 | Cipher |  |
A FEW WORDS PREFATORY AND DEDICATORY.
Do you remember standing with me upon the
bridge, and tossing chip boats into the river, and how eagerly we
watched to see which should drift ashore, or wreck themselves
against the stone pier, or remain idle and motionless in the eddy
pool, and which should glide safely through the arch and down the
smooth stream beyond?
Come, now, and help me launch another venture, the little craft
called “Cipher,” whose construction you have watched with such
ready sympathy and interest, and to whose freight you have so
largely contributed. What is to be its fate? Will it be stranded,
or shattered, or left idly in the pool, or run down by heavier craft,
or sunk by the missiles of those wicked boys upon the other bank?
Shall we call to the boys and deprecate their attack by a confession
that our little boat is not an iron-clad war vessel, much less our
final idea of an elegant yacht, and that even for a chip boat she
has been almost spoiled by over-whittling? No, never mind the
boys; let us say nothing at all to them, but, standing hand in hand,
watch together the fortunes of our little craft, thanking God that,
should she sink or should she swim, she does not carry our lives or
our happiness with her.
| Cipher | |