PREFACE. IN this little book called "True Stories of Brave Deeds," I wish to set before my readers some of those noble examples of manly courage which are so profitable a study for the young. Some of the accounts-viz., "The Loss of the Schooner Magpie," the "Children in the Snow," and the "Adventures of Eight Sailors in Spitzbergen "-might have been entitled "Tales of Patient Endurance." I have, however, retained these stories among the "Brave Deeds," wishing to remind my readers that there are two kinds of bravery-one which makes a man willing to encounter danger, or even to risk his life at the call of duty; and the other, commonly called Fortitude which enables those on whom God has laid the cross of suffering, to bear it meekly after Christ, "who also suffered for us, leaving us an example that here we should follow in His steps." I acknowledge the kindness of Messrs. Macmillan and Co., by whose permission I have reprinted the two stories of shipwrecks and the “Gunpowder Perils," from the "Book of Golden Deeds." THE AUTHOR. |