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[Illustration: AN OLD MAN’S BLESSING. Page 126.]




  THE
  FORTUNATE ISLAND

  _AND OTHER STORIES_

  BY MAX ADELER

  AUTHOR OF “OUT OF THE HURLY BURLY” “ELBOW ROOM”
  “RANDOM SHOTS” ETC.

  BOSTON
  LEE AND SHEPARD PUBLISHERS
  NEW YORK CHARLES T. DILLINGHAM
  1882




  COPYRIGHT, 1881,
  BY CHAS. HEBER CLARK.

_All Rights Reserved._




PREFACE.


The custom which has ordained that a book shall have a preface is
useful enough to writers who have to say to their readers something
which could not properly be said in the body of the text; but it
imposes a burden upon those who have no such communication to make. The
author of the present volume considers that he may fairly perform the
task by remarking that if the tales herein contained are not so amusing
as