Queer Stories For Boys and Girls by by EDWARD EGGLESTON AUTHOR OF "THE HOOSIER SCHOOLMASTER," "THE HOOSIER SCHOOL-BOY," ETC. NEW YORK CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 1884 Copyright, 1884, by Copyright, 1884, by EDWARD EGGLESTON TROW'S PRINTING AND BOOKBINDING COMPANY, NEW YORK. PREFACE. The stories here reprinted include nearly all of those which I have written for children in a vein that entitles them to rank as "Queer Stories," that is, stories not entirely realistic in their setting but appealing to the fancy, which is so marked a trait of the minds of boys and girls. "Bobby and the Key-hole" appeared eight or nine years ago in St. Nicholas, and has never before been printed in book form. The others were written earlier for juvenile periodicals of wide repute