UNCLE PEABODY'S WAY AND MINE I am old and love my ease and sometimes dare to think that I have earned it.

Why do I impose upon myself the task of writing down these memories, searching them and many notes and records with great care so that in every voice and deed the time shall speak?
My first care has been that neither vanity nor pride should mar a word of all these I have written or shall write.

So I keep my name from you, dear reader, for there is nothing you can give me that I want.

I have learned my lesson in that distant time and, having learned it, give you the things I stand for and keep myself under a mask.

These things urge me to my task.