ROSE CLARK.
BY
FANNY FERN.
NEW YORK:
PUBLISHED BY MASON BROTHERS
1856.
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1855, by
MASON BROTHERS,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court, for the Southern District of New York.
STEREOTYPED BY
Thomas B. Smith,
82 & 84 Beekman Street.
PRINTED BY
John A. Gray,
97 Cliff St.
Reader!
When the frost curtains the windows, when the wind whistles fiercely at the key-hole, when the bright fire glows, and the tea-tray is removed, and father in his slippered feet lolls in his arm-chair; and mother with her nimble needle "makes auld claes look amaist as weel as new," and grandmamma draws closer to the chimney-corner, and Tommy with his plate of chestnuts nestles contentedly at her feet; then let my unpretending story be read. For such an hour, for such an audience, was it written.
Should any dictionary on legs rap inopportunely at the door for admittance, send him away to the groaning shelves of some musty library, where "literature" lies embalmed, with its stony eyes, fleshless joints, and ossified heart, in faultless preservation.
Then, should the smile, and the tear, have passed round, while the candle flickers in the socket, if but one kindly voice murmur low,
"May God bless her!"
it will brighten the dreams of
FANNY FERN.