The Project Gutenberg EBook of At Good Old Siwash, by George Fitch

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Title: At Good Old Siwash

Author: George Fitch

Release Date: April 25, 2008 [EBook #25163]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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AT

GOOD OLD SIWASH

BY GEORGE FITCH

ILLUSTRATED

BOSTON LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY 1916

_Copyright, 1910, 1911,_ BY THE CURTIS PUBLISHING COMPANY.

_Copyright, 1911,_ BY LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY.

_All rights reserved_

Printers S. J. PARKHILL & CO., BOSTON, U.S.A.

[Illustration: Twenty-five yards with four Muggledorfer men hanging on
his legs
FRONTISPIECE. _Page 19_]

AT GOOD OLD SIWASH

PREFACE

Little did I think, during the countless occasions on which I have
skipped blithely over the preface of a book in order to plunge into the
plot, that I should be called upon to write a preface myself some day.
And little have I realized until just now the extreme importance to the
author of having his preface read.

I want this preface to be read, though I have an uneasy premonition that
it is going to be skipped as joyously as ever I skipped a preface
myself. I want the reader to toil through my preface in order to save
him the task of trying to follow a plot through this book. For if he
attempts to do this he will most certainly dislocate something about
himself very seriously. I have found it impossible, in writing of
college days which are just one deep-laid scheme after another, to
confine myself to one plot. How could I describe in one plot the life of
the student who carries out an average of three plots a day? It is
unreasonable. So I have done the next best thing. There is a plot in
every chapter. This requires the use of upwards of a dozen villains, an
almost equal number of heroes, and a whole bouquet of heroines. But I
do not begrudge this extravagance. It is necessary, and that settles it.

Then, again, I want to answer in this preface a number of questions by
readers who kindly conse