Shireen and Her Friends

Yes, this little preface is written for the Reviewer and nobody else. Indeed, the public seldom bother to read prefaces, and small blame to them. Reading the preface to a book is just like being button-holed by some loquacious fellow, as you are entering the theatre, who wants to tell you all about the play you are just going to see. So sure am I of this, that I had at first thought of writing my preface in ancient Greek. Of course every reviewer is as well-versed in that beautiful language as Professor Geddes, or John Stuart Blackie himself. I was only restrained by remembering that my own Greek might have got just a trifle mouldy. Well, all I want to say in this page is, that there is a deal more truth in the pages that follow than might at first be imagined. Both Shireen and Tom Brandy were real characters, and the incidents and adventures of their life on board ship were very much as I have told them.