Book excerpt: Excerpt from The Fields of the Fatherless WE lived in a little village by the sea. My earliest recollection is of a house facing the water. It was a queer Old house. The entrance was through a narrow alley. Turning to the right, one went down two steps, and into an open, paved passage, which was exclusively our own. At the end of it was our door in a little porch, formed by an outside stair, which led to the houses above. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.