Page:Sunset Magazine vol. 31.pdf/262

 VOLUME 31

''The creator of Billy Fortune lives on a farm in Arkansas. You may remember his "Story of an Arkansas Farm" in the Saturday Evening Post, some time ago. Not a Billy Fortune story, but every whit as interesting, and flavored with the quaint humorous philosophy which has made Billy a welcome guest at countless reading tables throughout the country. William R. Lighton is the gentleman-farmer-writer and he has slipped away from his Happy Hollow Farm for awhile and has come West, for, to write the story of an Oregon valley. Now we see ourselves as another sees us, and a rose-colored view it is! Mr. Lighton knows a man's country when he sees it and he gives a farmer's opinion of the Willamette valley in the words of a literary lover of the beautiful. There are pictures in color to prove both points of view.''

''Rufus Steele had occasion to ride in the day coach of a local railway train the other day. He was familiar with the scenery along that particular stretch of track and so he paid special attention to the conductor of the train. He discovered that that unobtrusive ticket-taker was a friend to the aged, a protector of the unsophisticated, a health inspector and above all, an accomplished diplomat. Which moved Mr. Steele to seek out the Conductor-Maker, at the headquarters of the Railroad Company, and there he found a real "human interest story" for the September number.''

''Have you any idea what a "lie bill" is? For necessary data see George Pattullo's story of that name in the next number. It's a very Western story, and as new as its name. Then there is an extra good base-ball story, "An Eye-opener," by William Hamilton Osborne, not western but national, like the game. "The King of the Triple Horn" is a brief but powerfully written tale of the "morning of time" by Charles G. D. Roberts. Mr. Roberts, famous for his stories of animals, has gone back into the prehistoric and brought out some very terrible beasts to make things lively for some primitive heroes. This first story is, in effect, a prelude to the romance of Gröm and A-ya, two lovers at the dawn of the race. Their love story, the most powerful work that Mr. Roberts has yet achieved, will be told in five parts during following months. And now we come, in September, to "The End of the Game," the last instalment of Peter B. Kyne's western story, "The Long Chance." Here's where the big lump comes into the throat, for the worst happens to Mr. Hennage, good sport and true friend although the worst man in San Pasqual. But to Bob and Donna fortune is exceedingly kind and they take leave of us at the last with their faces turned toward what we may easily believe is a life of "happiness ever after."''