William James Stillman was born in Schenectady, N. Y., June 1, 1828, and died at Frimley Green, Surrey, England, July 6, 1901. In The Autobiography of a Journalist, (1901), he has given one of the most fascinating and spiritually truthful narratives ever written.

This lover of animals who numbered among his friends Lowell, Longfellow, and Charles Eliot Norton, to name but three, wrote Billy and Hans in the last years of a long and beautiful life. The story was first published in the Century Magazine for February, 1897. It was later on revised and enlarged, then reissued in the Life and Light Books (George Bell & Sons, London, 1907). With the kind permission of Mrs. Marie Stillman we now offer a reprint of this edition.