CAPER-SAUCE:

A VOLUME OF CHIT-CHAT ABOUT MEN, WOMEN, AND THINGS.

BY

FANNY FERN,

AUTHOR OF "Folly as it Flies," "Ginger-Snaps," "Fern Leaves," ETC.

NEW YORK:
G. W. Carleton & Co., Publishers.

LONDON: S. LOW, SON & CO.

M.DCCC.LXXII.

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1872, by

G. W. CARLETON & CO.,

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.

Stereotyped at the
WOMEN'S PRINTING HOUSE,
56, 58 and 60 Park Street,
New York.

NEW BOOKS

BY

FANNY FERN.

These volumes are all elegantly printed and bound in cloth: are sold everywhere, and will be sent by mail free of postage, on receipt of price,

BY

Carleton, Publisher,
New York.

PREFACE.

Excuse me. None this time. There have already been too many big porticos before little buildings.

Fanny Fern.

New York, 1872.

CONTENTS

PAGE

Editors 9

My Notion of Music 16

"Budding Spring"—In the City 20

A Peep at Boston 23

Blackwell's Island 29

Shall we have Male or Female Clerks? 37

Unknown Acquaintances 40

Life and its Mysteries 44

Mrs. Washington's Eternal Knitting 47

The Woman Question 50

Two Kinds of Wives 55

Undertakers' Signs on Churches 58

A Voice from the Skating Pond 61

The Sin of being Sick 64

Are Ministers Serfs? 69

Blaming Providence for Our Own Faults 72

A Chapter on Nurses 74

Do American Women Love Nature? 78

Rainy-day Pleasures 82

Chit-Chat with Some of My Correspondents 84

My Liking for Pretty Things 92

Unsought Happiness 95

Dignity of Human Nature 100

All About Doctors 104

Letter to Henry Ward Beecher 108

The Amenities of the Table 111

Many Men of Many Minds 115

My Notion of a Walking Companion 118

Men Teachers in