Brief description:
PREFACE.
In early life I was very much entertained and stimulated by Hughes’s books for England, Tom Brown at Rugby” and “Tom Brown at Oxford". These pleasing stories of the sports and of boys and young men naturally led me to think of things corresponding in our New England life. “Donald’s School Days” embraced my first effort to present to youthful readers a connected story which contained substantially biographical of two boys whom I knew from babyhood, and who actually graduated from the farm, the school, (allege, and one of them from a theological seminary. As I have previously said, I attempted portraiture of youth for the benefit of youth, as I observed persons and things in our New England life, showing the actual training of boys (forty years ago) and how strong wills and hot tempers were brought under subjection. I followed one of the lads is work of life, and gave touches of his successful beginnings.
The cordial reception by the readers, and the good results testified to the author in a multiplicity of individual instances, induce him to carry out his original promise to carry the younger of the boys into the Civil War, and give a recital of actual campaigns and battles. There is much evidence in my hand of the hold “Donald’s School Days” has upon the public. The nature of boys is doubtless the same, though our country and our modes of living are undergoing rapid and wonderful changes. The new generation of children and youth which have come on the stage since the book was written will, I believe, give a hearty welcome to the volume when it shall appear in a new dress and with modern illustrations. Boys enjoy to a degree reading of what their fathers accomplished, and how they acted when of their own age; but what their grandfathers did has a curious and often stronger hold upon them. Perhaps a better reason for reissuing “Donald” with some proper alterations is that he ought to bear company with “Henry in the War,” my model volunteer. This book my worthy publishers are now to present as a proper companion to the other. It will be remembered that the early life of Henry was carried on with that of his brother Donald in the first effort, where Donald was the principal character. In the new book, “Henry in the War,” Henry will, of course, become the hero of the story.
The recent war with Spain has brought into favorable prominence the regular army and the good conduct and thorough patriotism of numerous graduates of the Military Academy. Every lad will enjoy the pictures of West Point and vicinity, which the author endeavored to give with abundant detail. The very characters with whom Henry associated at the military school and in the army have become successful leaders in the campaigns and battles of our latest war. With less misgivings than before, the author presents again to the reading youth a revision of his work.
I0 EAST TWENTY-THIRD STREET,
NEW YORK,
January 11th, 1899.
In early life I was very much entertained and stimulated by Hughes’s books for England, Tom Brown at Rugby” and “Tom Brown at Oxford". These pleasing stories of the sports and of boys and young men naturally led me to think of things corresponding in our New England life. “Donald’s School Days” embraced my first effort to present to youthful readers a connected story which contained substantially biographical of two boys whom I knew from babyhood, and who actually graduated from the farm, the school, (allege, and one of them from a theological seminary. As I have previously said, I attempted portraiture of youth for the benefit of youth, as I observed persons and things in our New England life, showing the actual training of boys (forty years ago) and how strong wills and hot tempers were brought under subjection. I followed one of the lads is work of life, and gave touches of his successful beginnings.
The cordial reception by the readers, and the good results testified to the author in a multiplicity of individual instances, induce him to carry out his original promise to carry the younger of the boys into the Civil War, and give a recital of actual campaigns and battles. There is much evidence in my hand of the hold “Donald’s School Days” has upon the public. The nature of boys is doubtless the same, though our country and our modes of living are undergoing rapid and wonderful changes. The new generation of children and youth which have come on the stage since the book was written will, I believe, give a hearty welcome to the volume when it shall appear in a new dress and with modern illustrations. Boys enjoy to a degree reading of what their fathers accomplished, and how they acted when of their own age; but what their grandfathers did has a curious and often stronger hold upon them. Perhaps a better reason for reissuing “Donald” with some proper alterations is that he ought to bear company with “Henry in the War,” my model volunteer. This book my worthy publishers are now to present as a proper companion to the other. It will be remembered that the early life of Henry was carried on with that of his brother Donald in the first effort, where Donald was the principal character. In the new book, “Henry in the War,” Henry will, of course, become the hero of the story.
The recent war with Spain has brought into favorable prominence the regular army and the good conduct and thorough patriotism of numerous graduates of the Military Academy. Every lad will enjoy the pictures of West Point and vicinity, which the author endeavored to give with abundant detail. The very characters with whom Henry associated at the military school and in the army have become successful leaders in the campaigns and battles of our latest war. With less misgivings than before, the author presents again to the reading youth a revision of his work.
I0 EAST TWENTY-THIRD STREET,
NEW YORK,
January 11th, 1899.
Publication
Lee & Shepard Company, (1899) 2nd,Hdbk,,,Good