A bachelor sits before a wood fire, a city grate, and the glow of a cigar, and lets his thoughts drift. The smoke brings doubt, the blaze brings cheer, the ashes bring desolation, as he imagines the wife he might marry, the children they might have, the griefs of boyhood and the death of those he loves.
Published under the name Ik Marvel in 1850, this sentimental reverie was one of the most widely read American books of its century. Download the free EPUB.