Excerpt: "When my own boy and girls, who call me "Daddy," read any of my books at home-and I am proud to say they all do-a question almost invariably asked is: "But do tell us, is it all true?" I answer as best I can. Now, no tale in the world is ever "all true": it would not be a story if it were, would it? Nevertheless I have knocked about all over the world so much, and made so many notes and observations, that I have my imagination to fall back upon less often than if I had stayed by the fireside all my life. Now I want to tell you right away, that most of my people or heroes in this story have had their prototypes, and I have tried to paint them from the life."

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