MARIE CONWAY OEMLER
Reading edition
author of SLIPPY McGEE, Etc.
GROSSET & DUNLAP PUBLISHERS NEW YORK
1919
To
ELIZABETH HEYWARD OEMLER
Sometimes my Little Girl.
When you were yet an Awful Baby, And bawled o' bed-time, I said "Maybe It is not best to spank or scold her: Suppose a fairy-tale were told her?" And gave you then, to my undoing, The wolf Red Riding-Hood pursuing; Sang Mother Goose her artless rhyming; Showed Jack the Magic Beanstalk climbing; Three Little Pigs were so appealing, You set up sympathetic squealing! Then, Bitsybet, you had your mother— You bawled until I told another!
The Awful Baby's gone. Here lately You bear your little self sedately. You've shed your rompers; you want dresses Prinked out with frillies; fluff your tresses; Delight your daddy, aunts, and mother; And sisterly set straight your brother. Your bib-and-tucker days abolished, Your manners and your nails are polished. One baby trait remains, thank glory! You're still a glutton for a story. Still, Bitsybet, you beg another: So here's one for you from
YOUR MOTHER.
CONTENTS
i. The Scarlet Witch Departs
ii. And Ariel Makes Music
iii. The Dear Little God!
iv. The Hyndses of Hynds House
v. "Thy Neighbor as Thyself"
vi. Glamoury
vii. A Bright Particular Star
viii. Peacocks and Ivory
ix. The Judgment of Spring
x. The Forest of Arden
xi. The Jinnee Intervenes
xii. Man Proposes
xiii. Fires of Yesterday
xiv. The Talisman
xv. The Heart of Hynds House
xvi. The Devill His Rainbow
xvii. On the Knees of the Gods
xviii. The Greatest Gift
xix. Deep Waters
xx. Harbor
[illustrations: frontispiece key plan]
CHARACTERS
Sophy: A woman named Smith.
Alicia Gaines: Flower o' the Peach.
Nicholas Jelnik: Peacocks and Ivory.
Doctor Richard Geddes: Cœur-de-Lion.
The Author: Himself.
The Secretary: A Pleasant Person.
Miss Emmeline Phelps-Parsons: of Boston, Massachusetts.
Miss Martha Hopkins: "Clothed in White Samite."
Judge Gatchell: The Law.
Schmetz and Riedriech: Workmen and Visionaries.
The Jinnee: A Son of the Prophet.
Sophronisba Scarlett: "The Scarlett Witch."
The Hyndses of Hynds House.
Paying Guests.
The People of Hyndsville, South Carolina.
Mary Magdalen; Queen-of-Sheeba; Fernolia: Important Persons.
Boris: A Russian Wolfhound.
The Black Family: A Witch's Cat's Kittens.
Beautiful Dog: Last but not Least.