Excerpt from The Young Islanders: A Tale of the Last Century What became of the intruder I know not; but down went the precious bundle in a twinkle, and alighting on my boot-toe, it was projected thence, in that equally immeasurable portion of duration, called a tantz'vy! But, alas! The random records were neither stitched nor tied, and, imitating the truant subjects of their pages, they eschewed all control, and became like a flight of carrier pigeons, wheeling in the blast. I snared and bagged the fluttering covey as I could, which done, there remained to me the delightful task of arranging, numbering, and deciphering the multitudinous collection, scarcely a leaf of which was not stained, obliterated, or partly consumed, by rain, mildew, sea-water, or some such casualty of time and travel. Now, whatever I may think, it is not for me to say, that I could have written you a better tale than this, crammed full of unheard-of incidents, with half the trouble the editorship has cost me. The reader may doubt my ability in that matter. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.