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INTRODUCTION seat, and gazing through the arched window opposite, he acknowledged that the scene at once grew picturesque.

'Simple as it looks,' said he, 'this little edifice seems to be the work of magic. It is full of suggestiveness, and, in its way, is as good as a cathedral. Ah, it would be just the spot for one to sit in, of a summer afternoon, and tell the children some more of those wild stories from the classic myths!'

'It would, indeed,' answered I. 'The summer-house itself, so airy and so broken, is like one of those old tales, imperfectly remembered; and these living branches of the Baldwin apple tree, thrusting themselves so rudely in, are like your unwarrantable interpolations. But, by the by, have you added any more legends to the series, since the publication of the Wonder Book?'

'Many more,' said Eustace; 'Primrose, Periwinkle, and the rest of them, allow me no comfort of my life, unless I tell them a story every day or two. I have run away from home partly to escape the importunity of those little wretches! But I have written out six of the new stories, and have brought them for you to look over.'

'Are they as good as the first?' I inquired.

'Better chosen, and better handled,' replied Eustace Bright. 'You will say so when you read them.'

'Possibly not,' I remarked. 'I know, from my own experience, that an author's last work is always his best one, in his own estimate, until it quite loses the red heat of composition. After that, it falls into its true place quietly 3