This is a collection of stories by Grant Allen, published in various years. The title story is personal. Allen nearly drowned when he fell through the ice while skating as a boy in Canada, and wrote about the experience anonymously for the Pall Mall Gazette in 1892. The other stories include: HOW IT FEELS TO DIE. BY ONE WHO HAS TRIED IT (1892); MERIEL STANLEY, POACHER (1900); A STUDY FROM THE NUDE (1895); MY ONE GORILLA (1890); THE TRADE OF AUTHOR (1889); A SCRIBBLER'S APOLOGY (1883).