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., PG 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, PG 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!

Fanny Fern.

CONTENTS.

• PAGE
•  
• Where is Little Nelly?11
• Little George's Story14
• Matty and Mabel; or Who is Rich!—Who is Poor!16
• The Baby's Complaint20
• Little Floy; or, Tears and Smiles22
• The Lake Trip; or, Going a Fishing27
• "Milk for Babes"30
• The Little "Morning Glory"33
• The Charity Orphans35
• Don't Get Angry37
• "Little Benny"42
• A Rap on Somebody's Knuckles43
• Little Freddy's Musings45
• Only a Penny47
• A Little Boy with a Big Heart52
• May Morning56
• The Little Dandelion Merchant59
• Walter Willet61
• Children, Did you ever hear of Mr. "They Say!"66
• The Little Martyr69
• Selfish Matthew75
• City Children78
• Rosalie and Hetty