_ TO MY TEN BEST FRIENDS:
Who are far wiser in their way and far better in every way, than I; and yet who have not the wisdom to know it
Who do not merely think I am perfect, but who are calmly and permanently convinced of my perfection;--and this in spite of fifty disillusions a day
Who are frantically happy at my coming and bitterly woebegone in my absence
Who never bore me and never are bored by me
Who never talk about themselves and who always listen with rapturous interest to anything I may say
Who, having no conventional standards, have no respectability; and who, having no conventional consciences, have no sins
Who teach me finer lessons in loyalty, in patience, in true courtesy, in unselfishness, in divine forgiveness, in pluck and in abiding good spirits than do all the books I have ever read and all the other models I have studied
Who have not deigned to waste time and eyesight in reading a word of mine and who will not bother to read this verbose tribute to themselves
In short, to the most gloriously satisfactory chums who ever appealed to human vanity and to human desire for companionship
TO OUR TEN SUNNYBANK COLLIES MY STORY IS GRATEFULLY AND AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED _