University of Virginia Library

DEDICATORY LETTER:

THIS book of Seven Stories, before which I inscribe
your name, is made up from those special reminiscences
of travel, which—after a lapse of ten years—hang
strongest in my mind. I think there are some passably good
things in it; and some, I fear, which are not so good. Thus
far, it is unlike your practice, of which the soundness is
uniform.

At best, I count the book only a little bundle of fagots
which I have set to crackle away under the kettle, where I

hope some day to cook a more savory mess. And though
there be not much in this which shall stick to the ribs, I
hope there is nothing that will breed in any man an indigestion.
I think you count light food sometimes a good dietary;
and unless I am mistaken, I have known you, on
occasions, to smother a pill in a syllabub. And if I have
tried to drop here and there, in the course of these pages, a
nugget of wholesome sentiment, I hope it may prove as good
a tonic as any of your iodides.

I feel reasonably certain that the charge for it will be
smaller:—but on this score, I cannot speak positively, since
your generosity always keeps me your debtor.