Fern Leaves from Fanny's Portfolio, series one (Auburn: Derby & Miller, 1853)
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[half title page]
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[title page]
FERN LEAVES
FROM
FANNY'S PORTFOLIO.
WITH ORIGINAL DESIGNS BY FRED M. COFFIN
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AUBURN:
DERBY AND MILLER.
BUFFALO:
DERBY, ORTON AND MULLIGAN.
CINCINNATI:
HENRY W. DERBY.
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1853.
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[copyright page]
fifty-three, by
DERBY AND MILLER,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Northern District of New-York.
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[dedication]
TO ONE WHO HAS "GONE BEFORE," This Book IS TEARFULLY AND AFFECTIONATELY Dedicated.
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[blank page]
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[p. v]
PREFACE. -------
I never had the slightest intention of writing a book. Had such a thought entered my mind, I should not long have entertained it. It would have seemed presumptuous. What! I, Fanny Fern, write a book? I never could have believed it possible.
How, then, came the book to be written? some one may ask. Well, that's just what puzzles me. I can only answer in the dialect of the immortal "Topsy," "I 'spect it growed!" And, such as it is, it must go forth; for "what is written, is written," and--stereotyped.
So, dear readers (for I certainly number some warm, friendly hearts among you), here is my book, which I sincerely wish were worthier of your regard. But I can only offer you a few "Fern leaves," gathered at random, in shady spots, where sunbeams seldom play, and which I little thought ever to press for your keeping.
Many of the articles submitted were written for
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p. vi
and published in the Boston Olive Branch, Boston True Flag, and the New York Musical World and Times, while many are now here published for the first time.
Some of the articles are sad, some are gay; each is independent of all the others, and the work is consequently disconnected and fragmentary; but, if the reader will imagine me peeping over his shoulder, quite happy should he pay me the impromptu compliment of a smile or a tear, it is possible we may come to a good understanding by the time the book shall have been perused.
FANNY FERN.
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[p. 7]
CONTENTS.
"The Still Small Voice" ... 11Look on This Picture, and Then on That ... 16
The Widow's Trials ... 17
My Little Sunbeam ... 25
Self-Conquest ... 26
"Our Hatty" ... 33
Two in Heaven ... 40
"Summer Days"; or, The Young Wife's Affliction ... 41
Comfort for the Widow ... 47
Thorns for the Rose ... 49
Thanksgiving Story ... 59
Summer Friends; or, "Will is Might" ... 61
"Nil Desperandum" ... 67
Cecile Grey ... 69
Childhood's Trust ... 74
Elise De Vaux ... 75
The Wail of a Broken Heart ... 81
Mary Lee ... 83
A Talk About Babies ... 89
Elsie's First Trial ... 91
A Night-Watch with a Dead Infant ... 98
A Practical Blue-Stocking ... 100
The Little Pauper ... 105
Edith May; or, The Mistake of a Life-Time ... 108
Mabel's Soliloquy ... 114
How Husbands May Rule ... 116
Little Charley ... 120
The Lost and the Living ... 122
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p. 8
Kitty's Resolve ... 128
Woman ... 133
The Passionate Father ... 135
The Partial Mother ... 139
The Ball-Room and the Nursery ... 141
All's Well ... 146
How Woman Loves ... 149
A Mother's Soliloquy ... 157
The Invalid Wife ... 159
The Stray Lamb ... 163
Lena May; or, Darkness and Light ... 166
Thoughts Born of a Caress ... 173
A Chapter on Literary Women ... 175
He Who Has Most of Heart ... 180
Dark Days ... 182
Night ... 186
Children's Rights ... 188
Sorrow's Teachings ... 192
"An Infidel Mother" ... 194
Little Charlie, the Child-Angel ... 197
The Cross and the Crown ... 202
Lilla, the Orphan ... 204
Observing the Sabbath ... 210
The Prophet's Chamber ... 214
Lilies of the Valley ... 219
Grandfather Glen ... 221
The Widow's Prayer ... 227
The Step-Mother ... 230
A Word to Mothers ... 234
The Test of Love ... 236
Child-Life ... 240
"The Old House" ... 243
"Seeing the Folly of It" ... 246
The Transplanted Lily ... 250
No Fiction ... 257
Incident at Mount Auburn ... 260
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p. 9
Little Allie ... 265
The Flirt; or, The Unfaithful Lover ... 271
Fern Glen ... 277
Minnie ... 282
Sweet-Briar Farm ... 284
"The Angel-Child" ... 290
Not a "Model Minister" ... 293
"Merry Christmas!--Happy Christmas!" ... 295
Leta ... 298
The Model Step-Mother ... 301
A Page from a Woman's Heart; or, Female Heroism ... 303
Little May ... 311
PART II.
Nicodemus Ney. A Dash at a Character Whom Everybody has Seen ... 315Advice to Ladies ... 317
The Model Widow ... 320
The Model Widower ... 322
The Tear of a Wife ... 324
Editors ... 326
Bachelor Housekeeping ... 329
Borrowed Light ... 331
Mistaken Philanthropy ... 333
The Model Minister ... 335
The Weaker Vessel ... 337
A Tempest in a Thimble ... 339
The Quiet Mr. Smith ... 341
Prudence Prim ... 343
Men's Dickeys Never Fit Exactly ... 345
A Little Bunker Hill ... 346
Soliloquy of Rev. Mr. Parish ... 348
Tim Treadwell ... 350
Important for Married Men ... 352
Mr. Clapp's Soliloquy ... 354
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p. 10
Everybody's Vacation Except Editors' ... 357
Old Jeremiah; or, Sunny Days ... 359
"I Can't" ... 362
A Chapter on Clergymen ... 364
Uncle Jabe ... 367
An Interesting Husband ... 369
The Model Lady ... 372
Indulgent Husbands ... 373
A Fern Soliloquy ... 375
Aunt Hetty on Matrimony ... 377
Was n't You Caught Napping? ... 380
A Lady on Money Matters ... 382
Mrs. Croaker ... 384
To the Empress Eugenia ... 386
Empress Eugenia's Maids of Honor ... 389
Fast Day ... 391
The Bore of the Sanctum ... 392
Owls Kill Humming-Birds ... 397
"The Best of Men Have Their Failings" ... 399