Excerpt from The Road to Paris: A Story of Adventure When I was a boy'in our valley behind the Blue Mountains of Pennsylvania, I used to read the 'true Travels, Adventures, and Observations of Captain John Smith, in. Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, from 1593 to and wonder whether I should ever have any travels or adventures of my own to make a book of. When, afterwards, I did go a travelling, and adventures did come thick and fast upon me, I was too much engrossed in the travels and adventures themselves to give a thought as to what matter they might be for narration. Not till this breathing-place came in my life, did my boyhood dreams return to my mind, and did I realize that my part in battle and imprisonment, danger and escape, love and intrigue, would make a book that might be worth fireside reading. That book I now begin, and shall probably finish it if I be not inter rupted by untimely death or by some new call to scenes of enterprise and turmoil, -for it is no retired veteran, but a man early in his twenties, that here tries whether with pen and ink he can make as fair a Show as he has already made with implements less peaceful. 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.