Fibble, D.D.   By: Irvin S. Cobb (1876-1944)

Being Divers Episodes in the Life of a Certain Young Curate. Subdivided, for Convenience, into Three Parts

BY IRVIN S. COBB

FICTION

FIBBLE, D.D. LOCAL COLOR OLD JUDGE PRIEST BACK HOME THE ESCAPE OF MR. TRIMM

WIT AND HUMOR

"SPEAKING OF OPERATIONS ?" EUROPE REVISED ROUGHING IT DE LUXE COBB'S BILL OF FARE COBB'S ANATOMY

MISCELLANY

PATHS OF GLORY

GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY NEW YORK

[Illustration: MOMENTARILY THE ARTICLES THAT FILLED MY ARMS AND HUNG ON MY SHOULDERS AND BACK GREW MORE CUMBERSOME AND BURDENSOME]

Fibble, D.D.

By

Irvin S. Cobb

Author of "Back Home," "Paths of Glory," etc.

Illustrated by Tony Sarg

[Illustration: Emblem]

New York George H. Doran Company

COPYRIGHT, 1916, BY GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA COPYRIGHT, 1915 AND 1916, BY THE CURTIS PUBLISHING COMPANY

TO BOZEMAN BULGER, ESQ.

CONTENTS

PAGE PART ONE: THE YOUNG NUTS OF AMERICA Being a Card to the Public from the Pen of the Rev. Roscoe Titmarsh Fibble, D. D. 13

PART TWO: ELSEWHERE IN FRANCE Being an Open Letter Addressed by Dr. Fibble to One Sitting in a High Place 109

PART THREE: LOVER'S LEAP Being a Series of Extracts Culled from the Diary of Dr. Fibble 203

ILLUSTRATIONS

Momentarily the articles that filled my arms and hung on my shoulders and back grew more cumbersome and burdensome Frontispiece

PAGE May I ask whether you are going to a fancy dress party somewhere? 42

Until he loomed almost above my kneeling form 94

"I," she said, "am Major Jones" 132

From its depths I extracted the parting gifts bestowed upon me by my Great Aunt Paulina 176

"Say coo coo clearly and distinctly and keep on saying it until I call out 'Enough'" 234

To be exact, I kissed at her 268

PART ONE

Being a Card to the Public from the Pen of the Rev. Roscoe Titmarsh Fibble, D.D.

Fibble, D.D.

The Young Nuts of America

IT is with a feeling of the utmost reluctance, amounting if I may use so strong a word to distress, that I take my pen in hand to indite the exceedingly painful account which follows; yet I feel I owe it not only to myself and the parishioners of St. Barnabas', but to the community at large, to explain in amplified detail why I have withdrawn suddenly, automatically as it were, from the organisation of youthful forest rangers of which I was, during its brief existence, the actuating spirit, and simultaneously have resigned my charge to seek a field of congenial endeavour elsewhere.

My first inclination was to remain silent; to treat with dignified silence the grossly exaggerated statements that lately obtained circulation, and, I fear me, credence, in some quarters, regarding the circumstances which have inspired me in taking the above steps. Inasmuch, however, as there has crept into the public prints hereabout a so called item or article purporting to describe divers of my recent lamentable experiences an item which I am constrained to believe the author thereof regarded as being of a humorous character, but in which no right minded person could possibly see aught to provoke mirth I have abandoned my original resolution and shall now lay bare the true facts.