Project Gutenberg's Over the Fireside with Silent Friends, by Richard King

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: Over the Fireside with Silent Friends

Author: Richard King

Release Date: April 20, 2008 [EBook #25111]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OVER THE FIRESIDE ***

Produced by Al Haines

OVER THE FIRESIDE

WITH SILENT FRIENDS

BY RICHARD KING

WITH A "FOREWORD" BY

SIR ARTHUR PEARSON, BART., G.B.E.

_BY THE SAME AUTHOR_

WITH SILENT FRIENDS
THE SECOND BOOK OF SILENT FRIENDS
PASSION AND POT-POURRI

LONDON: JOHN LANE, THE BODLEY HEAD

NEW YORK: JOHN LANE COMPANY

MCMXXI

_Many of the following Essays
appear by kind permission of
the Editor of "The Tatler."_

_Fifty per cent. of the author's
profit on the sale of this book
will be handed over to the
National Library of the Blind,
Tufton Street, Westminster, S.W._

I DEDICATE,

THIS LITTLE BOOK TO THOSE
V.A.D.'S WHO, THOUGH THE
WAR IS OVER, STILL "CARRY
ON" AND TO THOSE OTHER
MEN AND WOMEN WHO,
LIVING IN FREEDOM, HAVE
NOT FORGOTTEN THE MEN
WHO FOUGHT OR DIED FOR IT

FOREWORD

BY SIR ARTHUR PEARSON, BART., G.B.E.

Those who buy "Over the Fireside" will purchase for themselves the real
joy of mentally absorbing the delightful thoughts which Mr. Richard
King so charmingly clothes in words. And they will purchase, too, a
large share of an even greater pleasure--the pleasure of giving
pleasure to others--for the author tells me that he has arranged to
give half of the profits arising from the sale of this book to the
National Library for the Blind, thus enabling that beneficent
Institution to widen and extend its sphere of usefulness.

You will never, perhaps, have heard of the National Library for the
Blind, and even if it so happens that you are vaguely aware of its
existence, you will in no true degree realise all that it means to
those who are compelled to lead lives, which however full and
interesting, must inevitably be far more limited in scope than your
own. Let me try to make you understand what reading means to the
intelligent blind man or woman