Oliver La Farge covers may aspects of life in these sixteen stories, which range from an old man facing death, alone in the Mexican bush, in "Old Century's River," to some boys facing the responsibilities of life at St. Peter's school in "By the Boys Themselves"; from the science fiction of the great computing machines , in "John the Revelator," to the world of gourmets in "La Spécialité de M. Duclos"; from the violent death of a man off the Rhode Island coast, in "Thick on the Bay," to the quiet death of a marriage in New Mexico, in "A Pause in the Desert." The reader can be sure of finding in this variety the story to fit his taste and mood and sure too of finding in each the craftsmanship that marks all Mr. La Farge's work--what the New York Tribune called "the clean grace of his writing." This is a book to own, to enjoy, to lend to those friends who can be trusted to return it, and to give to those who cannot -- Book jacket.