The Children's Book: A Collection of Short Stories and Poems; A Mormon Book for Mormon Children

The thought came into my mind, Write a book for the children; and while I listened, it became a desire and a pleasant one, for I would dearly love to become the household friend of many little children who are growing up within the homes of the Saints. If they are willing to listen, I will tell them a few true stories, not fairy ones, indeed, of which little ones are so fond, so fascinating, but, alas! so false. No, these must be true.

Many pleasant hours have I spent in story-telling, and surely my pleasure was as great as theirs ; stories to sleepy eyes, out in the summer moonlight on the veranda, with great patches of flowers faintly showing in the shadows of wide branches, and night-birds singing over us; story-telling on rainy afternoons, or by roaring hearth-light; at home and abroad—how many listeners there have been.

Pleasant smiles and kind words from good hearts are sometimes worth more than silver and gold.

AUGUSTA JOYCE CROCHERON
Bountiful, Davis County, Utah
September 3, 1890