The House: An Episode in the Lives of Reuben Baker, Astronomer, and of His Wife, Alice

								


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The Works of Eugene Field
Vol. VIII
The Writings in Prose and Verse of Eugene Field
THE HOUSE
An Episode in the Lives of Reuben Baker, Astronomer, and of His Wife
Alice

[Frontispiece: The House.  Drawn by E. H. Garrett.]

Charles Scribner's Sons
New York
1911
Copyright, 1896, by
Julia Sutherland Field.

INTRODUCTION
The story that is told in this volume is as surely an autobiography as
if that announcement were a part of the title: and it also has the
peculiar and significant distinction of being in some sort the
biography of every man and woman who enters seriously upon the business
of life.
In its pages is to be found the history of the heart's desire of all
who are disposed to take the partnership of man and woman seriously.
The instinct--the desire--call it what you will--that is herein set
forth with such gentle humor is as old as humanity, and all literature
that contains germs of permanence teems with its influence.  But never
before has it had so painstaking a biographer--so deft and subtle an
interpreter.
We are told, alas! that the story of Alice and Reuben Baker wanted but
one chapter to complete it when Eugene Field died.  That chapter was to
have told how they reached the fulfilment of their heart's desire.  But
even here the unities are preserved.  The chapter that is unwritten in
the book is also unwritten in the lives of perhaps the great majority
of men and women.
The story that Mr. Field has told portrays his genius and his humor in
a new light.  We have seen him scattering the germs of his wit
broadcast in the newspapers--we have seen him putting on the cap and
bells, as it were, to lead old Horace through some modern paces--we
have heard him singing his tender lullabies to children--we have wept
with him over "Little Boy Blue," and all the rest of those quaint
songs--we have listened to his wonderful stories--but only in the story
of "The House" do we find his humor so gently turned, so deftly put,
and so ripe for the purpose of literary expression.  It lies deep here,
and those who desire to enjoy it as it should be enjoyed must place
their ears close to the heart of human nature.  The wit and the
rollicking drollery that were but the surface indications of Mr.
Field's genius have here given place to the ripe humor that lies as
close to tears as to laughter--the humor that is a part and a large
part of almost every piece of English literature that has outlived the
hand that wrote it.
JOEL CHANDLER HARRIS.

The Chapters in this Book

     I  WE BUY A PLACE

    II  OURSELVES AND OUR NEIGHBORS