Part 59 (2/2)

9 _Little Threads; or, Tangle Thread, Silver Thread, and Golden Thread_ 1868

The ai sentences:

If you find that you like to have your oay a good deal better than you like your mamma to have hers; if you pout and cry when you can not do as you please; if you never own that you are in the wrong, and are sorry for it; never, in short, try with all your le Thread, and you may depend you cost youryou can do is to go away by yourself and pray to Jesus to hty you are, and to make you humble and sorry Then the old and soiled thread that can be seen in your mother's life will disappear, and in its place there will come first a silver, and by and by, with ti and beautiful golden one And do you know of anything in this world you should rather be than Somebody's Golden Thread?--especially the Golden Thread of your dear mamma, who has loved you so s so to see you gentle and docile like Him of whom it was said: ”Behold the _Lamb_ of God!”

_Little Threads_ is based upon a very keen observation of both the dark and the bright side of childhood The allegory, in which its lessons are wrought, is, perhaps, less simple and attractive than that of _Little Susy's Six Teachers_, or that of _Little Susy's Little Servants_; but the lessons themselves are full of the sweetest wisdos and Doings_ 1868

A the papers of her sister, Mrs Prentiss found a journal containing numerous little incidents in the early life of her only child, together with s Much of the material found in this journal was used in the coives it such an air of perfect reality

11 _Fred and Maria and Me_ 1868

12 _The Old Brown Pitcher_ 1868

This is a temperance tale It ritten at the request of the National Temperance Society and issued for their press

_13 Stepping Heavenward 1869_

Soiven already

Its circulation has been very large, both at horeater than that of any other of Mrs Prentiss' books More than 67,000 copies of it have been sold in this country; while in England it was issued by several houses, and tens of thousands of copies have been sold there, in Canada, in Australia, and in other parts of the British dolish houses that republished _Stepping Heavenward_, were James Nisbet & Co; Ward, Lock & Co; Frederick Warne & Co; Thoh; Milner & Co; Weldon & Co An edition by the last-named house, neatly printed and intended specially for circulation in Canada and Australia, as well as at home, was sold at fivepence, so that the very poorest could buy it No accurate estimate can be formed of the number of copies circulated in Great Britain and its dependencies, but it must have been enormous It was also issued at Leipsic, by Tauchnitz, in his famous ”Collection of British Authors”

The German translation has already passed into a fourth edition--a remarkable proof of its popularity In the preface to this edition Miss Morgenstern, the translator, says: ”So e, e wiederum aufklopfen an die Stuben und Herzenthuren, der deutschen Lesewelt, und nachdeen in die Stuben und Herzen, was ihre Vorgangerinnen hineintrugen;--Freude und Rath und Trost” Nowhere has the on higher, orextract from one of the critical notices of it ebuch--Aufzeichnungen, somit Selbstbekenntnissen, wird uns das Leben einer Frau erzalt, welche--ohne andere _aussere_ Schickungen freudiger und truber Art, als sie in _jedeen und wohlbegabten aber Susserst reizbaren und leidenshaftlich erregten Mudchen zu einer gelauterten Jungerin des Herrn heranreift Was aber dies Buch zu einem wahren Kleinod macht, das ish nicht die uberaus wahre und tiefe analyse jener menschlichen Sunde, Sundenschwachheit und Eitelkeit, die sich auch in die froabe des wahren Heilanze Buch zieht, ist die Wahrheit; Nicht _unser_ Rennen und Lanfen, sondern _Sein_ Erbareliebt, und daran haben _wir_ kindlich zu _glauben_ Sich _Ihm_ an _Sein_ Herz werfen mit all unsern Schwachen, all unser Ar Das Ganze ist im hochsten Grade fesselnd Man lebt sich unwillkurlich in dies christliche Hauswesen enen zu erkennen

[14]

The title-page of the French translation is as follows:

MARCHANT VERS LE CIEL

par E PRENTISS

Auteur de _La Fleur de la Falais avec L'Autorization de L'Auteur

Lausanne: Georges Bridel, Editeur

The following extract from a letter of Madame de Fressense, dated Paris, July 18, 1882, will shohat iifted and accomplished writer, but upon many other of the most cultivated Christian women of France and Switzerland:

C'est un livre qui fait aimer celle qui y a mis son ame, une etude du coeur humain bien vraie et bien delicate L'aes charmantes, dont la lecture rechauffe le coeur Je crois qu'il a ete fort apprecie dans nos pays de langue francaise Une personne dont toute la vie est un service de ceux qui souffrent me disait l'autre jour: ”C'est _mon_ livre, il m'a fait beaucoup de bien”

Le none qu'il a eu du succes, et je suis sure que beaucoup de personnes ont prefere, avec raison, le lire dans l'original