Title:  Mother Stories

Author:  Maud Lindsay

Illustrator:  Sarah Noble-Ives

Release Date:  May 28, 2005 [EBook #15929]

Language:  English

Character set encoding:  ASCII

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MOTHER STORIES

BY

MAUD LINDSAY

Illustrated by Sarah Noble-Ives

“Mother, a story told at the right time
Is a looking-glass for the mind.” 
Froebel.

TWENTY-EIGHTH EDITION

Milton Bradley company
Springfield Mass. 1928

=Bradley Quality Books= printed in the United states of America

Dedicated to my mother

PREFACE

I have endeavored to write, for mothers and dear little children, a few simple stories, embodying some of the truths of Froebel’s Mother Play.

The Mother Play is such a vast treasure house of Truth, that each one who seeks among its stores may bring to light some gem; and though, perhaps, I have missed its diamonds and rubies, I trust my string of pearls may find acceptance with some mother who is trying to live with her children.

I have written my own mottoes, with a few exceptions, that I might emphasize the particular lesson which I endeavor to teach in the story; for every motto in the Mother Play comprehends so much that it is impossible to use the whole for a single subject.  From “The Bridge” for instance, which is replete with lessons, I have taken only one,—­for the story of the “Little Traveler.”

Most of these stories have been told and retold to little children, and are surrounded, in my eyes, by a halo of listening faces.

“Mrs. Tabby Gray” is founded on a true story of a favorite cat.  “The Journey” is a new version of the old Stage Coach game, much loved by our grandmothers; and I am indebted to some old story, read in childhood, for the suggestion of “Dust Under the Rug,” which was a successful experiment in a kindergarten to test the possibility of interesting little children in a story after the order of Grimm, with the wicked stepmother and her violent daughter eradicated.

Elizabeth Peabody says we are all free to look out of each other’s windows; and so I place mine at the service of all who care to see what its tiny panes command.

Maud Lindsay.

LIST OF STORIES