contrive to pick up so many facts about the history of the town, its
distinguished men of the past, its ancient church edifices, etc., etc.,
as to surprise and perhaps enlighten the pastor and some of the people,
as he skillfully introduced these facts into the opening of his
address. Dr. Roy had an equal facility in writing down his observations
in graphic and vigorous English. What some other men would labor in
penning with frequent hesitation and erasures, he would dash off
_currente calamo_. It has fallen to the lot of Dr. Roy to have had
another advantage. He has been a pastor for several years, and
subsequently a Secretary alternately of the A.M.A. and the A.H.M.S. for
nearly thirty years. His duties have called him into all parts of the
United States, and especially into the West and South. In all his
journeys he has jotted down his rapid and yet careful observations, and
the Letters of Pilgrim in the _Congregationalist_, the _Independent_
and the _Advance_, have become as familiar as household words in the
pastor's study, and the homes of Congregationalists throughout the
land. The thoughtful care and deft fingers of Pilgrim's wife have
clipped out these letters and pasted them into suitable blank books
until they became almost a library. The topics covered by these letters
are as varied as the place in which they were written. They begin as
far back as 1857, and describe events in the Border war of Kansas, the
great Rebellion, the steps of Reconstruction as well as the more
peaceful but no less interesting proceedings of National Councils,
great Missionary Anniversaries and the quiet, yet lifelike scenes
gathered from pastors' lives, and the homes of the people settling in
the far West, or of the negroes in their new life as Freedmen.

This volume contains the gems gathered out of this great casket. The
reader must not expect to find in it consecutive history or full
details on every topic, but he will be surprised, we think, at finding