" "Now to PUT IN THE NATURE STUFF," continues the
author, "was the express purpose for which the book had been
written. I had had one year's experience with `The Song of the
Cardinal,' frankly a nature book, and from the start I realized
that I never could reach the audience I wanted with a book on
nature alone. To spend time writing a book based wholly upon
human passion and its outworking I would not. So I compromised on
a book into which I put all the nature work that came naturally
within its scope, and seasoned it with little bits of imagination
and straight copy from the lives of men and women I had known
intimately, folk who lived in a simple, common way with which I
was familiar. So I said to my publishers: `I will write the books
exactly as they take shape in my mind. You publish them. I know
they will sell enough that you will not lose. If I do not make
over six hundred dollars on a book I shall never utter a
complaint. Make up my work as I think it should be and leave it
to the people as to what kind of book they will take into their
hearts and homes.' I altered `Freckles' slightly, but from that
time on we worked on this agreement.
"My years of nature work have not been without considerable
insight into human nature, as well," continues Mrs.
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