"The very Devil's in the moon for mischief: There's not a day, the longest, not the twenty-first of June, Sees half the mischief in a quiet way On which three single hours of moonlight smile." At my age, alas! one no longer gets into mischief, either by moonlight or at midsummer, and yet to-day all the tricksey spirits of the invisible world are supposed to be abroad--tangling the horses' manes, souring the milkmaid's cream, setting lovers by the ears. Some such frisky Puck stirs even peaceable middle-aged blood at this season to mild little secret sins, such as beginning a diary in which to set down one's private naughty views--the heresies one has grown too staid and cautious to give speech to any longer. -- From first chapter. ***** Elizabeth Bisland Wetmore (February 11, 1861 - January 6, 1929) was an American journalist and author, perhaps best known for her 1889-1890 race around the world against Nellie Bly, which drew worldwide attention. Bisland was born on Fairfax Plantation, St. Mary Parish, Louisiana, on February 11, 1861. During the Civil War, the family fled the homestead prior to the Battle of Fort Bisland. Life was difficult when they returned, and when she was twelve the family moved to Natchez, Louisiana, site of her father's family home which he had inherited. She began her writing career as a teenager, sending poetry to the New Orleans Times Democrat using the pen name B.L.R. Dane. Once her writing activity was revealed to her family and the paper's editor, she was paid for the work, and she soon went to New Orleans to work for the paper. Around 1887, Bisland moved to New York City and got her first work from The Sun newspaper. By 1889 she was doing work for a number of publications, including the New York World. Among other outlets, she later become an editor at Cosmopolitan magazine and also contributed to the Altantic Monthly and the North American Review. -- From Wikipedia