FOOTNOTES:
[1] The most casual observer will readily see that this strain of remark can refer only to a far distant past. If our age is remarkable for any one thing, it is for a delicate reticence regarding what is not lawfully, and by divine right, its own.—Note by Editor.
[2] A circumstance which at once relegates this story to the last century.—Note by Editor.
[3] Proof that this paper belongs to an age when people had time to pronounce long words.—Ed.
[4] This was in reference to Mr. Hunt's repeated injunctions that I should write only books.
[5] The editor cannot allow this sentiment to go out into the world unchallenged. To him few things are more marvelous than the amount of provender which the ill-favored and lean-fleshed kine will consume without giving any sign of feeding. Poverty, or incapacity, which in this country is the almost inseparable companion of permanent poverty—poverty is a sort of Chatmoss into which cart-loads of gravel may be upset without giving any solid foundation to build on. Horace Greeley was as true as the multiplication-table when he said that people generally earn money as fast as they have the ability to expend it judiciously.—Ed.
[6] A “Common” is a tract of ground which belongs not to individuals but to the public. Probably the bookstore referred to was on the outskirts of the city, and the “Common” was the land as yet unappropriated by builders, and on which, doubtless, sheep and cows grazed undisturbed.—Note by Editor.
[7] “The dickens!” is an exclamation of playful surprise. Probably the word as here used, is a corruption of this phrase, and was merely a strong way of expressing, on Mr. Hunt's part, that he had written no other letter at all. But after so great a lapse of time it is impossible to get at the exact truth.—Note by Editor.
[8] The Editor trusts that it is not necessary for him to point out to his youthful readers that this spirit is not presented to them for an example.
[9] Here the narrative seems to deviate into prophecy.—Note by Ed.
[10] The editor considers this levity highly unbecoming so solemn an occasion.
[11] I think this matter in detail came up subsequently in connection with the diminished price paid me for copyright, but as it belongs here also, I put it in all at once.
[12] These letters do not appear in this publication.
[13] The “jubilee house” seems to be a reference to the institution of the jubilee year among the Hebrews,—a year in which impoverished families might redeem the property from which, at any time during fifty years previous, they had been forced to part. Thus we are told that if a man purchased of the Levites, the house that was sold should go out in the year of jubilee. Such a house might long be known in the neighborhood as the “jubilee house.” The hammering spoken of was probably connected with the repairing of some such lately redeemed house, and seems to point to an Eastern origin and locality for this narrative.—Note by Editor.
Transcriber's Note.
Variable spelling and hyphenation have been retained. Minor punctuation inconsistencies have been silently repaired.