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Project Gutenberg's The Red Book of Heroes, by Leonora Blanche Lang This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org Title: The Red Book of Heroes Author: Leonora Blanche Lang Editor: Andrew Lang Release Date: August 19, 2006 [EBook #19078] Language: English Character set encoding: ASCII *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE RED BOOK OF HEROES *** Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Colin Bell and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net [Illustration: "'Go back,' he said."] THE RED BOOK OF HEROES BY MRS. LANG EDITED BY ANDREW LANG [Illustration] WITH 8 COLOURED PLATES AND NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS BY A. WALLIS MILLS LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. 39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON NEW YORK, BOMBAY, AND CALCUTTA 1909 All rights reserved PREFACE 'Life is not all beer and skittles,' said a reflective sportsman, and all books are not fairy tales. In an imperfect state of existence, 'the peety of it is that we cannot have all things as we would like them.' Undeniably we would like all books to be fairy tales or novels, and at present most of them are. But there is another side to things, and we must face it. '"Life is real, life is earnest," as Tennyson tells us,' said an orator to whom I listened lately, and though Longfellow, not Tennyson, wrote the famous line quoted by the earnest speaker, yet there is a good deal of truth in it. The word 'earnest,' like many other good words, has been overdone. It is common to sneer at 'earnest workers,' yet where would we be without them, especially in our climate? In a Polynesian island, where the skies for ever smile, and the blacks for ever dance, earnestness is superfluous. The bread-fruit tree delivers its rolls punctually every morning, strawberries or other fruits, as nice, spring beneath the feet of the dancers; the cavern in the forest provides a roof and shelter from the sun; the sea supplies a swimming-bath, and man, in time of peace, has only to enjoy himself, eat and drink, laugh and love, sing songs and tell fairy tales. His drapery is woven of fragrant flowers, nobody is poor and anxious about food, nobody is rich and afraid of losing his money, nobody needs to think of helping others; he h
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