TO EVERY LITTLE CHILD, AND ESPECIALLY

ΤΟ

MY DEAREST LITTLE NIECE,

J. E. F.

AND TO ALL MY DEAR LITTLE NEPHEWS, NIECES,

AND GODCHILDREN,

THESE SUNDAY STORIES ARE DEDICATED, WITH

EARNEST PRAYERS

AND WITH THE DEEPEST LOVE, BY

The Author.

Dear infant Nurslings of the Church of God,
Sweet plants of hope, that grace the dark earth's sod,

If I one drop of truth's pure milk may bring,

Or, but one 'cup of water" from the spring,
Of endless life, to you that are the Lord's,
I am twice blest!

O still in childhood's words, In childhood's tales, let nurture meet be given, For babes redeemed, inheritors of heaven; And still, the stars of heavenly wisdom shine, Thro' every daised wreath that we for children twine!

PREFACE.

THE first motive which suggested to the author the publication of this little book, was the simple desire to be able to give, in an abiding form, to some children inexpressibly dear to her, a few, of many stories, which she had related to them on Sundays, and which they had entreated her to repeat, and repeat continually, till their untired interest in the narration had quite worn out her own. The second was a hope that as each of these little stories (in the composition of which she had been encouraged by the affectionate confidence of the parents, whose christian instructions they were intended to enforce) had been composed to convey some particular lesson which the children to whom they were related seemed at the moment to require, or some truth which they were found actually

capable of receiving, they might prove also, adapted to the similar wants and powers of apprehension of other children, at the same ages: and, it was a sweet hope to the writer's mind that they might be thus useful.

It is forbidden to women that they should be Teachers of Men: but, may they not be Nurturers of Babes? The providence of God has made the writer, from various circumstances, continually a teacher or a nurse of children, (even since the time when, an elder in a large family, she was still but a young child herself;) their company has been, at all times, the most interesting of all company to her; and, as her love for children has absorbed perhaps, more than half the thoughts of her life, she has often felt that she would not willingly suffer that life to pass away without attempting some little service, (however humble) of the nature of her present undertaking, which she might ask of God, to bless to some of these His dear Lambs.

A volume so small as the present would, in itself, be too insignificant to require a preface; but, if the author live, and if opportunity be permitted to her, it is her hope to continue this work till she shall have furnished