The Story Of Kennett
Excerpt
I wish to dedicate this Story to you, not only because some of
you
inhabit the very houses, and till the very fields which I have
given to
the actors in it, but also because many of you will recognize
certain of
the latter, and are therefore able to judge whether they are drawn
with
the simple truth at which I have aimed. You are, naturally,
the critics
whom I have most cause to fear; but I do not inscribe these pages
to you
with the design of purchasing your favor. I beg you all to
accept the
fact as an acknowledgment of the many quiet and happy years I have
spent
among you; of the genial and pleasant relations into which I was
born,
and which have never diminished, even when I have returned to you
from
the farthest ends of the earth; and of the use (often unconsciously
to
you, I confess,) which I have drawn from your memories of former
days,
your habits of thought and of life.
