PREFACE. THE story of Boss is a photograph taken from the memory of thosewho were members of the household and witnesses of the events described, and is true in all essential features, except that fictitious names of persons and places are substituted in the narrative for the real ones. I have endeavored to give the story its appropriate setting, describing the region in which the incidents transpired, inter- spersing them with the folk-lore, the jests, the anecdotes, and the local expressions which gave color to the daily life of the people of that neighborhood. The sacrifices which they made on the altar of their divinity, Honor, may seem exaggerated to those removed by time and distance from the scene. They were true, nevertheless, and those who refused to worship at that shrine could not wear the badge of the F. F. V. in the halcyon days of the Old Dominion. ODETTE TYLEB. NEW YORK, 1895. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.