bet, and besides, that gun has so injured my shoulder,
that I could not, if I would."

By that accidental shot, I obtained a great name as a
marksman, and by prudence I retained it all the voyage.
This is precisely my case now, gentle reader. I made an
accidental hit with the Clockmaker: when he ceases to
speak, I shall cease to write. The little reputation I
then acquired, I do not intend to jeopardize by trying
too many experiments. I know that it was chance--many
people think it was skill. If they choose to think so,
they have a right to their opinion, and that opinion is
fame. I value this reputation too highly not to take
care of it.

As I do not intend then to write often, I shall not
wire-draw my subjects, for the mere purpose of filling
my pages. Still a book should be perfect within itself,
and intelligible without reference to other books. Authors
are vain people, and vanity as well as dignity is indigenous
to a colony. Like a pastry-cook's apprentice, I see so
much of both their sweet things around me daily, that I
have no appetite for either of them.

I might perhaps be pardoned, if I took it for granted,
that the dramatis personae of this work were sufficiently
known, not to require a particular introduction. Dickens
assumed the fact that his book on America would travel
wherever the English language was spoken, and, therefore,
called it "Notes for General Circulation." Even Colonists