150 AUTUMN NOTES IN IOWA 



from the River, copperheads and rattlesnakes, the 

 nest and eggs of the yellow-headed blackbird, won- 

 derful fossil collections ; a real prairie schooner — 

 the old ^ ' Canestoga wagon, ' ' with hind wheels five 

 feet in diameter, and frame heavy in proportion 

 — Filipino guns, a fence rail twelve feet long, the 

 Amsterdam pulpit from which the good dominie 

 Scholte inspired many a stalwart citizen to cross 

 sea and land to Pella — whence later many a let- 

 ter must have passed ' ' aan de geloovigen in Neder- 

 land." 



But today perhaps nothing impressed us more 

 than these words in a manuscript from ^'Octave 

 Thanet" to Mr. Aldrich: ^^You are fond of Iowa. 

 So am I. I have promised to write a book of 

 stories (true stories) similar to the one by Stock- 

 ton for New Jersey and Joel Chandler Harris for 

 Georgia. Can you put me on the track of some 

 good material!'^ It is twenty years since the 

 writer first met Charles Aldrich — moving ner- 

 vously about in his restricted quarters in the old 

 library rooms at the capitol. Bringing him the en- 

 thusiastic inquiries of a young man concerning 

 Alexander Wilson, what courtesy and animation 

 of response one found, what wide information, 

 what zest for service ! On many a day in the years 

 that followed we have seen his small, stooping 

 form, gray head, keen, sensitive face by the office 

 desk in the northwest room of this building ; or in 



