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. The starling, and Cockie, the cockatoo, were also pets of my own;
and Chammy, the chameleon, is described from the life. She died this
year (1894).
The story Stamboul tells about his life as a show cat is a sad one, and
alas! it tells but half the truth. Cat shows have done good to the
breed of cats in this country, but it has raised up a swarm of dealers,
that treat poor pussy in a shameful way, and look upon her as simply so
much merchandise.
In conclusion, I am not going to deny, that while trying to write a
pleasant book as a companion to my last year's "Sable and White," I have
endeavoured now and then to get a little hint slipped in edgeways,
which, if taken by the intelligent reader, may aid in gaining a more
comfortable position in our homesteads for our mutual friend the cat.
If I be successful in this, I shall consider myself quite as good as
that other fellow, you know, who caused two blades of grass to grow
where only one grew before.
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Gordon Stables.
_The Jungle, Twyford, Berks_.