Musings of the Pilgrim Bard

Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. For years I have hoped as it were against hope that some day I would be able to publish a volume of my musings. And as the fruition of my hopes is about to be realized I prefix this preface as an apology to my friends. All who know me know me well; know that the thoughts ingrafted in the following far from perfect lines were invariably written, as it were, between times; in plain, they were nearly all written during the silent watches of the night. Oftener by the light of a campfire than otherwise. Some were written on the smooth surface of weather-beaten bones, on the decayed and whitened surface of trees, on bark, stones, and crystalized gypsum. Just as the spirit moved I wrote and seldom remodeled a stanza of these weird, sometimes uncanny, lyrics. While I am not averse to criticism, I would remind any of said class that I am a graduate of the College of Nature, worship Nature's God, and at times am inclined to think that I am not altogether free from superstition.