University of Virginia Library

PREFACE.

The title of this little volume indicates its
character. It has been the author's design to
tell an interesting story, which might exert a
good influence in softening the heart, warming
the affections, and elevating the soul.
How well he has succeeded it is for the kind
reader to judge.

It is hoped that the writer will be pardoned,
if he appear to have wandered too
far into the mistry realms of romance, to obtain
attractive material for a tale of real life
in our own times. But he feels that he has
hardly passed the boundary of every-day experience.
All the characters in the following
pages have lived, have sinned, have suffered;

have felt the night dew of grief and the sunshine
of joy. The scenes are painted from
actual life: only the painter's license having
been used in grouping, and in blending light
and shade.