PREFACE.
My Dear Reader, - This story is not to be a novel, as the world understands the word; and we tell you so beforehand, lest you be in ill-humor by not finding what you expected. For if you hae been told that your dinner is to be salmon and green pease, and made up your
you be
so beforehand, lest
ing what you expected.
your dinner
is
For
to be salmon
up your mind to that
to the table, find that
you may be out of
it
sorts
in ill-humor
and we
by not
tell
find
you have been told that
if
and green pease, and made
of
bill
fare,
and then, on coming
beefsteak and tomatoes,
is
not because beefsteak and
tomatoes are not respectable viands, but because they
what you have made up your mind to enjoy.
are not
Now,
a novel, in our days,
is
a three-story
affair,
a complicated, complex, multiform composition, requir
ing no end of scenery and dramatis personce, and plot
and
plan, together with trap-doors, pit-falls, wonderful
escapes and thrilling dangers
one
all
over the earth,
and the scenes transport
to England, Italy, Switzerland,
Japan, and Kamtschatka.
904883
But
this is a little
common-
