The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Pedler of Dust Sticks, by Eliza Lee Follen

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Title: The Pedler of Dust Sticks

Author: Eliza Lee Follen

Posting Date: June 11, 2009 [EBook #4040]
Release Date: May 2003,
First Posted: October 19, 2001

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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THE PEDLER OF DUST STICKS

BY

MRS. FOLLEN

With illustrations by Billings

CONTENTS

THE PEDLER OF DUST STICKS.
"ON THE GRAVE OF THE GOOD, GREAT MAN."
THE MIGHTY DEEDS OF ABC.
WHAT DAY IS IT?
THE CHILD AT HER MOTHER'S GRAVE.
EVENING PRAYER.
THE SABBATH IS HERE.
TO A BUTTERFLY.

THE PEDLER OF DUST STICKS.

One day I went to visit a friend, a lady, who came from Hamburg, in
Germany. I was much pleased with a portrait which was hanging up in
her room, and I was particularly struck by the ornamental drawings
with which the picture was surrounded. They consisted of whip
handles, canes, piano keys, mouth-pieces for wind instruments, all
sorts of umbrellas, and many more things, of every sort, made of
cane and whalebone. The arrangement was so ingenious, the designs so
fanciful, and the execution so good, that nothing could be prettier.
But what of course was of the most importance, was the face and head
that they were meant to ornament. "What a benevolent, what a
beautiful face!" I said. "Who is it?"

"My father," the lady replied; "and he is more beautiful than the
picture, and he is still more kind than he looks there."

"What is the meaning of all these bits of bamboo and these little
canes, so fancifully arranged around the picture?" I asked.

"These little sticks," she replied, "tell the story of my father's
success, and of the beginning of his greatness. He began his noble
and honorable life as a little Pedler of Dust Sticks."

"Pedler of Dust Sticks?"

"Yes," she said; "if you would like to hear his history, I will
relate it."

I replied that nothing could please me better; that I considered the
life of a good, great man the m