In these days of rushing railway journeys, of motor cars, telegrams, telephones, and aeroplanes, we are apt to lose sight of the tales of more leisurely times, when lumbering stage-coaches and relays of willing horses were our only means of transit from one kingdom to the other.Because the "long ago" means to us so infinitely valuable a possession, we have striven to preserve in print a few of the stories that still remain--flotsam and jetsam saved from the cruel rush of an overwhelming tide.