To my little friends, MARY and ALICE SEELYE, I wish to inscribe this
volume, in remembrance of a pleasant summer spent under their father's
roof--the Water Cure, at Cleveland, where a part of these sketches were
written,--in remembrance of their happy, cordial faces, and of the
"loving kindness" of their parents--of much genial companionship and
generous sympathy.
In remembrance of the beautiful wood, with its flowery paths, its hills
and dells and darkly shadowed water, where we often wandered
together;--where my dear baby grew like the flowers, drinking in dew
and sunshine--strengthened by fresh winds and aromatic odors,--where
under fluttering forest-leaves her little face caught its first gleams
of thought and tender meanings, like their glinting lights and flying
shades, and her little voice seemed intoned by their silvery murmurs,
the love-notes of birds and prattle of streams. In remembrance of the
sweet spring in the glen, and the shady resting-places on the hill,--of
the grand old oaks, and of the violets at their feet.
In remembrance of the lovely child, with whom we last visited that
wood,--dear _Georgiana Gordon_.
GRACE GREENWOOD.
CHRISTMAS, 1857.