The Joyous Story of Toto

by LAURA E. RICHARDS.
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY E. H. GARRETT.
BOSTON: ROBERTS BROTHERS. 1885.
Copyright, 1885 , By Roberts Brothers.
University Press: John Wilson and Son, Cambridge.
TO MY CHILDREN This Story IS LOVINGLY DEDICATED.


Toto was a little boy, and his grandmother was an old woman (I have noticed that grandmothers are very apt to be old women); and this story is about both of them. Now, whether the story be true or not you must decide for yourselves; and the child who finds this out will be wiser than I.
Toto’s grandmother lived in a little cottage far from any town, and just by the edge of a thick wood; and Toto lived with her, for his father and mother were dead, and the old woman was the only relation he had in the world.
The cottage was painted red, with white window-casings, and little diamond-shaped panes of glass in the windows. Up the four walls grew a red rose, a yellow rose, a woodbine, and a clematis; and they all met together at the top, and fought and scratched for the possession of the top of the chimney, from which there was the finest view; so foolish are these vegetables.