Children! Are they the same the world over — . -does sexual precocity break out amongst them in certain localities at certain periods, something like an epidemic of measles from which few are immune, while in other places and at other times, they escape unscathed? Certain it is that my own childhood was lived in an atmosphere redolent with sexuality and this despite the fact that my home environment was of the best. My parents, indeed, held to the most Puritanical notions and doubtless would have been literally dumbfounded with horror had they ever gotten the slightest hint as to what was taking place almost under their very noses.

Either their own lives had matured under conditions quite different from mine or the passing years had obliterated all rememberance of juvenile delilitry for assuredly no suspecion as to what was transpiring about them, almost, as I have suggested, close enough to be smelled, ever arose to preoccupy their well-ordered lives during my childhood days.

Confidences exchanged in later years with adult friends indicate that while many went thru

experiences similar to mine, the lives of others were singularly barren of juvenile romance or precocity. To the lips of the former, therefore, my stories may bring a smile as old memories are stirred, and they are carried back over the highway of years by the narration of some incident which had a counterpart in their own lives, and to the latter, a sigh of regret at something missed in life.

I do not propose to fill up space with the narration of incidents other than those which some curious, unique or laughable element justifies their telling. With this brief prelude, I begin my story.