Produced by Malcolm Farmer, Huub Bakker and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries) Transcriber's Notes Some text styles have been preserved in this text by enclosing between special characters. Italics uses _underlines_, small caps uses ~tildes~ and bold uses =equals=. Font sizes are not preserved. HAPPY DAYS A.A. MILNE HAPPY DAYS BY A.A. MILNE NEW YORK GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY FOREWORD This book is made up from my contributions to _Punch_--a casual selection from the four hundred or so which have appeared in the last nine years. It is offered to the American public as a sample of that _Punch_ humour (and perhaps, therefore, British humour) which Americans so often profess not to understand. According to whether they like it or do not like it, I hope they will consider it a representative or an unrepresentative sample. A.A.M. CONTENTS MARGERY CHAPTER PAGE I. ~Her Sock~ 13 II. ~How We Play the Pianola~ 20 III. ~The Knight of the Chimney-Piece~ 27 IV. ~The Art of Conversation~ 32 V. ~Afternoon Sleep~ 38 VI. ~A Twice Told Tale~ 44 VII. ~The Literary Art~ 50 VIII. ~My Secretary~ 56 IX. ~The Truth About Home Rails~ 62 LIFE'S LITTLE TRAGEDIES X. ~A Crown of Sorrows~ 71 XI. ~The Lucky Month~ 76 XII. ~The Rescue~ 83 XIII. ~The Portuguese Cigar~ 90 XIV. ~A Cold World~ 96 XV. ~A Breath of Life~ 103 XVI. ~The Doctor~ 113 XVII. ~The Financier~ 120 XVIII. ~The Things That Matter~ 126 THREE STORIES XIX. ~The Making of a Christmas Story~ 135 XX. ~A Matter-of-Fact Fairy Tale~ 151 XXI. ~The Seaside Novelette~ 166 OUT-OF-DOORS XXII. ~The First of Spring~ 181 XXIII. ~The Coming of the Crocus~ 188