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Three weeks without a drink—and our would-be reformer decides he deserves a fifteen-cent reward.

In George Ade’s early-twentieth-century America, good intentions can be as comic as their undoing. This collection turns everyday ambitions and social rituals into brisk, irreverent fables: a self-satisfied abstainer tumbles back into temptation, cultured guests reveal their taste for popular songs, and schoolboys argue over learning and wealth. Ade’s lively colloquial voice delights in the gap between what people profess and what they actually do, while each tale leaves a sharp little moral in its wake. How long can anyone keep a straight face—or a straight course—when human nature keeps getting in the way?

With centuries of literature, it's inevitable that some will fall through the cracks. We hunt down public domain works and restore them so they're not lost to the world.

Who are we? We're Cairn Press. Our background is in design, publishing, typography, and technology. These skills fuel our mission to create the highest quality Public Domain eBooks available online, at an affordable price. We give them the treatment they deserve; our proprietary process restores books for a better overall user experience in design, readability, and e-reader compatibility.