The complete online text of Melody : the Story of a Child by Laura E. Richards.

Laura Elizabeth Howe Richards was a prolific writer of fiction and poetry for children and for adults. She wrote over ninety books, and one of her works for children, Tirra Lirra: Rhymes Old and New, remained in print for forty-eight years, a good record...

I The sound of footsteps halted outside the door, followed by loud rapping and then a voice that shouted: "Hoods on! Hoods on!" Inside the room the five women, stretched out on ragged mattresses, their hands and feet in chains,...

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