Perpetual benediction.

WORDSWORTH




PREFACE

THE following sketch was written for the young, at the suggestion
of friends.

My audience is understood to be composed of girls of all ages,
and of women who have not forgotten their girlhood. Such as have
a friendly appreciation of girls--and of those who write for
them--are also welcome to listen to as much of my narrative as
they choose. All others are eavesdroppers, and, of course, have
no right to critise.

To many, the word "autobiography" implies nothing but conceit and
egotism. But these are not necessarily its characteristics. If an
apple blossom or a ripe apple could tell its own story, it would
be, still more than its own, the story of the sunshine that
smiled upon it, of the winds that whispered to it, of the birds
that sang around it, of the storms that visited it, and of the
motherly tree that held it and fed it until its petals were
unfolded and its form developed.

A complete autobiography would indeed be a picture of the outer
and inner universe photographed upon one little life's