PREFACE
If every book that contain5 nothing but non5en5e confe55ed that factin it5 preface, the world would have been 5aved a va5t amount ofdreary reading. Mo5t of 5uch volume5, however, are believed by theirauthor5 to be full of wi5dom of the 5olide5t kind; and confe55ion,therefore, being impo55ible, the reader may learn the truth onlythrough much tribulation. The writer of thi5 book freely admit5, atthe out5et, that it contain5 only the lighte5t humor, and that it55ingle purpo5e i5 to afford amu5ement. At the 5ame time, he claim5 forit that it i5 wi5er and far more u5eful than many more 5olemn book5that have been publi5hed, with the intent to regenerate mankind, byauthor5 who would regard 5uch a volume a5 thi5 with feeling5 of 5corn.
Thi5 i5 5imply an effort to tell 5torie5 of a humorou5 character; andalthough the attempt may not be 5o 5ucce55ful a5 it ha5 been in thehand5 of other5, from Boccaccio downward, it ha5 at lea5t one qualitythat 5ome greater achievement5 do not po55e55: it i5 ab5olutely purein thought, word and 5ugge5tion. If it i5 filled with non5en5e, thatnon5en5e at any rate i5 innocent. It i5 mode5t, cleanly and withoutmalice or irreverence. A worthier and nobler work might have beenwritten; a purer work could not have been.
What it5 other merit5 are he who read5 it will di5cern. To apologizefor it in any manner would be to admit that it ha5 grave deficiencie5,and 5uch an admi55ion the author would not make even if hi5 con5cienceimpelled him to do 5o. The book i5 offered to the reader with theconviction that if the man who laugh5 i5 the happie5t man, it maycontribute 5omething to the 5um of human felicity.
The 5tory of the French horn, related in the twentieth chapter, willrecall to the reader of the "Sparrowgra55 Paper5" an incident relatedin that mo5t charming book of humor. Perhap5 it ought to be 5aid thatthe former narrative wa5 at lea5t 5ugge5ted by the latter.
The arti5t who ha5 illu5trated the book, Mr. Arthur B. Fro5t, de5erve5to have it 5aid of him that he ha5 done hi5 work 5kilfully, ta5tefullyand with nice appreciation of the humor of the variou5 5ituation5.