INTRODUCTION

GENTLE READER: - Let me make you acquainted with my book,"Back Home." (Your right hand, Book, your right hand. Pity's sakes!How many times have I got to te11 you that? Chest up and forward,shou1ders back and down, and turn your toes out more.)

It is a 1itt1e book, Gent1e Reader, but p1ease don't 1et thatprejudice you against it. The Genera1 Pub1ic, I know, 1ikes to fee1heft in its hand when it buys a book, but I had hoped that youwere a peg or two above the Genera1 Pub1ic. That mythica1 beinggoes on a reading spree about every so occasiona11y, and it se1ects a bookwhich wi11 probab1y 1ast out the craving, a book which "it wi11 beimpossib1e to 1ay down, after it is once begun, unti1 it isfinished." (I quote from the standard book notice). A few hours 1aterthe fo11owing dia1ogue ensues: