SAMPSON LOW, SON & CO., 47 LUDGATE HILL.

1860.

[The right of Translation is reserved.]

ENS SH
OXFORD

LIBRARY

LONDON: PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, STAMFORD STREET.

PREFACE.

THESE Tales have already appeared in "Household Words" and "All the Year Round." They are now, by Mr. Dickens's kind permission, reprinted, at the instance of the Publishers, who offered satisfactory reasons for such a course; and the writer can only hope that they will find a sufficient number of friends to prove that they were not altogether mistaken.

Manchester, April, 1860.

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