Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England Eric, or Little by Little, by Rev Canon F.W. Farrar. ________________________________________________________________________ This famous book tells the story of a boy at a boarding school on the Isle of Man, which lies between England and Ireland, and within sight of Scotland. The boy succumbs to various forms of ill-behaviour, with illicit trips to a bar in the near-by town. There are various scary episodes. Overcome with shame at something he has done Eric runs away to sea, which he finds so horrible an experience that when he is next in England he jumps ship, makes his way home, by now very ill, and dies. Author's Preface (Farrar was Headmaster of Marlborough College). The story of `Eric' was written with but one single object--the vivid inculcation of inward purity and moral purpose, by the history of a boy who, in spite of the inherent nobleness of his disposition, falls into all folly and wickedness, until he has learnt to seek help from above. I am deeply thankful to know--from testimony public and private, anonymous and acknowledged--that this object has, by God's blessing, been fulfilled. The fact that new editions are still called for thirty-one years after its publication, shows, I trust, that the story has been found to be of real use. I have not thought it right to alter in any way the style or structure of the narrative, but I have so far revised it as to remove a few of the minor blemishes. I trust that the book may continue to live so long--and so long only--as it may prove to be a source of moral benefit to those who read it. April 21, 1889. ________________________________________________________________ ERIC, OR LITTLE BY LITTLE, BY REV CANON F.W. FARRAR. VOLUME ONE, CHAPTER ONE. CHILDHOOD. Ah dear delights, that o'er my soul On memory's wing like shadows fly! Ah flowers that Joy from Eden stole, While Innocence stood laughing by. _Coleridge_. "Hurrah! hurrah! hurrah!" cried a young boy, as he capered vigorously about, and clapped his hands. "Father and mother will be home in a week now, and then we shall stay here a little time, and _then_, and _then_, I shall go to school." The last words were enunciated with immense importance, as he stopped his impromptu dance before the chair where his sober cousin Fanny was patiently working at her crochet; but she did not look so much affected by the announcement as the boy seemed to demand, so he again exclaimed, "And then, Miss Fanny, I shall go to school." "Well, Eric," said Fanny, raising her matter-of-fact quiet face from her endless work, "I doubt, dear, whether you will talk of it with quite as much joy a year hence."