Page:Notable women authors of the day (IA notablewomenauth00blaciala).pdf/381

 well-known and popular author Annie Swan (Mrs. Burnett Smith), whose present residence is in the healthful and breezy atmosphere of Hampstead, was born at Leith, and was one of a family of seven, “the middle or 'odd' one," as she describes it, "of a particularly merry, united, and happy family." There were apparently no hereditary tendencies to literature on either side, and it was a mystery to the whole "connection" when the girl at the age of fifteen began to write short stories. At school she confesses to having been no "model" girl or having in any way distinguished herself; but she was a quick learner, and generally left her lessons to the last moment, and in play hours would gather a little knot of girls around her, and keep them amused with thrilling tales. Her home upbringing was singularly fortunate. Mr. Swan was a great agriculturist, a man of tender heart and refined mind; his sense of justice was so strong that it was proverbially said of him that he would " divide a farthing between two people rather than that either should be wronged." At first he was inclined to look on the story-writing somewhat ag