Chapter XXVI Conclusion
And now we must draw our story to a close. The reader has become acquainted with its characters, and knows about the agencies for good which are at work in the manufacturing town of Squantown, as well as the influences brought to bear upon the Christian development of our boys and girls. The machinery is all adjusted, the power is applied, the wheels are in motion—nothing can hinder continued and beneficent work, except the possible weariness in well-doing of any of the parts, and the failure to look to God in faith for his promised strength, thus cutting off the connection with the source of all good things. So long as manufacturers and operatives, teachers and scholars, pastors and people continue in all their ways to acknowledge God, this will not be the case; and the manufacturing village will realize the scriptural idea: “Happy is that people that is in such a case: yea, happy is that people whose God is the Lord.”
We may expect to look ahead and see the boys and girls with whom we are acquainted, growing up into good, useful, and happy men and women. Bertie Sanderson will, little by little, overcome her natural and acquired faults of character. Envy and malice have already received their death blow, vanity and idleness will follow in their train. The higher interests of Christian love and church-work will dwarf the importance of dress and display, and Bertie will grow into a useful girl, faithful to, and contented with, her position—a help to her mother at home, a good example to Nina and the younger children.
We may expect to see Gretchen growing into a strong, sturdy German woman, sending home from time to time the savings of her earnings, which will help to make her far-off brothers and sisters very comfortable, the deep, though quiet, force of her affections expanding themselves to embrace many others on this side of the sea. We may be sure that her constant nature, upheld by divine grace, will never lose its hold of the Saviour who came to take care of her in answer to her Sunday-school teacher’s call that Sunday evening when she seemed to be so near to the other world.
We may hope to see the other members of Miss Etta’s class, Miss Eunice’s tea-party, and the “Do Good Society,” all growing wiser and better as they grow older, and becoming more and more Christ-like as they follow in his steps. And we may be sure that Etta Mountjoy, cured of her erratic moods and wayward temper, first by being anchored to the rock of ages, and then by the safeguards and helps which the church of Christ throws around its members, will be still foremost in leading the little phalanx, her energy and enthusiasm insuring success in every good thing undertaken. She will find time for home duties as well as those of a more public kind, will be a right hand to Eunice as she continues on the even tenor of her way, and the sunshine of home to her father and brother James, until some good man discovers the sunshine and bears it away with him to be the illumination of another circle and the centre of another home.
We may see “Mr. James” still the considerate Christian mill-owner, conducting business on the strictest principles of integrity, and treating his employees as though of the same flesh and blood as himself, for whose bodies and souls he is in some measure responsible. And when at length Eunice drops the housekeeping into the hands of “Mrs. James,” we may be sure that she, as well as her husband, will continue to “honor God with their substance” and “in all their ways acknowledge him.”
If we turn our prophetic gaze upon the Robertson family, we shall find that the mother thereof is gradually exchanging her grumbling and forebodings of evil for hope and thankfulness at the success and good prospects of her children, who are profiting largely by the opportunities afforded them by their uncle’s kindness.
While greatly missing her from her home, the mother does not feel Katie’s absence as she would have done but for the girl boarders, who, while affording her both society and support, give her such ample occupation that she has little time to realize her loneliness or to indulge in fretfulness. Indeed, Tessa has already forestalled her future position, and become to the widow as a beloved daughter. The sweetness and softness of the Southern girl fit her to take culture and refinement very easily. She quickly assimilates with her surroundings, and models herself upon those she loves and admires—who are, in this instance, Katie Robertson and Etta Mountjoy. From the first, bold, bright Eric has felt the charm of her black eyes, and loved to listen to her soft, foreign accent, and it would not be surprising if, when he reaches the height of his ambition, and becomes either superintendent of the bindery or first foreman of the mill, he should ask Italian Tessa to share both his name and his success. But that is a great way off.
Katie is our first friend. With her character and fortune we have the most to do. It would be nice, did the limits of our volume allow, to follow her into her new school-life, to see how her energy, industry, independence, and cheerfulness go with her, rebuking homesickness, and causing her to make the most of every moment, and the best of every advantage. We should see that her path at school is not all strewn with roses, any more than was that at the mill; that different circumstances bring different temptations and develop different traits of character. We might perhaps find that silly school-girls at first decline to admit on terms of perfect equality one who had “worked for her living,” and was, in their not very elegant parlance, “nothing but a mill-girl.” Perhaps we might have to chronicle some lonely and sad hours in consequence, and some rebellious feelings hard to be kept down.
But Katie’s life is in the keeping of One wise enough to arrange all its discipline, “as it may be most expedient for her,” loving enough to sympathize with and comfort her in all times of sorrow and perplexity, and able with every temptation to make also a way of escape.
So, guarded and guided, Katie Robertson will be able to live down all that foolish and proud girls may say about her, and in the end become a favorite, not only with the wise, discriminating teachers, but also with warm-hearted, if wrong-headed, companions. We believe that throughout life, as in its beginning, she will continue to “seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness,” and that, as she daily endeavors “in all her ways to acknowledge him,” he will “give her the desires of her heart.”
A. L. Burt’s Catalogue of Books for Young People by Popular Writers, 52-58 Duane Street, New York
“This story is unique among tales intended for children, alike for pleasant instruction, quaintness of humor, gentle pathos, and the subtlety with which lessons moral and otherwise are conveyed to children, and perhaps to their seniors as well.”—The Spectator.
“Wonderful as the adventures of Joan are, it must be admitted that they are very naturally worked out and very plausibly presented. Altogether this is an excellent story for girls.”—Saturday Review.
“An unusually good children’s story.”—Glasgow Herald.
“Among all the modern writers we believe Miss Yonge first, not in genius, but in this, that she employs her great abilities for a high and noble purpose. We know of few modern writers whose works may be so safely commended as hers.”—Cleveland Times.
“Never has Mrs. Ewing published a more charming volume, and that is saying a very great deal. From the first to the last the book overflows with the strange knowledge of child-nature which so rarely survives childhood; and moreover, with inexhaustible quiet humor, which is never anything but innocent and well-bred, never priggish, and never clumsy.”—Academy.
“One of this popular author’s best. The characters are well imagined and drawn. The story moves with plenty of spirit and the interest does not flag until the end too quickly comes.”—Providence Journal.
“There is no doubt as to the good quality and attractiveness of ‘Six to Sixteen.’ The book is one which would enrich any girl’s book shelf.”
—St. James’ Gazette.
“A bright and interesting story. The many admirers of Mrs. L. T. Meade in this country will be delighted with the ‘Palace Beautiful’ for more reasons than one. It is a charming book for girls.”—New York Recorder.
“One of those wholesome stories which it does one good to read. It will afford pure delight to numerous readers. This book should be on every girl’s book shelf.”—Boston Home Journal.
“This story is written in the author’s well-known, fresh and easy style. All girls fond of reading will be charmed by this well-written story. It is told with the author’s customary grace and spirit.” —Boston Times.
“A very pretty story, with much of the freshness and vigor of Mr. Macdonald’s earlier work…. It is a sweet, earnest, and wholesome fairy story, and the quaint native humor is delightful. A most delightful volume for young readers.”—Philadelphia Times.
“The strength of his work, as well as its peculiar charms, consist in his description of the experiences of a youth with life under water in the luxuriant wealth of which he revels with all the ardor of a poetical nature.”—New York Tribune.
“One of the most entertaining stories of the season, fall of vigorous action, and strong in character-painting. Elder girls will be charmed with it, and adults may read its pages with profit.”—The Teachers’ Aid.
“Kitty is a true heroine—warm-hearted, self-sacrificing, and, as all good women nowadays are, largely touched with the enthusiasm of humanity. One of the most attractive gift books of the season.”—The Academy.
“One of Mrs. Meade’s charming books for girls, narrated in that simple and picturesque style which marks the authoress as one of the first among writers for young people.”—The Spectator.
“If a child once begins this book, it will get so deeply interested in it that when bedtime comes it will altogether forget the moral, and will weary its parents with importunities for just a few minutes more to see how everything ends.”
—Saturday Review.
“This story of the doings of several bright school girls is sure to interest girl readers. Among many good stories for girls this is undoubtedly one of the very best.”—Teachers’ Aid.
“The book is one we can heartily recommend, for it is not only bright and interesting, but also pure and healthy in tone and teaching.” —Courier.
“Wonderful as the adventures of Bluebell are, it must be admitted that they are very naturally worked out and very plausibly presented. Altogether this is an excellent story for girls.”—Saturday Review.
“Mrs. Molesworth’s delightful story of ‘Two Little Waifs’ will charm all the small people who find it in their stockings. It relates the adventures of two lovable English children lost in Paris, and is just wonderful enough to pleasantly wring the youthful heart.”—New York Tribune.
“The author is such a bright, cheery writer, that her stories are always acceptable to all who are not confirmed cynics, and her record of the adventures is as entertaining and enjoyable as we might expect.”—Boston Courier.
“These adventures are simply inimitable, and will delight boys and girls of mature age, as well as their juniors. No happier combination of author and artist than this volume presents could be found to furnish healthy amusement to the young folks. The book is an artistic one in every sense.”—Toronto Mail.
“Mrs. Burnham has a rare gift for composing stories for children. With a light, yet forcible touch, she paints sweet and artless, yet natural and strong, characters.”—Congregationalist.
“It is, in its way, a little classic, of which the real beauty and pathos can hardly be appreciated by young people. It is not too much to say of the story that it is perfect of its kind.”
—Good Literature.
“Mrs. Molesworth’s books are cheery, wholesome, and particularly well adapted to refined life. It is safe to add that she is the best English prose writer for children. A new volume from Mrs. Molesworth is always a treat.”—The Beacon.
“Jill is a little guardian angel to three lively brothers who tease and play with her…. Her unconscious goodness brings right thoughts and resolves to several persons who come into contact with her. There is no goodiness in this tale, but its influence is of the best kind.” —Literary World.
“Full of spirit and life, so well sustained throughout that grown-up readers may enjoy it as much as children. It is one of the best books of the season.”—Guardian.
“The naughty child is positively delightful. Papas should not omit the book from their list of juvenile presents.”—Land and Water.
“One of Miss Corkran’s charming books for girls, narrated in that simple and picturesque style which marks the authoress as one of the first among writers for young people.”—The Spectator.
“A charming story for young folks. Averil is a delightful creature—piquant, tender, and true—and her varying fortunes are perfectly realistic.”—World.
“An excellent story, the interest being sustained from first to last. This is, both in its intention and the way the story is told, one of the best books of its kind which has come before us this year.” —Saturday Review.
“This is a pretty narrative of child life, describing the simple doings and sayings of a very charming and rather precocious child. This is a delightful book for young people.”—Gazette.
“…This is a story showing in a charming way how one little girl’s jealousy and bad temper were conquered; one of the best, most suggestive and improving of the Christmas juveniles.”
—New York Tribune.
“We can highly recommend it; not only for the valuable information it gives on the special subjects to which it is dedicated, but also as a book teaching natural sciences in an interesting way. A fascinating little volume, which will make friends in every household in which there are children.”—Daily News.
“Among the books for young people we have seen nothing more unique than this book. Like all of this author’s stories it will please young readers by the very attractive and charming style in which it is written.”—Journal.
“The story is quaint and simple, but there is a freshness about it that makes one hear again the ringing laugh and the cheery shout of children at play which charmed his earlier years.”—New York Express.
“There is a delightful freshness, sincerity and vivacity about all of Grace Aguilar’s stories which cannot fail to win the interest and admiration of every lover of good reading.”—Boston Beacon.
“The charm of the story lies in the cheery helpfulness of spirit developed in the girls by their changed circumstances; while the author finds a pleasant ending to all their happy makeshifts. The story is charmingly told, and the book can be warmly recommended as a present for girls.”—Standard.
“Extremely well told and full of interest. Giannetta is a true heroine—warm-hearted, self-sacrificing, and, as all good women nowadays are, largely touched with enthusiasm of humanity. The illustrations are unusually good. One of the most attractive gift books of the season.”—The Academy.
“The experiences of an orphan girl who in infancy is left by her father to the care of an elderly aunt residing near Paris. The accounts of the various persons who have an after influence on the story are singularly vivid. There is a subtle attraction about the book which will make it a great favorite with thoughtful girls.” —Saturday Review.
“Sarah Doudney has no superior as a writer of high-toned stories—pure in style, original in conception, and with skillfully wrought out plots; but we have seen nothing equal in dramatic energy to this book.”
—Christian Leader.
“Among all the Christmas volumes which the year has brought to our table this one stands out facile princeps—a gem of the first water, bearing upon every one of its pages the signet mark of genius…. All is told with such simplicity and perfect naturalness that the dream appears to be a solid reality. It is indeed a Little Pilgrim’s Progress.”—Christian Leader.
“Mrs. Molesworth is a charming painter of the nature and ways of children; and she has done good service in giving us this charming juvenile which will delight the young people.”—Athenaeum, London.
Mrs. Molesworth’s children are finished studies. A joyous earnest spirit pervades her work, and her sympathy is unbounded. She loves them with her whole heart, while she lays bare their little minds, and expresses their foibles, their faults, their virtues, their inward struggles, their conception of duty, and their instinctive knowledge of the right and wrong of things. She knows their characters, she understands their wants, and she desires to help them.
Few authors have achieved a popularity equal to Mrs. Meade as a writer of stories for young girls. Her characters are living beings of flesh and blood, not lay figures of conventional type. Into the trials and crosses, and everyday experiences, the reader enters at once with zest and hearty sympathy. While Mrs. Meade always writes with a high moral purpose, her lessons of life, purity and nobility of character are rather inculcated by example than intruded as sermons.
“Full of spirit and life, so well sustained throughout that grown-up readers may enjoy it as much as children. This ‘Covey’ consists of the twelve children of a hard-pressed Dr. Partridge out of which is chosen a little girl to be adopted by a spoiled, fine lady. We have rarely read a story for boys and girls with greater pleasure. One of the chief characters would not have disgraced Dickens’ pen.”—Literary World.
“This is one of the prettiest books for children published, as pretty as a pond-lily, and quite as fragrant. Nothing could be imagined more attractive to young people than such a combination of fresh pages and fair pictures; and while children will rejoice over it—which is much better than crying for it—it is a book that can be read with pleasure even by older boys and girls.”—Boston Advertiser.
“She inspires her readers simply by bringing them in contact with the characters, who are in themselves inspiring. Her simple stories are woven in order to give her an opportunity to describe her characters by their own conduct in seasons of trial.”
—Chicago Times.
“It seems to me not at all easier to draw a lifelike child than to draw a lifelike man or woman: Shakespeare and Webster were the only two men of their age who could do it with perfect delicacy and success. Our own age is more fortunate, on this single score at least, having a larger and far nobler proportion of female writers; among whom, since the death of George Eliot, there is none left whose touch is so exquisite and masterly, whose love is so thoroughly according to knowledge, whose bright and sweet invention is so fruitful, so truthful, or so delightful as Mrs. Molesworth’s.”—A. C. Swinbourne.
“It requires a special talent to describe the sayings and doings of children, and the author of ‘Honor Bright,’ ‘One of a Covey,’ possesses that talent in no small degree. A cheery, sensible, and healthy tale.”—The Times.
“A beautiful little story. It will be read with delight by every child into whose hands it is placed…. The author deserves all the praise that has been, is, and will be bestowed on ‘The Cuckoo Clock.’ Children’s stories are plentiful, but one like this is not to be met with every day.”—Pall Mall Gazette.
“The author of this delightful little book leaves it in doubt all
through whether there actually is such a creature in existence as a
Brownie, but she makes us hope that there might be.”—Chicago
Standard.
“We can thoroughly recommend this brightly written and homely
narrative.”
—Saturday Review.
“A most delightful little book…. Miss Harraden is so bright, so healthy, and so natural withal that the book ought, as a matter of duty, to be added to every girl’s library in the land.”—Boston Transcript.
“One of the most effective and quietly humorous of Miss Tytler’s stories. ‘Girl Neighbors’ is a pleasant comedy, not so much of errors as of prejudices got rid of, very healthy, very agreeable, and very well written.”
—Spectator.
“No sweeter—that is the proper word—Christmas story for the little folks could easily be found, and it is as delightful for older readers as well. There is a moral to it which the reader can find out for himself, if he chooses to think.”—Cleveland Herald.
“A very pleasant and instructive story, told by a very charming writer in such an attractive way as to win favor among its young readers. The illustrations add to the beauty of the book.”—Utica Herald.
“This is a very pretty story of English life. Mrs. Molesworth is one of the most popular and charming of English story-writers for children. Her child characters are true to life, always natural and attractive, and her stories are wholesome and interesting.” —Indianapolis Journal.
“A charming tale of charming children, who are naughty enough to be interesting, and natural enough to be lovable; and very prettily their story is told. The quaintest yet most natural stories of child life. Simply delightful.”—Vanity Fair.
The story of a band of cousins who were accustomed to meet at the “Pinery,” with “Aunt Roxy.” At her fireside they play merry games, have suppers flavored with innocent fun, and listen to stories—each with its lesson calculated to make the ten not less jolly, but quickly responsive to the calls of duty and to the needs of others.
“This is a charming little juvenile story from the pen of Mrs. James, detailing the various adventures of a couple of young children. Their many adventure are told in a charming manner, and the book will please young girls and boys.”—Montreal Star.
Something Pen saw in the condition of the cash girls in a certain store gave her a thought; the thought became a plan; the plan became a venture—Pen’s venture. It is amusing, touching, and instructive to read about it.