Isabella Valancy Crawford's short stories represent the best of early English-Canadian prose. In her stories as in her poetry, her power lies in her use of imagery. In this collection, her fictional portrayals of Canadian life give us glimpses into our literary past.

This collection includes the following works by Valancy Crawford: A Five-O'Clock Tea; How the Nightingale and the Parrot Wooed the Rose; La Tricoteuse; The Halton Boys; Tudor Tramp; In the Breast of a Maple; Extradited; The Grasshopper Paper (an article). It also includes an introduction, a chapter about the author, and a selected bibliography.