A fanciful nicety it was on the part of my deceased friend, who, if thinking wisely, ought rather to have conjured me, by all the tender ties of our friendship and common pursuits, to have carefully revised, altered, and augmented, at my judgment and discretion.

But the will of the dead must be scrupulously obeyed, even when we weep over their pertinacity and self-delusion.

So, gentle reader, I bid you farewell, recommending you to such fare as the mountains of your own country produce; and I will only farther premise, that each Tale is preceded by a short introduction, mentioning the persons by whom, and the circumstances under which, the materials thereof were collected.
JEDEDIAH CLEISHBOTHAM.
II.

INTRODUCTION.
to THE BLACK DWARF.
The ideal being who is here presented as residing in solitude, and haunted by a consciousness of his own deformity, and a suspicion of his being generally subjected to the scorn of his fellow-men, is not altogether imaginary.

An individual existed many years since, under the author's observation, which suggested such a character.