COMFORTABLE BOOKS 215 



ones and the rest subordinate, but all clearly 

 drawn. I had found it interesting, stimulating; 

 as a tour de force it was noteworthy even 

 among the crowd of short-stories all con 

 densed, all vivid, all interesting that had 

 appeared that month. But comfortable? 

 No. And I felt envious of Jonathan. He had 

 been reading &quot; The Virginians &quot; all winter. 

 His bookmark was at page 597, and there 

 were 803 pages in all, so he had a great deal 

 of comfort left. 



Perhaps comfort is not quite all that one 

 should expect from one s reading. Certainly 

 it is the last thing one gets from the perusal 

 of our current literature, and any one who 

 reads nothing else is missing something which, 

 whether he realizes it or not, he ought for his 

 soul s sake to have something which Jona 

 than roughly indicated when he called it 

 &quot;comfort.&quot; The ordinary reader devours 

 short -stories by the dozen, by the score 

 short short-stories, long short-stories, even 

 short-stories laboriously expanded to a vol 

 ume, but still short-stories. He glances, less 

 frequently, at verses, chiefly quatrains, at col 

 umns of jokes, at popularized bits of history 



