Being a reproduction of the 1917 original edition, this book is without illustrations or index, and has numerous typos or missing text. However due to its cultural and classical values, we have decided to reproduce it despite its imperfections and hope that the reader will appreciate and enjoy this valuable book in its new reprinted format. The author of this book, Henry Shute (Henry Augustus Shute) was born and lived in Exeter, New Hampshire. He was a graduate of Phillips Exeter Academy and Harvard University . He was a lawyer and a judge of the municipal court.In the 1890s, the Exeter News-Letter began publishing a weekly column of Shute’s recollections of his boyhood in Exeter. These were self-published by Shute under the titles of Several Hard Characters (1898) and Neighborhood Sketches (1901). In 1902, his third book, The Real Diary of a Real Boy was published which provided Shute with national recognition. He went on to write a total of twenty popular books thereafter.