The Seven Little Sisters Who Live on the Round Ball That Floats in the Air

The Seven Little Sisters Who
Live on the Round Ball That
Floats in the Air

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the
Round Ball That Floats in the Air, by Jane Andrews This eBook is for
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Title: The Seven Little Sisters Who Live on the Round Ball That Floats
in the Air
Author: Jane Andrews
Release Date: June 15, 2004 [EBook #12631]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
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LITTLE SISTERS ***

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THE SEVEN LITTLE SISTERS WHO LIVE ON THE ROUND
BALL THAT FLOATS IN THE AIR

BY
JANE ANDREWS
WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY LOUISA PARSONS HOPKINS
FORMERLY SUPERVISOR IN BOSTON PUBLIC SCHOOLS

FOR
MY THREE LITTLE FRIENDS
Marnie, Bell, and Geordie
I HAVE WRITTEN THESE STORIES

CONTENTS.
MEMORIAL OF MISS JANE ANDREWS THE BALL ITSELF THE
LITTLE BROWN BABY AGOONACK, THE ESQUIMAU SISTER
HOW AGOONACK LIVES THROUGH THE LONG SUMMER
GEMILA, THE CHILD OF THE DESERT THE LITTLE
MOUNTAIN MAIDEN THE STORY OF PEN-SE THE LITTLE
DARK GIRL LOUISE, THE CHILD OF THE BEAUTIFUL RIVER
RHINE LOUISE, THE CHILD OF THE WESTERN FOREST THE
SEVEN LITTLE SISTERS

MEMORIAL OF MISS JANE ANDREWS. [Born Dec. 1, 1833. Died
July 15, 1887.]

BY LOUISA PARSONS HOPKINS.
Perhaps the readers and lovers of this little book will be glad of a few
pages, by way of introduction, which shall show them somewhat of
Miss Andrews herself, and of her way of writing and teaching, as an
old friend and schoolmate may try to tell it; and, to begin with, a
glimpse of the happy day when she called a few of her friends together
to listen to the stories contained in this volume, before they were
offered to a publisher.
Picture to yourselves a group of young ladies in one of the loveliest of
old-fashioned parlors, looking out on a broad, elm-shaded street in the
old town of Newburyport. The room is long and large, with wide
mahogany seats in the four deep windows, ancient mahogany chairs,
and great bookcases across one side of the room, with dark pier-tables

and centre-table, and large mirror,--all of ancestral New England
solidity and rich simplicity; some saintly portraits on the wall, a
modern easel in the corner accounting for fine bits of coloring on
canvas, crayon drawings about the room, and a gorgeous firescreen of
autumn tints; nasturtium vines in bloom glorifying the south window,
and German ivy decorating the north corner; choice books here and
there, not to look at only, but to be assimilated; with an air of quiet
refinement and the very essence of cultured homeness pervading
all;--this is the meagre outline of a room, which, having once sat within,
you would wish never to see changed, in which many pure and noble
men and women have loved to commune with the lives which have
been so blent with all its suggestions that it almost seems a part of their
organic being.
But it was twenty-five years ago [This memorial was written in 1887.]
that this circle of congenial and expectant young people were drawn
together in the room to listen to the first reading of the MSS. of "The
Seven Little Sisters." I will not name them all; but one whose youthful
fame and genius were the pride of all, Harriet Prescott (now Mrs.
Spofford), was Jane's friend and neighbor for years, and heard most of
her books in MSS. They were all friends, and in a very sympathetic and
eager attitude of mind, you may well believe; for in the midst, by the
centre-table, sits Jane, who has called them together; and knowing that
she has really written a book, each one feels almost that she herself has
written it in some unconscious way, because each feels identified with
Jane's work, and is ready to be as proud of it, and as sure of it, as all the
world is now of the success of Miss Jane Andrews's writings for the
boys and girls in these little stories of geography and history which
bear her name.
I can see Jane sitting there, as I wish you could, with her MSS. on the
table at her side. She is very sweet and good and noble-looking, with
soft, heavy braids of light-brown hair carefully arranged on her fine,
shapely head; her forehead is full and broad; her eyes large, dark blue,
and pleasantly commanding, but with very gentle and dreamy phases
interrupting their placid