The Project Gutenberg EBook of Lewie, by Cousin Cicely

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Title: Lewie
Or, The Bended Twig

Author: Cousin Cicely
AKA Sarah Hopkins Bradford (b. 1818)

Release Date: March 3, 2005 [EBook #15244]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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[Illustration: BROOK FARM (Frontispiece)]

LEWIE;

OR,

THE BENDED TWIG.

BY COUSIN CICELY, AUTHOR OF THE "SILVER LAKE STORIES," ETC. ETC.

"Train up this child for me, and I will give thee thy wages."

"Mother! thy gentle hand hath mighty power,
For thou alone may'st train, and guide, and mould,
Plants that shall blossom with an odor sweet,
Or like the cursed fig-tree, wither and become
Vile cumberers of the ground."

AUBURN AND ROCHESTER: ALDEN & BEARDSLEY. 1856.

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1853, by ALDEN
BEARDSLEY & CO. In the Clerk's Office for the Northern District of New
York.

Preface.

It seems to be thought that a preface or introduction of some sort is
absolutely necessary to a book; why, I do not know, unless it be that it
looks rather abrupt to begin one's story without a word as to the why or
wherefore of its being written. This in the present case can be said
very shortly.

The principal events in the following story, the loved and petted child
being, as it seemed, given back to life in answer to the mother's
importunate cry; the indulgence under which he grew up, and the fatal
consequences of that indulgence upon a temper such as his; are taken
from real life, and may be used as sad warnings to those who shrink from
the present trouble and pain, of rightly training the little ones God
has given them.

The story of the Governess is a true one in every particular; names only
being altered; I believe there are none remaining now whose feelings
will be pained by this sad history being made public, so far as this
little book may make it so, but there are one or two I know, and perhaps
more, now living, who will smile if the chapter entitled "Ruth Glen