University of Virginia Library

PREFACE.

The writer of this tale has made an
humble effort to add something to the
scanty stock of native American literature.
Any attempt to conciliate favour by apologies
would be unavailing and absurd. In
this free country, no person is under any
obligation to write; and the public (unfortunately)
is under no obligation to read.
It is certainly desirable to possess some
sketches of the character and manners of
our own country, and if this has been done
with any degree of success, it would be
wrong to doubt that it will find a reception
sufficiently favourable.

The original design of the author was,
if possible, even more limited and less ambitious
than what has been accomplished.
It was simply to produce a very short and
simple moral tale of the most humble description;

and if in the course of its production
it has acquired any thing of a
peculiar or local cast, this should be
chiefly attributed to the habits of the
writer's education, and that kind of accident
which seems to control the efforts of
those who have not been the subjects of
strict intellectual discipline, and have not
sufficiently premeditated their own designs.

It can scarcely be necessary to assure
the reader, that no personal allusions,
however remote, were intended to be
made to any individual, unless it be an
exception to this remark, that the writer
has attempted a sketch of a real character
under the fictitious appellation of
“Crazy Bet.”