Ferns For Fanny's Little Friends, by Fanny Fern
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Title: Little Ferns For Fanny's Little Friends
Author: Fanny Fern
Release Date: February 11, 2007 [EBook #20561]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LITTLE FERNS ***
Produced by David Edwards and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This book was produced from scanned images of public domain material from the Google Print project.)
[Illustration: LITTLE NELLY.]
THIRTY-FIRST THOUSAND.
LITTLE FERNS
FOR
FANNY'S LITTLE FRIENDS.
BY THE AUTHOR OF
"FERN LEAVES."
WITH ORIGINAL DESIGNS BY FRED M. COFFIN.
AUBURN AND BUFFALO: MILLER, ORTON & MULLIGAN. 1854.
Published first in England by International Arrangement with the American Proprietors, and entered at Stationers' Hall.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year one thousand eight hundred and fifty-three, by DERBY AND MILLER, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Northern District of New-York.
STEREOTYPED BY DERBY AND MILLER, AUBURN.
TO MY LITTLE DAUGHTER THESE "Little Ferns" ARE AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED
"They reckon not by months, and years Where she hath gone to dwell."
Transcriber's Note: The stanza of poetry quoted in SCOTT FARM is from The Reaper and The Flowers by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. This same stanza, with a slight variation, can be found in Woman's Endurance, by A. D. L., B.A., Chaplain in the Concentration Camp, Bethulie, O.R.C., Project Gutenberg EText-No. 16859. The complete poem, again with a slightly different first stanza, can be found in The Complete Poems of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Project Gutenberg EText No. 1365.
PREFACE.
DEAR CHILDREN:--
Aunt Fanny has written you some stories, which she hopes will please and divert you. She would rather have come to you, and told them, that she might have seen your bright faces; but as that could not be, she sends her little book instead. Perhaps you will sometime come and see her, and then won't we have a nice time telling stories?
Where do I live?
Won't you tell--certain true? Won't you tell Susy, or Mary, or Hatty, or Sammy, or Tommy, or even your pet Uncle Charley?
Oh, I can't tell!
"If I tell it to one, she will tell it to two, And the next cup of tea, they will plot what they'll do; So I'll tell nobody, I'll tell nobody, I'll tell nobody; no--not I!"
FANNY FERN.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
WHERE IS LITTLE NELLY? 11
LITTLE GEORGE'S STORY 14
MATTY AND MABEL; OR WHO IS RICH!--WHO IS POOR! 16
THE BABY'S COMPLAINT 20
LITTLE FLOY; OR, TEARS AND SMILES 22
THE LAKE TRIP; OR, GOING A FISHING 27
"MILK FOR BABES" 30
THE LITTLE "MORNING GLORY" 33
THE CHARITY ORPHANS 35
DON'T GET ANGRY 37
"LITTLE BENNY" 42
A RAP ON SOMEBODY'S KNUCKLES 43
LITTLE FREDDY'S MUSINGS 45
ONLY A PENNY 47
A LITTLE BOY WITH A BIG HEART 52
MAY MORNING 56
THE LITTLE DANDELION MERCHANT 59
WALTER WILLET 61
CHILDREN, DID YOU EVER HEAR OF MR. "THEY SAY!" 66
THE LITTLE MARTYR 69
SELFISH MATTHEW 75
CITY CHILDREN 78
ROSALIE AND HETTY 81
THE CRYSTAL PALACE 84
KIZZY KRINGLE'S STORY 89
NEW-YORK IN SHADOW 94
HATTY'S MISTAKE 100
MIN-YUNG 104
TOM, THE TAILOR 108
BETSEY'S DREAM 114
SCOTT FARM 119
A TRUE STORY 126
THE LITTLE EMIGRANTS 131
ALL ABOUT THE DOLANS 136
FRONTIER LIFE; OR, MITTY MOORE 141
UNCLE JOLLY 151
A PEEP UNDER GROUND--THE RAFFERTYS AND THE ROURKES 157
"BALD EAGLE;" OR, THE LITTLE CAPTIVES 162
A STREET SCENE 171
LETTER FROM TOM GRIMALKIN TO HIS MOTHER 177
WHAT CAME OF AN OMNIBUS RIDE, AND "ONE PULL TO THE RIGHT!" 180
LITTLE GERTRUDE'S PARTY 188
FERN MUSINGS 195
CRAZY TIM 200
CICELY HUNT; OR, THE LAME GIRL 206
THE LITTLE TAMBOURINE PLAYER 214
THE BROKER'S WINDOW BY GASLIGHT 223
BLACK CHLOE 229
A PEEP FROM MY WINDOW 235
THE BOY PEDLAR 239
THE NEW COOK 242
LETTY 250
FRONTIER STORIES 260
A PEEP THROUGH MY QUIZZING GLASS 268
THE ENGLISH EMIGRANTS 276
NEW-YORK SUNDAY 282
THE BOY WHO LIKED NATURAL HISTORY 288
KNUD IVERSON 292
CHILDREN IN 1853 296
ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE
LITTLE NELLY FRONTISPIECE.
ONLY A PENNY 47
HATTY'S MISTAKE 100
UNCLE JOLLY 151
CRAZY TIM 200
LETTY 250
LITTLE FERNS.
WHERE IS LITTLE NELLY?
She is not in the garden; I have searched under every bush and tree. She is not asleep in the summer-house, or in the old barn. She is not feeding the speckled chickens, or gathering buttercups in the meadows. Her little dog Fidele is weary waiting for her, and her sweet-voiced canary has forgotten to sing. Has anybody seen my little Nelly? She had eyes blue as the summer heavens, hair like woven sunbeams, teeth like seed pearls, and a voice soft as the wind sighing through the river willows.
Nelly is not down by the river? No; she never goes where I bid her not. She is not at the neighbors? No; for she is as shy as a wood-pigeon. Where can my little pet be? There is her doll--(Fenella she called it, because it was so tiny,)--she made its dress with her own
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