PREFACE


The author gladly avails himself of the convenience of a Preface for
stating, that it will be seen at the close of the work why he makes such a
characterless character as Mr. Sponge the hero of his tale.

He will be glad if it serves to put the rising generation on their guard
against specious, promiscuous acquaintance, and trains them on to the noble
sport of hunting, to the exclusion of its mercenary, illegitimate
off-shoots.

_November 1852_




CHAPTER I

OUR HERO


[Illustration]

It was a murky October day that the hero of our tale, Mr. Sponge, or Soapey
Sponge, as his good-natured friends call him, was seen mizzling along
Oxford Street, wending his way to the West. Not that there was anything
unusual in Sponge being seen in Oxford Street, for when in town his daily