Little Pilgrim at Aunt Lou's

Little Pilgrim at Aunt Lou’s.—frontispiece. Bessie was seated on the barn-floor, with all the little kittens in her lap. p. 21.
The Little Pilgrim Series.
PHILADELPHIA: AMERICAN SUNDAY-SCHOOL UNION, No. 1122 CHESTNUT STREET.
New York: Nos. 8 and 10 Bible House, Astor Place. Chicago: 73 Randolph Street.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1879, by the AMERICAN SUNDAY-SCHOOL UNION, In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.
It was a long time after Christmas, and the snow and ice had all melted, and the trees were green again, and the flowers and birds had all come back.
Summer was just beginning again; and on the very day that she was five years old the little pilgrim started on a long journey with papa and mamma and Aunt Lillie.
They were going into the country to Aunt Lou’s, to stay for a great many weeks—mamma and Aunt Lillie and Bessie; and papa was going to take them there and stay one night, and then go home again, because he had to attend to his business.
Grandpapa was not going at all now, because he could not leave his church and his poor people; but by and by, he said, when the days and nights were both too hot for him, he would take a vacation like the school-children, and go to Aunt Lou’s for a month.
Rosy and Jane had promised to take good care of the house, and they both stood at the gate watching the family off.
At first the little pilgrim thought it very fine to go off in the steam-cars and watch the houses and trees fly past the windows, for this is what they seemed to do; but the cars did the flying, while the houses and trees stayed just where they were before.
There was not a happier little girl to be found that morning than Bessie. She had a beautiful little trunk with her that held all Blanche’s clothes, and the key of the trunk was on a ribbon around her neck. Blanche, you know, was her best dolly—the one her mamma gave her on her last birthday—and she had always taken great care of her, so that she was now almost as good as new.