Araminta and the Automobile

Excerpt from Araminta and the Automobile. I have been asked to say a few words to you before you get busy with my little book that is filled with Cheerful Americans going out for automobile rides. A generation or two ago there was a poor writer (i mean poor in this world's goods of course) and he saw people riding about in automobiles as if they owned them and it made him wish he could ride about in one as if he owned it. But he lacked the nerve so he had to be content with trolleys. After a while he made believe that he had bought an automobile and he rode around in it with Araminta....