E-text prepared by Suzanne Shell, Janet Blenkinship, and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net/) In this day when the world is fairly teeming with books,--good books, books written with a motive, books inculcating morals, books teaching lessons,--it seems almost a piece of presumption too great for endurance to foist another upon the market. There is scarcely room in the literary world for amateurs and maiden efforts; the very worthiest are sometimes poorly repaid for their best efforts. Yet, another one is offered the public, a maiden effort,--a little thing with absolutely nothing to commend it, that seeks to do nothing more than amuse.…
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