She died in 1923, on August 23,
at Harrow-on-Hill, England.
Beverly Seaton observed, in "American Women Writers",
that Mrs. Wiggin was "a popular writer who expressed what
her contemporaries themselves thought of as 'real life'"
(p. 413). "The Village Watch-Tower" I think is a perfect example
of that observation; it captures vividly a few frozen moments
of rural America, right at the twilight of the 19th century.
Most of it was written in the village of Quillcote, Maine,
her childhood home--and certainly the model for the village
of these stories.
No attempt has been made to edit this book for consistency
or to update or "correct" the spelling. Mrs. Wiggin's spelling is
somewhat transitional between modern American and British spellings.
The only liberty taken is that of removing extra spaces in contractions.
E.g., I have used "wouldn't" where the original has consistently "would n't";
this is true for all such contractions with "n't" which appeared
inordinately distracting to the modern reader.
R. McGowan, San Jose, March 1997
THE VILLAGE WATCH-TOWER
BY KATE DOUGLAS WIGGIN
Dear old apple-tree, under whose gnarled branches these
stories were written, to you I dedicate the book.
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