TO THE

MOTHERS OF ENGLAND.

—+-—

DsAR LADIES,

So many of you have spoken kind words to me of
my books for children, that I venture to dedicate to you that
which I have just finished.

It is difficult to please all readers. The child just
out of the nursery, the young lady ‘in the schoolroom,’ the
school-boy, and the ‘grown-up children’ who do me the honour
to read my books, cannot all be exactly suited in every story.
Sometimes I am too ‘old,’ sometimes too ‘young’ for my readers.
But to your kindly judgment I readily and humbly submit my
present volume. I hope and believe ‘that, whatever may be its
defects, there is nothing in it which can do harm or teach evil
lessons to the child-world, which I love so well. Were it other-
wise, I should not be bold enough to dedicate it to that body
of English women whom, above all others, I respect and admire ;
because it is to them and to their guidance of the home-life of
their children that England has owed her greatness in time past
and will continue to owe the same in that future for and in
which those children have to work.

I am yours most respectfully,

E. H. KNATCHBULL-HUGESSEN,