CONTENTS.
| PAGE | |
| Balaam and His Master | [7] |
| A Conscript’s Christmas | [45] |
| Ananias | [112] |
| Where’s Duncan? | [149] |
| Mom Bi | [170] |
| The Old Bascom Place | [192] |
BALAAM AND HIS MASTER.
What fantastic tricks are played by fate or circumstance! Here is a horrible war that shall redeem a nation, that shall restore civilization, that shall establish Christianity. Here is a university of slavery that shall lead the savage to citizenship. Here is a conflagration that shall rebuild a city. Here is the stroke of a pen that shall change the destinies of many peoples. Here is the bundle of fagots that shall light the fires of liberty. As in great things, so in small. Tragedy drags comedy across the stage, and hard upon the heels of the hero tread the heavy villain and the painted clown.
What a preface to write before the name of Billville!