my "religious home" for more than twenty-five years. I
confess that it seems very strange to me to be introduced to an
audience gathered within these walls by the Mayor of Boston. In
presenting me to this large audience, you have called me by a name
by which, perhaps, I am better known than by my real name. I am
willing to acknowledge that I have written a great many stories for
young people. And here I wish to say--what may perhaps surprise
some of this audience--that I fully approve of and indorse all that
Mr. Greenough, the President of the Board of Trustees of the
Library, has said in his very able and instructive address, in
regard to a proper supervision of the reading of the girls and
boys. It was only the other day that one of the ablest and most
successful masters of the public schools in this part of the city
told me that he did not regard the establishment of public
libraries in our towns and cities as wholly a benefit and a
blessing to the communities, for the reason that some of them
supply the young with books of doubtful tendency. I am glad,
therefore, to know that the management of our public libraries and
the selection of the books are in the hands of those who are fully
awake to the responsibilities of their important positions.

Mr. Mayor, the mention by you of the name under which I have been
in the habit of writing suggests that I may say now what I had on
my mind, but did not intend to utter on this occasion. In one of
the wall pews which were on my left before this church was
remodelled, as a teacher in the Sunday-school connected with this
parish, I had a class of boys. It was more than twenty-five years
ago, and some of those boys have passed away from earth; but the
others are now, as men of middle age, engaged in the active duties
of life. I well remember how I looked into their faces, Sunday
after Sunday, and how I endeavored to give them the good word that
would help them along safely in their career of existence. I gave
them the best I had to give, for I was interested in them. My
interest made me desire to do more for them; and I thought I might
write a story that would influence and benefit them. I had it in my
mind to print a small pamphlet of sixty pages, and dedicate it to
the boys of my Sunday-school class, putting all their names upon
the pag