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CHERRY
by Booth Tarkington
HARPER & BROTHERS
PUBLISHERS NEW YORK & LONDON
Copyright, 1903, by HARPER & BROTHERS.
All rights reserved. Published October, 1903
To the diligent and industrious members of the class of 1893 at Nassau Hall; also to the idler spirits who wasted the Golden Hours of Youth in profitless playing of toss-the-ball; and even to those more dissolute ones who risked the tutor's detection at pitch-the-penny and carved their names on Adam's table in brief, to all of that happy class is dedicated this heroic tale of the days when Commencement came in September.
ACROSS the most vital precincts of the mind a flippant sprite of memory will sometimes skip, to the dismay of all philosophy. So it was with me no longer ago than last night; for, as I sat engaged in the composition of a treatise upon a subject worthy of the profoundest concentration, there suddenly fluttered before my mental eye some cherry-colored ribbons; and, quite inexplicably, at the same time, it became clear to me that the most charming morning of my life was that sunshiny one, in 1762, when Miss Sylvia Gray and I went walking.
It may be there are some who will declare that an aging person would do better to get forward with his treatise than to waste the treasure of his talent upon a narrative of the follies of youth; but this I refute. The flicker of cherry color having caused my pen to wander and me to have dreams all night--I never dream--what better than to seek relief by setting down the bewildering circumstances connected with the ribbons? Let me say that I have found through many experiences tha