“Such injustice!” muttered Lora, turning away.
Miss Day hastily quitted the room, followed by Louise and Lora, and Elsie was left alone.
MARY MAPES DODGE.
EDITOR OF “ST. NICHOLAS” MAGAZINE.
T would be difficult to name a writer of later years who has done more to delight the children with bright and chatty sunny-day stories than this estimable woman. While her mind has all the maturity, power, good judgment and strength of our best writers, her heart seems never to have grown out of the happy realm of childhood. It is for them that she thinks, and it is for them that she writes her charming stories when she is in her happiest moods. Not that she cannot write for grown up people, for she has given them several books—very good ones too. She edited “Hearth and Home” at one time, and many a mother remembers her good advice in bright and cheerful editorials, on the art of home-making, and on the care and training of children. She is also a humorous writer of considerable ability. “Miss Maloney on the Chinese Question” is one of her most amusing sketches. Mary Mapes was born in New York city, in 1838. Prof. James Mapes, the scientist, was her father. She married Mr. William Dodge, a lawyer, who lived only a few years, and it was after his death that she began to write for the “Hearth and Home” to which Donald G. Mitchell (Ik Marvel) and Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe were at that time, also, contributors.
In 1864 Mrs. Dodge’s first volume entitled, “Irving Stories,” for children, appeared. It met with great success, and in 1865 she issued her second volume, “Hans Brinker, or the Silver Skates,” a charming story for boys and girls. The scene was laid in Holland. The book was so popular that it was translated into French, German, Dutch, Russian and other languages and became a little classic. She wrote a number of other books, among which are “A Few Friends, and How They Amused Themselves” (1869); “Rhymes and Jingles” (1874); “Theophilus and Others;” “Along the Way,” a volume of poems, and “Donald and Dorothy.”