The Bountiful Lady or How Mary was Changed from a very Miserable Little Girl to a very Happy One (1900‪)‬

Popular children's book, first published in 1900. The story begins: "It was not a dream, this wonderful thing that happened to Mary Brown, although it seemed very much like a dream at first. Mary was a pretty, round-faced, dirty little girl who had neither a father nor a mother nor a brother nor a sister. Nobody had kissed her since she could remember, although it was only the day before yesterday that Mrs. Coppert had beaten her. She lived in a poor, narrow street, and during the daytime she spent many hours in the road. During the night she lay on a sack on the floor of a small room with three other children. Sometimes, when she played in the road, Mary almost forgot she was hungry; but for the most part, she was a sorrowful little girl. She had none of the things which you like the best--she did not even know there were such things in the world; she seldom had enough to eat, and her clothes were very ragged and dirty indeed."