Elia Wilkinson Peattie (1862-1935) was a prolific American author, journalist and critic. Although she left school at 14, she was enormously talented, and by her 20s she was well established as a writer of short stories.

'A Child of the Rain' is an eerie, poignant, supernatural tale about a strange, destitute child who appears spectrally on a late-night streetcar.