By this time Mrs. Porter had made a contract with her publishers
to alternate her books. She agreed to do a nature book for love,
and then, by way of compromise, a piece of nature work spiced
with enough fiction to tempt her class of readers. In this way
she hoped that they would absorb enough of the nature work while
reading the fiction to send them afield, and at the same time
keep in their minds her picture of what she considers the only
life worth living. She was still assured that only a straight
novel would "pay," but she was living, meeting all her expenses,
giving her family many luxuries, and saving a little sum for a
rainy day she foresaw on her horoscope. To be comfortably
clothed and fed, to have time and tools for her work, is all she
ever has asked of life.
Among Mrs. Porter's readers "At the Foot of the Rainbow" stands
as perhaps the author's strongest piece of fiction.
In August of 1909 two books on which the author had been working
for years culminated at the same time: a nature novel, and a
straight nature book. The novel was, in a way, a continuation of
"Freckles," filled as usual with wood lore, but more concerned
with moths than birds. Mrs. Porter had been finding and picturing
exquisite big night flyers during several years of field work
among the birds, and from what she could have readily done with
them she saw how it would be possible for a girl rightly
constituted and environed to make a living, and a good one, at
such work.
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