Excerpt from The Iron Hand: A Story of the Times IN presenting my little book to you, dear reader, I have tried to write something to help you pass away some of your idle time to your own satisfaction, and I hope my story will find a place in your heart as well as in your library. My characters are drawn from life, and I assure you their story is not half told. Nellie, Mike, Ole, and Little Jack are all very dear friends of mine; I hope they may become yours also, and that you will join me in laughing at and pitying them in the different phases of their lives. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.