These ten superb short stories of Duncan Campbell Scott, published in 1896, portray humorous, farcical, and tragic aspects of life in the fictional Quebec village of Viger. Scott’s tales of the lives and vicissitudes of Viger’s inhabitants include an established milliner who is upset by the appearance of a younger, more popular rival; an innkeeper whose obsession with the Franco-Prussian War drives him mad; and a strange peddler with a carefully guarded secret that is accidentally revealed. Duncan Campbell Scott was born in Ottawa, Ontario, in 1862...