Chapter XXV: Life Out of Death

The sound of kicking, or knocking, grew louder every moment: and at last a door opened somewhere near us. “Did you say ‘come in!’ Sir?” my landlady asked timidly.

“Oh yes, come in!” I replied. “What’s the matter?”

“A note has just been left for you, Sir, by the baker’s boy. He said he was passing the Hall, and they asked him to come round and leave it here.”

The note contained five words only. “Please come at once. Muriel.”

A sudden terror seemed to chill my very heart. “The Earl is ill!” I said to myself. “Dying, perhaps!” And I hastily prepared to leave the house.

“No bad news, Sir, I hope?” my landlady said, as she saw me out. “The boy said as some one had arrived unexpectedly——.”

“I hope that is it!” I said. But my feelings were those of fear rather than of hope: though, on entering the house, I was somewhat reassured by finding luggage lying in the entrance, bearing the initials “E. L.”

“It’s only Eric Lindon after all!” I thought, half relieved and half annoyed. “Surely she need not have sent for me for _that_!”

Lady Muriel met me in the passage. Her eyes were gleaming—but it was the excitement of joy, rather than of grief. “I have a surprise for you!” she whispered.

“You mean that Eric Lindon is here?” I said, vainly trying to disguise the involuntary bitterness of my tone. “‘_The funeral baked meats did coldly furnish forth the marriage-tables_,’” I could not help repeating to myself. How cruelly I was misjudging her!

“No, no!” she eagerly replied. “At least—Eric _is_ here. But——,” her voice quivered, “but there is _another_!”

No need for further question. I eagerly followed her in. There on the bed, he lay—pale and worn—the mere shadow of his old self—my old friend come back again from the dead!

“Arthur!” I exclaimed. I could not say another word.

“Yes, back again, old boy!” he murmured, smiling as I grasped his hand. “_He_,” indicating Eric, who stood near, “saved my life—_He_ brought me back. Next to God, we must thank _him_, Muriel, my wife!”

Silently I shook hands with Eric and with the Earl: and with one consent we moved into the shaded side of the room, where we could talk without disturbing the invalid, who lay, silent and happy, holding his wife’s hand in his, and watching her with eyes that shone with the deep steady light of Love.

“He has been delirious till to-day,” Eric explained in a low voice: “and even to-day he has been wandering more than once. But the sight of _her_ has been new life to him.” And then he went on to tell us, in would-be careless tones—I knew how he hated any display of feeling—how he had insisted on going back to the plague-stricken town, to bring away a man whom the doctor had abandoned as dying, but who _might_, he fancied, recover if brought to the hospital: how he had seen nothing in the wasted features to remind him of Arthur, and only recognised him when he visited the hospital a month after: how the doctor had forbidden him to announce the discovery, saying that any shock to the over taxed brain might kill him at once: how he had staid on at the hospital, and nursed the sick man by night and day—all this with the studied indifference of one who is relating the commonplace acts of some chance acquaintance!

“And this was his _rival_!” I thought. “The man who had won from him the heart of the woman he loved!”

“The sun is setting,” said Lady Muriel, rising and leading the way to the open window. “Just look at the western sky! What lovely crimson tints! We shall have a glorious day to-morrow——” We had followed her across the room, and were standing in a little group, talking in low tones in the gathering gloom, when we were startled by the voice of the sick man, murmuring words too indistinct for the ear to catch.

“He is wandering again,” Lady Muriel whispered, and returned to the bedside. We drew a little nearer also: but no, this had none of the incoherence of delirium. “_What reward shall I give unto the Lord_,” the tremulous lips were saying, “_for all the benefits that He hath done unto me? I will receive the cup of salvation, and call—and call_——” but here the poor weakened memory failed, and the feeble voice died into silence.

His wife knelt down at the bedside, raised one of his arms, and drew it across her own, fondly kissing the thin white hand that lay so listlessly in her loving grasp. It seemed to me a good opportunity for stealing away without making her go through any form of parting: so, nodding to the Earl and Eric, I silently left the room. Eric followed me down the stairs, and out into the night.

“Is it Life or Death?” I asked him, as soon as we were far enough from the house for me to speak in ordinary tones.

“It is _Life_!” he replied with eager emphasis. “The doctors are quite agreed as to _that_. All he needs now, they say, is rest, and perfect quiet, and good nursing. He’s quite sure to get rest and quiet, here: and, as for the nursing why, I think it’s just _possible_——” (he tried hard to make his trembling voice assume a playful tone) “he may even get fairly well nursed, in his present quarters!”

“I’m sure of it!” I said. “Thank you so much for coming out to tell me!” And, thinking he had now said all he had come to say, I held out my hand to bid him good night. He grasped it warmly, and added, turning his face away as he spoke, “By the way, there is one other thing I wanted to say. I thought you’d like to know that—that I’m not—not in the mind I was in when last we met. It isn’t—that I can accept Christian belief—at least, not yet. But all this came about so strangely. And she had prayed, you know. And I had prayed. And—and—” his voice broke, and I could only just catch the concluding words, “_there is a God that answers prayer!_ I know it for certain now.” He wrung my hand once more, and left me suddenly. Never before had I seen him so deeply moved.

So, in the gathering twilight, I paced slowly homewards, in a tumultuous whirl of happy thoughts: my heart seemed full, and running over, with joy and thankfulness: all that I had so fervently longed for, and prayed for, seemed now to have come to pass. And, though I reproached myself, bitterly, for the unworthy suspicion I had for one moment harboured against the true-hearted Lady Muriel, I took comfort in knowing it had been but a passing thought.

Not Bruno himself could have mounted the stairs with so buoyant a step, as I felt my way up in the dark, not pausing to strike a light in the entry, as I knew I had left the lamp burning in my sitting-room.

But it was no common _lamplight_ into which I now stepped, with a strange, new, dreamy sensation of some subtle witchery that had come over the place. Light, richer and more golden than any lamp could give, flooded the room, streaming in from a window I had somehow never noticed before, and lighting up a group of three shadowy figures, that grew momently more distinct—a grave old man in royal robes, leaning back in an easy chair, and two children, a girl and a boy, standing at his side.

“Have you the Jewel still, my child?” the old man was saying.

“Oh, _yes_!” Sylvie exclaimed with unusual eagerness. “Do you think I’d _ever_ lose it or forget it?” She undid the ribbon round her neck, as she spoke, and laid the Jewel in her father’s hand.

Bruno looked at it admiringly. “What a lovely brightness!” he said. “It’s just like a little red star! May I take it in my hand?”

Sylvie nodded: and Bruno carried it off to the window, and held it aloft against the sky, whose deepening blue was already spangled with stars. Soon he came running back in some excitement. “Sylvie! Look here!” he cried. “I can see right through it when I hold it up to the sky. And it isn’t red a bit: it’s, oh such a lovely blue! And the words are all different! Do look at it!”

Sylvie was quite excited, too, by this time; and the two children eagerly held up the Jewel to the light, and spelled out the legend between them, “ALL WILL LOVE SYLVIE.”

“Why, this is the _other_ Jewel!” cried Bruno. “Don’t you remember, Sylvie? The one you _didn’t_ choose!”

Sylvie took it from him, with a puzzled look, and held it, now up to the light, now down. “It’s blue, _one_ way,” she said softly to herself, “and it’s red, the _other_ way! Why, I thought there were _two_ of them—Father!” she suddenly exclaimed, laying the Jewel once more in his hand, “I do believe it was the _same_ Jewel all the time!”

“Then you choosed it from _itself_,” Bruno thoughtfully remarked. “Father, _could_ Sylvie choose a thing from itself?”

“Yes, my own one,” the old man replied to Sylvie, not noticing Bruno’s embarrassing question, “it _was_ the same Jewel—but you chose quite right.” And he fastened the ribbon round her neck again.

“SYLVIE WILL LOVE ALL—ALL WILL LOVE SYLVIE,” Bruno murmured, raising himself on tiptoe to kiss the ‘little red star.’ “And, when you look _at_ it, it’s red and fierce like the sun—and, when you look _through_ it, it’s gentle and blue like the sky!”

“God’s own sky,” Sylvie said, dreamily.

“God’s own sky,” the little fellow repeated, as they stood, lovingly clinging together, and looking out into the night. “But oh, Sylvie, what makes the sky such a _darling_ blue?”

Sylvie’s sweet lips shaped themselves to reply, but her voice sounded faint and very far away. The vision was fast slipping from my eager gaze: but it seemed to me, in that last bewildering moment, that not Sylvie but an angel was looking out through those trustful brown eyes, and that not Sylvie’s but an angel’s voice was whispering

“It is love.”

THE END.

GENERAL INDEX.

[N.B. ‘I’ refers to “Sylvie and Bruno,” ‘II’ to “Sylvie and Bruno Concluded.”]

A
Accelerated Velocity, causes of; II. 190
Air, Cotton-wool lighter than, how to obtain; II. 166
Animal-Suffering, mystery of; II. 296
Anti-Teetotal Card; II. 139
Artistic effect said to require Indistinctness; I. 241
Asylums, Lunatic-, future use for; II. 132
Axioms of Science; II. 330

B
Badgers, the Three (Poem); I. 247
Barometer, sideways motion of; I. 13
Baron Doppelgeist; I. 85
Bath, Portable, for Tourists; I. 25
Bazaars, Charity-; II. 44
Beauty, Pain of realising; II. 337
Bed, reason for never going to; II. 141
Bees, Mind of; II. 29
Bessie’s Song; II. 76
Bible-Selections for Children; I. xiii
” ” learning by heart; I. xiv
Black Light, how to produce; II. 341
Boat, motion of, how to imitate on land; II. 108
Books, or Minds. Which contain most Science? I. 21
Boots for Horizontal Weather; I. 14
Brain, inverted position of; I. 243
Bread-sauce appropriate for Weltering; I. 58
Breaking promises. Why is it wrong? II. 27
Bruno’s Song: I. 215
Burden of Proof misplaced by Crocodiles; I. 230
” ” ” Ladies; I. 235
” ” ” Watts, Dr.; do.

C
‘Care’ and ‘Don’t-Care,’ history of; II. 385
Carrying one’s self. Why is it not fatiguing? I. 169
Charity-Bazaars; II. 44
” fallacies as to; II. 43
” Pseudo-; II. 42
Child’s Bible; I. xiii
” Sunday, in last generation; I. 387
” view of Adult Life; II. 260
” ” Present Life; I. 330
Choral Services, effect of; I. 273. II. xix
Chorister’s life, dangers of; I. 274. II. xix
Church-going, true principle of; I. 272
Competition for Scholars; II. 187
Competitive Examination; II. 184
Conceited Critic always depreciates; I. 237
Content, opportunity for cultivating; I. 152
‘Convenient’ and ‘Inconvenient,’ difference in meaning; I. 140
Conversation at Dinner-parties, how to promote: (_see_
“Dinner-parties”)
Cotton-wool lighter than air, how to obtain; II. 166
Critic, conceited, always depreciates; I. 237
” how to gain character of; I. 238
Crocodiles, Logic of; I. 230
Croquet. Why is it demoralising? II. 135

D
Darwinism reversed; I. 64
Day, length and shortness of, compared; I. 159
” true length of; I. 159
Death, certainty of, effect of realising; I. xix
Debts, how to avoid Payment of; I. 131
Deserts, use for; II. 158
Dichotomy, Political, in common life; II. 198, 205, 207
Dinner-parties, how to promote Conversation at:—
Moving-Guests; II. 145
” Pictures; II. 143
Revolving-Humorist; II. 145
Wild-Creatures; II. 144
Dog-King, the, (‘Nero’); I. 175. II. 58
Dog, Man’s advantage over; II. 293
” reasoning power of; II. 294
‘Doing good,’ ambiguity of phrase; II. 43
Doppelgeist, Baron; I. 85
Dramatization of Life; I. 333
Dreaminess, certain cure for; I. 136
Drunkenness, how to prevent; II. 71

E
Eggs, how to purchase; II. 196
Electricity, influence of, on Literature; I. 64
Enjoyment of Life; I. 335
” Novel-reading; I. 336
Eternity, contemplation of. Why is it wearisome? II. 258
Events in reverse order; I. 350
Examination, Competitive; II. 184
Experimental Honeymoons; II. 136
Eye, images inverted in the; I. 242

F
Fairies, captured, how to treat; II. 5
” character of, how to improve; I. 190
” existence of, possible; II. 300
” presence of, how to recognise; I. 191. II. 264
” moral responsibility of; II. 301
Falling Houses, Life in; I. 100
Final Causes, problem in; I. 297
Fires in Theatres, how to prevent; II. 165
Fortunatus’ Purse, how to make; II. 100
Free-Will and Nerve-Force; I. 390
Frog, young, how to amuse; I. 364
Future Life. What interests will survive in it? II. 256

G
Gardener’s Song:—
Albatross; I. 164
Argument; II. 319.
Banker’s Clerk; I. 90.
Bar of Mottled Soap; II. 319.
Bear without a head; I. 116.
Buffalo; I. 78.
Coach-and-Four; I. 116.
Double Rule of Three; I. 168.
Elephant; I. 65; II. 334.
Garden-Door; I. 168.
Hippopotamus; I. 90.
Kangaroo; I. 106.
Letter from his Wife; I. 65.
Middle of Next Week; I. 83.
Penny-Postage-Stamp; I. 164.
Rattlesnake; I. 83.
Sister’s Husband’s Niece; I. 78.
Vegetable-Pill; I. 106
Ghosts, treatment of, by Shakespeare; I. 60
” ” in Railway-Literature; I. 58
” Weltering, Bread-sauce appropriate for; I. 58
Girls’ Shakespeare; I. xv
Government with many Kings and one Subject; II. 172
Graduated races of Man; I. 299
Guests, Moving-; II. 145

H
Happiness, excessive, how to moderate; I. 159
Heaven inconceivable to those on Earth; II. 260
Honesty, Dr. Watts’ argument for; I. 235
Honeymoons, Experimental; II. 136
Horizontal Weather, Boots for; I. 14
Horses, Runaway, how to control; II. 108
Hot Ink, use of; II. 357
Houses, Falling, Life in; I. 100
Humorist, Revolving; II. 145
Hunting, Morality of; I. xx, 318; II. xviii
Hymns appealing to Selfishness; I. 276

I
‘Idle Mouths’; II. 37
‘Imponderal’; II. 166
‘Inconvenient’ and ‘Convenient,’ difference in meaning of; I. 140
Indistinctness said to be necessary for Artistic effect; I. 241
Ink, Hot, use of; II. 357
Instinct and Reason; II. 295
Inversion of Brain; I. 243
“ images on Retina; I. 242

J
Jam-tasting; II. 150
Jesting in Letter-writing, how to indicate; II. 117

K
‘King Fisher’ Song; II. 14
Knocking-down, some persons not liable to; II. 54

L
Ladies, Logic of; I. 235
Least Common Multiple, rule of, applied to Literature; I. 22
Letter-writing, how to indicate Jesting in; II. 117
” ” ” Shyness in; II. 115
Life, adult, Child’s view of; II. 260
” Dramatization of; I. 133
” Future, What interests will survive in it? II. 256
” how to enjoy; I. 335
” in Falling Houses; I. 100
” ” reverse order; I. 350
” Present, Child’s view of; I. 330
Light, Black, how to produce; II. 341
Literature as influenced by Electricity; I. 64
” ” Steam; I. 64
” for Railway; I. 58
” treated by rule of Least Common Multiple; I. 22
‘Little Birds’ (Poem); II. 364, 371, 377
‘Little Man’ (Poem); II. 265
” privilege of being; I. 299
Liturgy, Choral, effect of; I. 273
Logic of Crocodiles; I. 230
” of Ladies; I. 235
” of Dr. Watts; do.
” requisites for complete Argument in; I. 259
Loving or being loved. Which is best? I. 77
Lunatic-Asylums, future use for; II. 132
Lunatics out-numbering the Sane, result of; II. 133

M
Man, advantages of, over the Dog; II. 293
” graduated races of; I. 299
” Little, privilege of being; I. 299
Maps, best size for; II. 169
‘Matilda Jane’ (Poem); II. 76
‘Megaloscope’; II. 334
Minds, or Books. Which contain most Science? I. 21
Money, effect of increasing value of; I. 312
” playing for, a moral act; II. 135
Morality of Sport; I. xx, 318. II. xviii
Moral Philosophy, teachers of. Which are most esteemed? II. 181
Moving-Guests; II. 145
” Pictures; II. 143
Music, how to get largest amount of in given time; I. 338
“ Why is it sometimes not pleasing? II. 156

N
‘Nero’ the Dog-King; I. 175. II. 58
Nerve-Force and Free-Will; I. 390
Nerves, slow action of; I. 158
Novel-reading, how to enjoy; I. 336

O
‘Obstruction,’ Political, in common life; II. 203
‘Onus probandi’ misplaced by Crocodiles; I. 230
” ” Ladies; I. 235
” ” Dr. Watts; do.
‘Opposition,’ Political, in common life; II. 200

P
Pain, how to minimise; I. 337
Paley’s definition of Virtue; I. 273
Parentheses in Conversation, how to indicate; I. 251
Passages, Selected, for learning by heart; I. xv
Payment of Debts, how to avoid; I. 131
‘Peter and Paul’ (Poem); I. 143
Philosophy, Moral. What kind is most esteemed? II. 181
Phlizz, a visionary flower; I. 282
” ” fruit; I. 75
” ” nurse-maid; I. 283
Pictures, how to criticize; I. 238
” Moving; II. 143
‘Pig Tale’ (Poem); I. 138; II. 366, 372
Planets, small; II. 170
Playing for money, a moral act; II. 135
Pleasure, how to maximise; I. 335
Plunge-Bath, portable, for Tourists; I. 25
Poems, first lines of:—
‘He stept so lightly to the land’; I. 291
‘He thought he saw an Albatross’; I. 164
” ” an Argument’; II. 319
” ” a Banker’s Clerk’; I. 90
” ” a Buffalo’; I. 78
” ” a Coach-and-Four’; I. 116
” ” an Elephant’; I. 65; II. 334
” ” a Garden-Door’; I. 168
” ” a Kangaroo’; I. 106
” ” a Rattlesnake’; I. 83
‘In Stature the Manlet was dwarfish’; II. 265
‘King Fisher courted Lady Bird’; II. 14
‘Little Birds are &c.’; II. 364, 371, 377
‘Matilda Jane, you never look’; II. 76
‘One thousand pounds per annuum’; II. 194
‘Peter is poor, said noble Paul’; I. 143
‘Rise, oh rise! The daylight dies’; I. 215
‘Say, what is the spell, when her fledgelings are cheeping’;
II. 305
‘There be three Badgers on a mossy stone’; I. 247
‘There was a Pig, that sat alone’; I. 138; II. 366, 372
Political Dichotomy in common life; II. 198, 205, 207
” ‘Opposition’ in common life; II. 200
Poor people, method for enriching; I. 312
Poverty, blessings of; I. 152
Prayer for temporal blessings, efficacy of; I. 391
Preachers appealing to Selfishness; I. 276
” exceptional privileges of; I. 277
Promises. When are they binding? II. 26
” breaking of. Why is it wrong? II. 27
Proof, Burden of; (_see_ ‘Burden of Proof’)
Property, inherited, duties of owner of; II. 39
Pseudo-Charity; II. 43
Purse of Fortunatus, how to make; II. 100

Q
Questions in Conversation, how to indicate; I. 251

R
Railway Literature; I. 58
” Scenes, Dramatization of; I. 333
Rain, Horizontal, Boots for; I. 14
Reason and Instinct; II. 295
” power of, in Dog; II. 294
Retina, images inverted on; I. 242
Reversed order of Events; I. 350
Revolving-Humorist; II. 145
Runaway Horses, how to control; II. 108

S
Scenery enjoyed most by Little Men; I. 299
Scholars, Competition for; II. 187
Science, Axioms of; II. 330
“ Do Books, or Minds, contain most? I. 21
Selections from Bible, for Children; I. xiii
” ” for learning by heart; I. xiv
” Prose and Verse, ” ”; I. xv
” from Shakespeare, for Girls; I. xv
Selfishness appealed to in Hymns; I. 276
” ” religious teaching; do.
” ” Sermons; do.
Sermons appealing to Selfishness; do.
” faults of; I. 277. II. xix
Services, Choral, effect of; I. 273
Shakespeare, passages of, discussed:—
‘All the world’s a stage’; I. 335
‘Aye, every inch a king!’; I. 373
‘Is this a dagger that I see before me?’; I. 371
‘Rest, rest, perturbed Spirit!’; I. 60
‘To be, or not to be’; I. 370
” Selections from, for Girls; I. xv
” treatment of Ghosts by; I. 60
Shyness, how to indicate in Letter-writing; II. 115
‘Sillygism,’ requisites for; I. 259
Sinfulness, amount of, in World; II. 125
” of an act differs with environment; II. 123
Sobriety, extreme, inconvenience of; I. 140
Spencer, Herbert, difficulties in; I. 258
Spherical, advantage of being; II. 190
Sport, Morality of; I. xx, 318. II. xviii
Steam, influence of, on Literature; I. 64
Sufferings of Animals, mystery of; II. 296
Sunday, as spent by children of last generation; I. 387
” observance of; I. 385
Sylvie and Bruno’s Song; II. 305

T
Teetotal-Card; II. 139
Theatres, Fires in, how to prevent; II. 165
‘Three Badgers’ (Poem); I. 247
Time, how to put back; I. 314, 347
” ” reverse; I. 350
” storage of; II. 105
‘Tottles’ (Poem); II. 194, 201, 209, 248
Tourists’ Portable Bath; I. 25
Trains running without engines; II. 106

V
Velocity, Accelerated, causes of; II. 190
Virtue, Paley’s definition of; I. 274
Voyages on Land; II. 109

W
Walking-sticks that walk alone, how to obtain; II. 166
Water, people lighter than, how to obtain; II. 165
Watts, Dr., Argument for Honesty; I. 235
” Logic of; do.
Weather, Horizontal, Boots for; I. 14
Weight, force of, how to exhaust; II. 343
” relative, conceivable non-existence of; I. 100
Weltering, Bread-sauce appropriate for; I. 58
‘What Tottles meant’ (Poem); II. 194, 201, 209, 248
Wild-Creatures; II. 144
Wilderness, use for; II. 158
‘Wilful waste, &c.,’ lesson to be learnt from; II. 69

Works by Lewis Carroll.

SYLVIE AND BRUNO. First Part.

With forty-six Illustrations by Harry Furniss. 12mo, cloth extra, gilt,
$1.50.

“A charming book for children. The illustrations are very happy.”—_Boston Traveller._

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Holiday. 12mo, $1.50.

This book is a reprint, with additions, of the comic portions of _Phantasmagoria, and other Poems_, and of _The Hunting of the Snark_.

“_Rhyme? and Reason?_ by Lewis Carroll, author of _Alice in Wonderland_ shows the same quaintness of fancy and the same originality of humor that mark his prose works. The versification is smooth and flowing, and the rhyming exceedingly ingenious.”—_Boston Saturday Evening Gazette._

“_Rhyme? and Reason?_ with its clever illustrations, will be sure of great popularity.”—_Philadelphia Press._

A TANGLED TALE.

Reprinted from the _Monthly Packet_. With Illustrations. 12mo, cloth,
$1.50.

“To people mathematically inclined, who are fond of odd style and odd illustrations, and who like to travel so many (Gordian) knots an hour, Mr. Lewis Carroll’s new ‘wonderland’—_A Tangled Tale_—will prove a delightful treat.”—_The Critic._

THE GAME OF LOGIC.

With an Envelope containing a Card Diagram and Nine Counters—four
red and five gray. 12mo, cloth, $1.00.

A NEW UNIFORM EDITION
OF
MRS. MOLESWORTH’S
STORIES FOR CHILDREN
WITH
ILLUSTRATIONS BY WALTER CRANE AND LESLIE BROOKE.

In Ten Volumes. 12mo. Cloth. One Dollar a Volume.

Tell Me a Story, and Herr Baby.
“Carrots,” and A Christmas Child.
Grandmother Dear, and Two Little Waifs.
The Cuckoo Clock, and The Tapestry Room.
Christmas-Tree Land, and A Christmas Posy.
The Children of the Castle, and Four Winds Farm.
Little Miss Peggy, and Nurse Heatherdale’s Story.
“Us,” and The Rectory Children.
Rosy, and The Girls and I.
Mary.

THE SET, TEN VOLUMES, IN BOX, $10.00.

“It seems to me not at all easier to draw a lifelike child than to draw a lifelike man or woman: Shakespeare and Webster were the only two men of their age who could do it with perfect delicacy and success; at least, it there was another who could, I must crave pardon of his happy memory for my forgetfulness or ignorance of his name. Our own age is more fortunate, on this single score at least, having a larger and far nobler proportion of female writers; among whom, since the death of George Eliot, there is none left whose touch is so exquisite and masterly, whose love is so thoroughly according to knowledge, whose bright and sweet invention is so fruitful, so truthful, or so delightful as Mrs. Molesworth’s. Any chapter of _The Cuckoo Clock_ or the enchanting _Adventures of Herr Baby_ is worth a shoal of the very best novels dealing with the characters and fortunes of mere adults.”—Mrs. A. C. Swinburne, in _The Nineteenth Century_.

MRS. MOLESWORTH’S
Stories for Children.

“There is hardly a better author to put into the hands of children than Mrs. Molesworth. I cannot easily speak too highly of her work. It is a curious art she has, not wholly English in its spirit, but a cross of the old English with the Italian. Indeed, I should say Mrs. Molesworth had also been a close student of the German and Russian, and had some way, catching and holding the spirit of all, created a method and tone quite her own.... Her characters are admirable and real.”—_St. Louis Globe-Democrat._

“Mrs. Molesworth has a rare gift for composing stories for children. With a light yet forcible touch, she paints sweet and artless, yet natural and strong, characters.”—_Congregationalist._

“Mrs. Molesworth always has in her books those charming touches of nature that are sure to charm small people. Her stories are so likely to have been true that men ‘grown up’ do not disdain them.”—_Home Journal._

“No English writer of childish stories has a better reputation than Mrs. Molesworth, and none with whose stories we are familiar deserves it better. She has a motherly knowledge of the child nature, a clear sense of character, the power of inventing simple incidents that interest, and the ease which comes of continuous practice.”—_Mail and Express._

“Christmas would hardly be Christmas without one of Mrs. Molesworth’s stories. No one has quite the same power of throwing a charm and an interest about the most commonplace every-day doings as she has, and no one has ever blended fairy-land and reality with the same skill.”—_Educational Times._

“Mrs. Molesworth is justly a great favorite with children; her stories for them are always charmingly interesting and healthful in tone.”—_Boston Home Journal._

“Mrs. Molesworth’s books are cheery, wholesome, and particularly well adapted to refined life. It is safe to add that Mrs. Molesworth is the best English prose writer for children.... A new volume from Mrs. Molesworth is always a treat.”—_The Beacon._

“No holiday season would be complete for a host of young readers without a volume from the hand of Mrs. Molesworth.... It is one of the peculiarities of Mrs. Molesworth’s stories that older readers can no more escape their charm than younger ones.”—_Christian Union._

“Mrs. Molesworth ranks with George Macdonald and Mrs. Ewing as a writer of children’s stories that possess real literary merit.”—_Milwaukee Sentinel._

THE SET, TEN VOLUMES, IN BOX, $10.00.

TELL ME A STORY, and HERR BABY.

“So delightful that we are inclined to join in the petition, and we hope she may soon tell us more stories.”—_Athenæum._

“CARROTS”; Just a Little Boy.

“One of the cleverest and most pleasing stories it has been our good fortune to meet with for some time. Carrots and his sister are delightful little beings, whom to read about is at once to become very fond of.”—_Examiner._

A CHRISTMAS CHILD; A Sketch of a Boy’s Life.

“A very sweet and tenderly drawn sketch, with life and reality manifest throughout.”—_Pall Mall Gazette._

“This is a capital story, well illustrated. Mrs. Molesworth is one of those sunny, genial writers who has genius for writing acceptably for the young. She has the happy faculty of blending enough real with romance to make her stories very practical for good without robbing them of any of their exciting interest.”—_Chicago Inter-Ocean._

“Mrs. Molesworth is one of the few writers of tales for children whose sentiment though of the sweetest kind is never sickly; whose religious feeling is never concealed yet never obtruded; whose books are always good but never ‘goody.’ Little Ted with his soft heart, clever head, and brave spirit is no morbid presentment of the angelic child ‘too good to live,’ and who is certainly a nuisance on earth, but a charming creature, if not a portrait, whom it is a privilege to meet even in fiction.”—_The Academy._

THE CUCKOO CLOCK.

“A beautiful little story.... It will be read with delight by every child into whose hands it is placed.”—_Pall Mall Gazette._

GRANDMOTHER DEAR.

“The author’s concern is with the development of character, and seldom does one meet with the wisdom, tact, and good breeding which pervade this little book.”—_Nation._

TWO LITTLE WAIFS.

“Mrs. Molesworth’s delightful story of _Two Little Waifs_ will charm all the small people who find it in their stockings. It relates the adventures of two lovable English children lost in Paris, and is just wonderful enough to pleasantly wring the youthful heart.”—_New York Tribune._

“It is, in its way, indeed, a little classic, of which the real beauty and pathos can hardly be appreciated by young people.... It is not too much to say of the story that it is perfect of its kind.”—_Critic and Good Literature._

“This is a charming little juvenile story from the pen of Mrs. Molesworth, detailing the various adventures of a couple of motherless children in searching for their father, whom they had missed in Paris, where they had gone to meet him.”—_Montreal Star._

THE TAPESTRY ROOM.

“Mrs. Molesworth is the queen of children’s fairy-land. She knows how to make use of the vague, fresh, wondering instincts of childhood, and to invest familiar things with fairy glamour.”—_Athenæum._

“The story told is a charming one of what may be called the neo-fairy sort.... There has been nothing better of its kind done anywhere for children, whether we consider its capacity to awaken interest or its wholesomeness.”—_Evening Post._

CHRISTMAS-TREE LAND.

“It is conceived after a happy fancy, as it relates the supposititious journey of a party of little ones through that part of fairy-land where Christmas-trees are supposed to most abound. There is just enough of the old-fashioned fancy about fairies mingled with the ‘modern improvements’ to incite and stimulate the youthful imagination to healthful action. The pictures by Walter Crane are, of course, not only well executed in themselves, but in charming consonance with the spirit of the tale.”—_Troy Times._

“_Christmas-Tree Land_, by Mrs. Molesworth, is a book to make younger readers open their eyes wide with delight. A little boy and a little girl, domiciled in a great white castle, wander on their holidays through the surrounding fir-forests, and meet with the most delightful pleasures. There is a fascinating, mysterious character in their adventures and enough of the fairylike and wonderful to puzzle and enchant all the little ones.”—_Boston Home Journal._

A CHRISTMAS POSY.

“This is a collection of eight of those inimitable stories for children which none could write better than Mrs. Molesworth. Her books are prime favorites with children of all ages, and they are as good and wholesome as they are interesting and popular. This makes a very handsome book, and its illustrations are excellent.”—_Christian at Work._

“_A Christmas Posy_, by Mrs. Molesworth, is lovely and fragrant. Mrs. Molesworth succeeds by right to the place occupied with so much honor by the late Mrs. Ewing, as a writer of charming stories for children. The present volume is a cluster of delightful short stories. Mr. Crane’s illustrations are in harmony with the text.”—_Christian Intelligencer._

THE CHILDREN OF THE CASTLE.

“_The Children of the Castle_, by Mrs. Molesworth, is another of those delightful juvenile stories of which this author has written so many. It is a fascinating little book, with a charming plot, a sweet, pure atmosphere, and teaches a wholesome moral in the most winning manner.”—_B. S. E. Gazette._

“_The Children of the Castle_ are delightful creations, actual little girls, living in an actual castle, but often led by their fancies into a shadowy fairy-land. There is a charming refinement of style and spirit about the story from beginning to end; an imaginative child will find endless pleasure in it, and the lesson of gentleness and unselfishness is so artistically managed that it does not seem like a lesson, but only a part of the story.”—_Milwaukee Sentinel._

FOUR WINDS FARM.

“Mrs. Molesworth’s books are always delightful, but of all none is more charming than the volume with which she greets the holidays this season. _Four Winds Farm_ is one of the most delicate and pleasing books for a child that has seen the light this many a day. It is full of fancy and of that instinctive sympathy with childhood which makes this author’s books so attractive and so individual.”—_Boston Courier._

“Still more delicately fanciful is Mrs. Molesworth’s lovely little tale of the _Four Winds Farm_. It is neither a dream nor a fairy story, but concerns the fortune of a real little boy, named Gratian; yet the dream and the fairy tale seem to enter into his life, and make part of it. The farmhouse in which the child lives is set exactly at the meeting-place of the four winds, and they, from the moment of his birth, have acted as his self-elected godmothers.... All the winds love the boy, and, held in the balance of their influence, he grows up as a boy should, simply and truly, with a tender heart and firm mind. The idea of this little book is essentially poetical.”—_Literary World._

NURSE HEATHERDALE’S STORY.

“_Nurse Heatherdale’s Story_ is all about a small boy, who was good enough, yet was always getting into some trouble through complications in which he was not to blame. The same sort of things happens to men and women. He is an orphan, though he is cared for in a way by relations, who are not so very rich, yet are looked on as well fixed. After many youthful trials and disappointments he falls into a big stroke of good luck, which lifts him and goes to make others happy. Those who want a child’s book will find nothing to harm and something to interest in this simple story.”—_Commercial Advertiser._

“US.”

“Mrs. Molesworth’s _Us, an Old-Fashioned Story_, is very charming. A dear little six-year-old ‘bruvver’ and sister constitute the ‘us,’ whose adventures with gypsies form the theme of the story. Mrs. Molesworth’s style is graceful, and she pictures the little ones with brightness and tenderness.”—_Evening Post._

“A pretty and wholesome story.”—_Literary World._

“_Us, an Old-Fashioned Story_, is a sweet and quaint story of two little children who lived long ago, in an old-fashioned way, with their grandparents. The story is delightfully told.”—_Philadelphia News._

“_Us_ is one of Mrs. Molesworth’s charming little stories for young children. The narrative ... is full of interest for its real grace and delicacy, and the exquisiteness and purity of the English in which it is written.”—_Boston Advertiser._

THE RECTORY CHILDREN.

“In _The Rectory Children_ Mrs. Molesworth has written one of those delightful volumes which we always look for at Christmas time.”—_Athenæum._

“Quiet, sunny, interesting, and thoroughly winning and wholesome.”—_Boston Journal._

_The Rectory Children_—“There is no writer of children’s books more worthy of their admiration and love than Mrs. Molesworth. Her bright and sweet invention is so truthful, her characters so faithfully drawn, and the teaching of her stories so tender and noble, that while they please and charm they insensibly distil into the youthful mind the most valuable lessons. In _The Rectory Children_ we have a fresh, bright story that will be sure to please all her young admirers.”—_Christian at Work._

“_The Rectory Children_, by Mrs. Molesworth, is a very pretty story of English life. Mrs. Molesworth is one of the most popular and charming of English story-writers for children. Her child characters are true to life, always natural and attractive, and her stories are wholesome and interesting.”—_Indianapolis Journal._

ROSY.

“_Rosy_, like all the rest of her stories, is bright and pure and utterly free from cant,—a book that children will read with pleasure and lasting profit.”—_Boston Traveller._

“There is no one who has a genius better adapted for entertaining children than Mrs. Molesworth, and her latest story, _Rosy_, is one of her best. It is illustrated with eight woodcuts from designs by Walter Crane.”—_Philadelphia Press._

“... Mrs. Molesworth’s clever _Rosy_, a story showing in a charming way how one little girl’s jealousy and bad temper were conquered; one of the best, most suggestive and improving of the Christmas juveniles.”—_New York Tribune._

“_Rosy_ is an exceedingly graceful and interesting story by Mrs. Molesworth, one of the best and most popular writers of juvenile fiction. This little story is full of tenderness, is fragrant in sentiment, and points with great delicacy and genuine feeling a charming moral.”—_Boston Gazette._

THE GIRLS AND I.

“Perhaps the most striking feature of this pleasant story is the natural manner in which it is written. It is just like the conversation of a bright boy—consistently like it from beginning to end. It is a boy who is the hero of the tale, and he tells the adventures of himself and those nearest him. He is, by the way, in many respects an example for most young persons. It is a story characterized by sweetness and purity—a desirable one to put into the hands of youthful readers.”—_Gettysburg Monthly._

“... A delightful and purposeful story which no one can read without being benefited.”—_New York Observer._

MARY.

Mrs. Molesworth’s last story. _Just Ready._

“Mrs. Molesworth’s reputation as a writer of story-books is so well established that any new book of hers scarce needs a word of introduction.”—_Home Journal._

MACMILLAN & CO.,
66 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK.

Transcriber’s Notes

--Copyright notice provided as in the original—this e-text is public
domain in the country of publication.

--Silently corrected palpable typos; left non-standard spellings and
dialect unchanged.

--Moved the frontispiece illustration to the corresponding place in the
text, and adjusted the table of illustration accordingly.

--Collated table of illustrations, checked page numbers, and added its
captions to the illustrations.

--Only in the text versions, delimited italicized text (or
non-italicized text within poetry) in _underscores_ (the HTML version
reproduces the font form of the printed book.)

--The HTML version contains relative links to pages and illustrations in
the companion volume: Gutenberg #48630: Sylvie and Bruno, Illustrated

--Removed the note (N.B. “stagy-entrances” is a misprint for
“stage-entrances”) because the typo was corrected in the companion
volume