To Charlie.
A Dewdrop is a small affair; and the world would not be the least
interested, nor a bit the wiser, by knowing how I come
affectionately to dedicate the story I have written about it to
_you_. I may tell you it was one line of eleven words, read one
night from a musty old volume of last century, which suggested it.
Everybody must have their play-hours and moments of recreation. I
think I have gone back to other and more serious work all the better
after writing a page or two of what follows. I am happy thus to have
had my little holiday along with you in this ideal region of quaint
conceits.
Shall we hope that others may share our pleasure?
Let us try.
_List of_
ILLUSTRATIONS.
_The Procession of the Queen of the Morning_ (p. 41), _Frontispiece._
_The Bird-talk and its surroundings,_ 14
_The Nightingale and the Dewdrop,_ 19
_The Ascent of the Million Army,_ 53
_The Story of_
A DEWDROP.