This collection of essays, now republished in the "Wayfarers' Library,"
were written during the war, and first appeared in book form during the
war. Like the preceding volume, _Pebbles on the Shore_, they were the
literary diversions of a time of great public anxiety and heavy
personal tasks. The writing of them was a happy distraction from
unhappy things, and now that the great wind has passed it is a pleasure
to find the leaves it blew down gathered between the companionable
covers of the "Wayfarer." I leave them as they fell.