The Project Gutenberg EBook of Skippy Bedelle, by Owen Johnson

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Title: Skippy Bedelle
His Sentimental Progress From the Urchin to the Complete
Man of the World

Author: Owen Johnson

Illustrator: Ernest Fuhr

Release Date: May 14, 2008 [EBook #25465]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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SKIPPY BEDELLE

By Owen Johnson

_Lawrenceville Stories_

THE PRODIGIOUS HICKEY
THE VARMINT
THE TENNESSEE SHAD
SKIPPY BEDELLE

* * * * *

STOVER AT YALE
THE WASTED GENERATION
BLUE BLOOD
CHILDREN OF DIVORCE

[Illustration: They walked in silence, oppressed by the greatness of
their grief. FRONTISPIECE. _See page 279_]

SKIPPY BEDELLE

HIS SENTIMENTAL PROGRESS FROM
THE URCHIN TO THE COMPLETE
MAN OF THE WORLD

BY
OWEN JOHNSON

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY
ERNEST FUHR

[Illustration]

BOSTON
LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY
1937

_Copyright, 1922_,
BY OWEN JOHNSON.

_All rights reserved_

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

_To_
CHARLES HANSON TOWNE
FOR AULD LANG SYNE

PREFACE

LIKEWISE A DECLARATION OF PRINCIPLES

Until the first great disillusions of his youth, the Bedelle Foot
Regulator and the Mosquito-Proof Socks, had brought a new sentimental
need of consolation and understanding, Skippy Bedelle's opinion of the
feminine sex had been decidedly monastic. During the first twenty-five
years of their existence, he regarded them as unmitigated nuisances, and
pondering on them, he often wondered at the hidden purposes of the
Creator. Later they might possibly serve some purpose by marrying and
adding to the world's supply of boys. In a further progress, a sort of
penitential progress, they became more valuable members of