The Lake

The concern of this preface is with the mistake that was made when 'The Lake' was excluded from the volume entitled 'The Untilled Field, ' reducing it to too slight dimensions, for bulk counts; and 'The Lake, ' too, in being published in a separate volume lost a great deal in range and power, and criticism was baffled by the division of stories written at the same time and coming out of the same happy inspiration, one that could hardly fail to beget stories in the mind of anybody prone to narrative-the return of a man to his native land, to its people, to memories hidden for years, forgotten, but which rose suddenly out of the darkness, like water out of the earth when a spring is tappe