When war broke out, I had published three of these books in England, the
gleanings of nine years' regular work for _Punch_. There are, I
understand, a few Americans who read _Punch_, and it was suggested to me
that a suitable collection of articles from these three books might have
some sort of American sale. So I made such a collection, leaving out the
more topical and allusive sketches, and including those with a more
general appeal. I called the result "Happy Days"--an attractive title,
you will agree--and in 1915 a New York publisher was found for it.

This is a funny story; at least it appeals to _me_; so I won't remind
myself of the number of copies which we sold. That was tragedy, not
comedy. The joke lay in one of the few notices which the book received
from the press. For a New York critic ended his review of "Happy Days"
with these immortal words:

"_Mr. Milne is at present in the trenches facing the German bullets, so
this will probably be his last book_."

You see now why an apology is necessary. Here we are, seven years later,
and I am still at it.

But at any rate, it is the last of this sort of book. As I said in a
foreword to the English edition: "It is the last time because this sort
of writing depends largely upon the irresponsibility and high spirits of
youth for its success, and I want to stop before (may I say 'before'?)
the high spirits become mechanical and the irresponsibility a trick.
Perhaps the fact that this collection is final will excuse its air of
scrappiness. Odd Verses have crept in on the unanswerable plea that, if
they didn't do it now, they never would; War Sketches protested that I