I quite agreed with the manager that it was `great.' Then I
wrote Mr. Maxwell a note telling him that I had seen my story in
his magazine, and saying that I was glad he liked it enough to use
it. I had not known a letter could reach New York and bring a reply
so quickly as his answer came. It was a letter that warmed the deep
of my heart. Mr. Maxwell wrote that he liked my story very much, but
the office boy had lost or destroyed my address with the wrappings,
so after waiting a reasonable length of time to hear from me, he
had illustrated it the best he could, and printed it. He wrote that
so many people had spoken to him of a new, fresh note in it, that
he wished me to consider doing him another in a similar vein for a
Christmas leader and he enclosed my very first check for fiction.
"So I wrote: `How Laddie and the Princess Spelled Down at the
Christmas Bee.' Mr. Maxwell was pleased to accept that also, with
what I considered high praise, and to ask me to furnish the
illustrations. He specified that he wanted a frontispiece, head and
tail pieces, and six or seven other illustrations. Counting out the
time for his letter to reach me, and the material to return, I was
left with just ~one day in which to secure the pictures. They had
to be of people costumed in the time of the early seventies and I
was short of print paper and chemicals. First, I telephoned to Fort
Wayne for the material I wanted to be sent without fail on the
afternoon train.
Pages:
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36