Publisher's Synopsis
GENTLE READER: -Let me make you acquainted with my book, "Back Home." (Your right hand, Book, your right hand. Pity's sakes! How many times have I got to tell you that? Chest up and forward, shoulders back and down, and turn your toes out more.) It is a little book, Gentle Reader, but please don't let that prejudice you against it. The General Public, I know, likes to feel heft in its hand when it buys a book, but I had hoped that you were a peg or two above the General Public. That mythical being goes on a reading spree about every so often, and it selects a book which will probably last out the craving, a book which "it will be impossible to lay down, after it is once begun, until it is finished." (I quote from the standard book notice). A few hours later the following dialogue ensues: "Henry!" "Yes, dear." "Aren't you 'most done reading?" "Just as soon as I finish this chapter." A sigh and a long wait. "Henry!" "Yes, dear." "Did you lock the side-door?" No answer. "Henry! Did you?" "Did I what?" "Did you lock the side-door?" "In a minute now." "Yes, but did you?" "M-hm. I guess so." "'Guess so!' Did you lock that side-door? They got in at Hilliard's night before last and stole a bag of clothes-pins."
