Farnol, Jeffery, 1878-1952 / 2008-06-13 00:00:00

EBOOK THE BROAD HIGHWAY ***


Etext prepared by Polly Stratton and Andrew Sly


The Broad Highway
by Jeffery Farnol


To
Shirley Byron Jevons
The friend of my boyish ambitions
This book is dedicated
As a mark of my gratitude, affection and esteem
J. F.


ANTE SCRIPTUM

As I sat of an early summer morning in the shade of a tree,
eating fried bacon with a tinker, the thought came to me that I
might some day write a book of my own: a book that should treat
of the roads and by-roads, of trees, and wind in lonely places,
of rapid brooks and lazy streams, of the glory of dawn, the glow
of evening, and the purple solitude of night; a book of wayside
inns and sequestered taverns; a book of country things and ways
and people. And the thought pleased me much.
"But," objected the Tinker, for I had spoken my thought aloud,
"trees and suchlike don't sound very interestin'--leastways--not
in a book, for after all a tree's only a tree and an inn, an inn;
no, you must tell of other things as well."
"Yes," said I, a little damped, "to be sure there is a highwayman--"
"Come, that's better!" said the Tinker encouragingly.
"Then," I went on, ticking off each item on my fingers, "come Tom
Cragg, the pugilist--"
"Better and better!" nodded the Tinker.
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