ing fully into the spirit of the scenes he
describes. He has endeavored to combine healthy moral lessons with
a sufficient amount of exciting interest to render the story
attractive to the young; and he hopes he has not mingled these
elements of a good juvenile book in disproportionate quantities.

Thus was laid the foundation of the writer's life-work for young
people, after an initiation of over twenty years as a teacher in the
schools of Boston, in all grades from usher to principal. Even then he
had not the remotest idea of becoming an author; he never definitely
prepared himself for such a profession; and, as he has often stated it,
he "blundered into the business of writing books for the young," though
he had had considerable experience in story-writing for magazines and
newspapers.

This beginning has been followed by ninety-six volumes in sets of six
volumes or more, and two others, the whole of the ninety-eight books
being for young people. To these may be added the number of bound
yearly volumes of magazines for juveniles of which the writer has been
the editor for thirty-two years, making one hundred and thirty volumes
of this kind, besides half a dozen or more for adults, to say nothing
of nine hundred stories, long and short, for periodicals. This is the
literary record of the author in the seventy-fifth year of his age; and
being still in fair physical condition, it is possible that more may be
added to the number.

This is an introduction to the republication of "The Boat Club," and
this book suggested what has been written so far. It occurs to me that
some venerable person who read the book in childhood may have a desire
to know how it happened to be written, and possibly some others may
wish to know something of the motives which have animated the writer
for the long term in which he has been engaged in producing books for
juvenile readers. In a speech made by the author in 1875, at the
dedication of a branch of the Boston Public Library in Dorchester,
which had become a part of the city, the desire of the venerable
personage and the wishes of the other inquirers were fully answered;
and perhaps they cannot be better satisfied than in reading a portion
of this address, given after the writer had been introduced by the
Mayor of Boston:--

Though not to the manner born, Mr. Mayor, I have resided in
Dorchester during the greater portion of my life; and this church
has been