| Note: | Images of the original pages are available through Internet Archive. See https://archive.org/details/fablesoffieldsta00frye |
Cover created by Transcriber and placed in the Public Domain.
BY
JAMES ALBERT FRYE
BOSTON
THE COLONIAL COMPANY
1894
Copyright, 1893
BY
JAMES ALBERT FRYE
All rights reserved
ROCKWELL & CHURCHILL PRESS BOSTON
TO
THE OFFICERS AND MEN
OF THE
VOLUNTEER SERVICE
The seven fables flanked by the coversof this book have to do with asmany strange and wonderful happeningsin the history of an infantryregiment—an infantry regiment of volunteers—intime of peace. They are seasonedabundantly, from end to end, with thatwhich is stranger than fiction, but theydiffer slightly from “muster-rolls for pay,”which, I am informed, one has to submitunder oath.
If you are of the volunteer service, youmay be trusted, I think, to catch the spiritof these stories; if you are of The Army,you may consider the tales as illustrativeof the customs of a service to which yourown is but distantly related; but if it isviyour great misfortune to be an out-and-outcivilian—why, then you must take yourchance with what follows, and lay noblame upon me should you find yourselfon unfamiliar ground.
In another and an earlier book I relatedhow we of The Third came to settle ourselvesin our off-duty quarters up in TheBattery; how Sam, the veteran gunner ofa by-gone war, won his medal, our mostprofound respect, and a place among ussecond in importance only to that of thecolonel commanding; how our horse,“Acme,” gained for us great renown andno little wealth; how Larry, our seventhmajor, rose to the rank of hero; and manyother odd truths concerning the Old Regiment.So it may be that, by reason ofhaving read these things, you are nostranger to us, to our traditions, and to oureasy-going ways. But even if to-day youcome for the first time into our midst, youare none the less welcome—and you willviifind awaiting you a chair, a pipe, and apewter mug at our long oaken table, to saynothing of an open-hearted greeting fromas good a set of fellows as ever lent theirnames to the adornment of a regimentalroster.
J. A. F.
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