The Red Book of Heroes

Life is not all beer and skittles, ' said a reflective sportsman, and all books are not fairy tales. In an imperfect state of existence, 'the peety of it is that we cannot have all things as we would like them.' Undeniably we would like all books to be fairy tales or novels, and at present most of them are. But there is another side to things, and we must face it. '"Life is real, life is earnest, " as Tennyson tells us, ' said an orator to whom I listened lately, and though Longfellow, not Tennyson, wrote the famous line quoted by the earnest speaker, yet there is a good deal of truth in it.
The word 'earnest, ' like many other good words, has been overdone. It is common to sneer at 'earnest workers, ' yet where would we be without them, especially in our climate?