I remember the time when I, and a brother who was with me, devoutly believed in a being whom we supposed to live among certain black, water-rotted, weed-grown stakes by the sea. These old wooden ruins were, I fancy, the remains of some rude pier, and amid them, when the tide was low, we used […]

Very few beetles have ever seen a Glass Pond. I once spent a week in one, and though I think, with good management, and in society suitably selected, it may be a comfortable home enough, I advise my water-neighbours to be content with the pond in the wood. The story of my brief sojourn in […]

It was Christmas-eve in an old-fashioned country-house, where Christmas was being kept with old-fashioned form and custom. It was getting late. The candles swaggered in their sockets, and the yule log glowed steadily like a red-hot coal. “The fire has reached his heart,” said the tutor: “he is warm all through. How red he is! […]

My godmother’s grandmother knew a good deal about the fairies. Her grandmother had seen a fairy rade on a Roodmas Eve, and she herself could remember a copper vessel of a queer shape which had been left by the elves on some occasion at an old farm-house among the hills, The following story came from […]

“Who dug his grave?” * * * * * “Who made his shroud?”“I,” said the Beetle,“With my thread and needle,I made his shroud.”–Death of Cock Robin. It must be much easier to play at things when there are more of you than when there is only one. There is only one of me, and Nurse […]

CHAPTER I. The care of a large family is no light matter, as everybody knows. And that year I had an unusually large family. No less than seven young urchins for Mrs. Hedgehog and myself to take care of and start in life; and there was not a prickly parent on this side of the […]

CHAPTER I. My name is Toots. Why, I have not the slightest idea. But I suppose very few people–cats or otherwise–are consulted about their own names. If they were, these would perhaps be, as a rule, more appropriate. What qualities of mind or body my name was supposed to illustrate, I have not to this […]

A little girl sat sewing and crying on a garden seat. She had fair floating hair, which the breeze blew into her eyes, and between the cloud of hair, and the mist of tears, she could not see her work very clearly. She neither tied up her locks, nor dried her eyes, however; for when […]

AN EARTHQUAKE IN THE NURSERY. It was certainly an aggravated offence. It is generally understood in families that “boys will be boys,” but there is a limit to the forbearance implied in the extenuating axiom. Master Sam was condemned to the back nursery for the rest of the day. He always had had the knack […]

This is a story of Three Christmas Trees. The first was a real one, but the child we are to speak of did not see it. He saw the other two, but they were not real; they only existed in his fancy. The plot of the story is very simple; and, as it has been […]

“Finding, following, keeping, struggling,Is HE sure to bless?” Hymn of the Eastern Church. CHAPTER I. A FAMILY FAILING. We are a very ill-tempered family. I want to say it, and not to unsay it by any explanations, because I think it is good for us to face the fact in the unadorned form in which […]

“Tell us a story,” said the children, “a sad one, if you please, and a little true. But, above all, let it end badly, for we are tired of people who live happily ever after.” “I heard one lately,” said the old man who lived in the wood; “it is founded on fact, and is […]

Though nothing can bring back the hourOf splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower;We will grieve not, rather findStrength in what remains behind,In the primal sympathyWhich, having been, must ever be. * * * * * And, O ye fountains, meadows, hills, and groves,Think not of any severing of our loves!Yet in my […]

“Like little body with a mighty heart.” King Henry V., Act 2. PART I. It was not her real name: it was given to her by her brothers and sister. People with very marked qualities of character do sometimes get such distinctive titles, to rectify the indefiniteness of those they inherit and those they receive […]

CHAPTER I. “Oh, how much more doth beauty beauteous seemBy that sweet ornament which truth doth give!The rose looks fair, but fairer we it deemFor that sweet odour which doth in it live.” SHAKESPEARE. My godmother, Lady Elizabeth, used to say, “Most things are matters of habit. Good habits and bad habits.” And she generally […]

CHAPTER I. “If solid happiness we prize,Within our breast this jewel lies. * * * * * From our own selves our joys must flow,And peace begins at home.” COTTON. The family–our family, not the Happy Family–consisted of me and my brothers and sisters. I have a father and mother, of course. I am the […]

Every child who has gardening tools,Should learn by heart these gardening rules. He who owns a gardening spade,Should be able to dig the depth of its blade. He who owns a gardening hoe,Must be sure how he means his strokes to go. But he who owns a gardening fork,May make it do all the other […]

PREAMBLE. A summer’s afternoon. Early in the summer, and late in the afternoon; with odors and colors deepening, and shadows lengthening, towards evening. Two gaffers gossiping, seated side by side upon a Yorkshire wall. A wall of sandstone of many colors, glowing redder and yellower as the sun goes down; well cushioned with moss and […]

CHAPTER I. Last noon beheld them full of lusty life,Last eve in Beauty’s circle proudly gay,The midnight brought the signal sound of strife,The morn the marshalling in arms–the dayBattle’s magnificently stern array!The thunder clouds close o’er it, which when rentThe earth is covered thick with other clay,Which her own clay shall cover, heaped and pent,Rider […]

AN OLD-FASHIONED TALE OF THE YOUNG DAYS OF A GRUMPY OLD GODFATHER. CHAPTER I. “Can you fancy, young people,” said Godfather Garbel, winking with his prominent eyes, and moving his feet backwards and forwards in his square shoes, so that you could hear the squeak-leather half a room off–“can you fancy my having been a […]