The brief chapters which make up this book have appeared in successive issues of the advance during recent months. They are a literary recreation, and something more; for they have a serious purpose. They were begun with little thought that they would be continued more than a few weeks, but as readers of the advance appeared to like them, and other papers copied them, they have continued to appear. The first one was written while the writer, accompanied by his wife, was making a tour of the Mississippi River in the spring of 1915. The manner in which the mate of the boat addressed the col ored deckhands afforded some food for thought. The parable does not reproduce the mate's language precisely, but the meaning and intent are preserved.