Child Life in Prose.

EDITED BY

JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER.

Illustrated.

BOSTON:

HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY.

The Riverside Press, Cambridge.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1873,
BY JAMES R. OSGOOD & CO.,
in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington,

TWENTY THIRD IMPRESSION.

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"We behold a child. Who is it? Whose is it? What is it?It is in the centre of fantastic light, and only a dim revealed formappears. It is God's own child, as all children are. The bloodof Adam and Eve, through how many soever channels diverging,runs in its veins; and the spirit of the Eternal, which blowseverywhere, has animated it. It opens its eyes upon us, stretchesout its hands to us as all children do. Can you love it? It maybe heir of a throne,—does it interest you? Or of a milking-stool,—donot despise it. It is a miracle of the All-working; itis endowed by the All-gifted. Smile upon it, it will a smile giveback again; prick it, it will cry. Where does it belong? Inwhat zone or climate? It may have been born on the Thames orthe Amazon, the Hoang-ho or the Mississippi. It is God's childstill, and its mother's. It is curiously and wonderfully made.The inspiration of the Almighty hath given it understanding. Itwill look after God by how many soever names he may be called;it will seek to know; it will long to be loved; it will sin and bemiserable; if it has none to care for it, it will die."

Judd's Margaret.

[iv]
[v]

PREFACE.

The unexpectedly favorable reception of the poetical compilationentitled "Child Life" has induced its publishers to callfor the preparation of a companion volume of prose stories andsketches, gathered, like the former, from the literature of widelyseparated nationalities and periods. Illness, preoccupation, andthe inertia of unelastic years would have deterred me from theundertaking, but for the assistance which I have had from the ladywhose services are acknowledged in the preface to "Child Life."I beg my young readers, therefore, to understand that I claim littlecredit for my share in the work, since whatever merit it may haveis largely due to her taste and judgment. It may be well to admit,in the outset, that the book is as much for child-lovers, who havenot outgrown their child-heartedness in becoming mere men andwomen, as for children themselves; that it is as much about childhood,as ...