aists_, because, you see, they are not
Christians. So you could n't dance, jump the rope, play _croquet_, or
take a run on the great Chinese wall with them; but you could play with
puzzles, have tea-parties, and pick the tea-leaves right from the
bushes.

Children all the world over laugh and weep, quarrel and make up, play
hard, and eat heartily, love and try their mammas, pet and tease their
little brothers and sisters,--are a sweet care and a dear perplexity,
and are God's little folk, all of them. I think they have the best
share of His love and of this life's happiness wherever they are. But,
darlings, I want you to feel that you need not envy any children on
earth,--not the richest and proudest, not the daughters of a German
Grand Duke, with a kingdom so large that you could scarcely walk across
it in a long summer day, nor any East-Indian Princesses, twinkling with
diamonds, and rattling with pearls, and riding on elephants, nor
Turkish Princesses wearing baggy satin trousers and velvet jackets, and
walking on costly carpets, nor Chinese Princesses that don't walk at
all, nor Spanish Princesses who go to bull-fights in splendid
state-coaches, and wear long trains, and are every now and then
presented to the Queen, their mother, and allowed to kiss her hand, nor
even English Princesses who live in castles and palaces and see the
Queen every day. I really want you to feel that yours is a proud and
happy lot, in being true-born American girls, in having honest and
loyal parents, in having lived during our grand sad war for Union, in
having heard the ringing of the bells of peace, in having loved and
mourned the good, great President, Abraham Lincoln.

If in this volume I have chosen to tell you some stories about titled
people of foreign lands, it is that you may not be so set up by your
privileges as little citizenesses of the great Republic, as not to feel
kindly and humanly toward even little Lords and Ladies, who, being the
slaves of pomp, etiquette, and fine clothes, know nothing about freedom
and equality, and good, jolly times; who have no Star-Spangled Banner,
and no Fourth of July, and who have scarcely ever heard of George
Washington and General Grant.

Wishing you merry holidays, I kiss my hand to you.

GRACE GREENWOOD.

CONTENTS.

ABOUT ENGLISH CHILDREN.

HOW WE ACT; NOT HOW WE LOOK
A CHARADE
LITTLE FOOTMARKS IN THE SHOW
BABIE ANNIE TO COUSIN J----
THE DAY AT THE CASTLE