one a week—in every state in the Union except my own Oregon." Oregon has not been celebrated at all in her prose. Her stories have not had their settings in the state, though some of the childhood meals at Risley's Landing have been the basis for some of the gastronomic descriptions that they contain. Many of her poems have dealt with themes common to Oregon and Washington and in general to the Pacific Northwest, and several of them have been specifically about Oregon.