Mrs. Gene Stratton-Porter's novel is an illustration of the harmony and intimacy which does rightly exist between a man and a forest. In ' The Harvester ' she has not only dramatized, but proved the purifying and preservative forces that are always present and predominant in such a situation. This is why the story is so popular. It is utterly simple, nothing in the plot to appeal to morbid interest or curiosity. We really prefer what is good and clean in man and in nature if we can get it portrayed in fiction.