the purpose of this book of short stories of modern american life is twofold.

first, these narratives give an interpretation of certain great forces and movements in the life of this age. all the authors represented are especially qualified to describe with force and feeling some phase of contemporary life.

thinking people everywhere realize that it is not enough to place before the pupils in the schools the bare facts in regard to community and national life. the heart must be warmed, the feelings must be stirred, before the will can be aroused to noble action in any great movement.

president wilson has urged school officers to increase materially the time and attention devoted to instruction bearing directly upon the problems of community and national life. this was not a plea for the temporary enlargement of the school programme, appropriate merely to the period of the war, but a plea for the realization in public education of the new emphasis which the war has given to the ideals of democracy.

the first aim of this book, then, is to help to place clearly before young people the ideals of america through the medium of literature that will grip the attention and quicken the will to action.

second, librarians have stated that there are very few compilations of modern short stories of interest and significance with which to meet the needs of young people who turn to the libraries for help in reading.

it is hoped that this book may be of real value in the schools, by clothing the dry bones of civics with significant and interesting material, and that it may also supply a need of the libraries and the homes for a book of live and valuable short stories.