Paris, 21st October 1899.
*****
Good friends, my readers, who peruse this book,
Be not offended, whilst on it you look:
Denude yourselves of all deprav’d affection,
For it contains no badness nor infection:
‘T is true that it brings forth to you no birth
Of any value, but in point of mirth;
Thinking therefore how sorrow might your mind
Consume, I could no apter subject find;
One inch of joy surmounts of grief a span;
Because to laugh is proper to the man.
(RABELAIS: _To the Readers_).
*****
[Illustration: 01.jpg Story the First -- THE REVERSE OF THE MEDAL.]