Mr. Doubleday
had assured me personally that I might count on exact reproduction,
and such details of type and paper as I chose to select. I used the
easel made for me when a girl, under the supervision of my father,
and I threw my whole heart into the work of copying each line and
delicate shading on those wonderful wings, `all diamonded with panes
of quaint device, innumerable stains and splendid dyes,' as one
poet describes them. There were times, when in working a mist of
colour over another background, I cut a brush down to three hairs.
Some of these illustrations I sent back six and seven times, to be
worked over before the illustration plates were exact duplicates of
the originals, and my heart ached for the engravers, who must have
had Job-like patience; but it did not ache enough to stop me until
I felt the reproduction exact. This book tells its own story of
long and patient waiting for a specimen, of watching, of
disappointments, and triumphs. I love it especially among my book
children because it represents my highest ideals in the making of
a nature book, and I can take any skeptic afield and prove the
truth of the natural history it contains."
In August of 1913 the author's novel "Laddie" was published in New
York, London, Sydney and Toronto simultaneously. This book contains
the same mixture of romance and nature interest as the others, and
is modelled on the same plan of introducing nature objects peculiar
to the location, and characters, many of whom are from life,
typical of the locality at a given period.
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