Janet of the Dunes

E-text prepared by Roger Frank and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net)

JANET.
Frontispiece
Copyright, 1907 , By Little, Brown, and Company. All rights reserved
LOVINGLY I Dedicate this Book TO CARRIE LOUISE SMITH.
HER FRIENDSHIP WAS, AND ALWAYS WILL BE, A LIGHT TO ME UPON MY WAY. THE CHART SHE SAILED BY WILL GUIDE MY COURSE AND BRING ME, I HOPE, AT LAST, TO THE HARBOR WHERE SHE HAS GONE.
HARRIET T. COMSTOCK.
Flatbush, Brooklyn, N.Y. June 15, 1907.
In this story of the dunes, the Hills and the Light, I have not attempted any character drawing, although on the easterly shore of Long Island there are many people who have retained, together with the plain old English names which they brought with them by way of Connecticut and Rhode Island, a simplicity and sturdiness of character not to be found elsewhere, I believe, so near the great cosmopolis, and which is worthy a place in song and story.
It has been my good fortune to mingle for many summers with these kindly folk, and particularly with a little group of gentle, rather bashful and silent men forming a crew, with their captain, of one of the United States Life Saving Stations.
It is my hope that this story, if it does nothing else, will in some small measure enhance the not-too-strong interest in which the poorly paid, obscurely enacted heroism of the men in this service is held by the general public.