Adown a shallow stream we sent our leafy boats with swelling sail, and floating pennant of striped grass. Freighted with flowers beloved of children, the laughing pansies,—for thoughts,—we thrust them heedlessly forth with never a care whether boat or crew e'er reached a harbor.
Out into the world on the stream of the fast-hurrying century I send this paper boat—my book—laden with thoughts of children's lives. Grown careful with years, I crave for it a safe journey and sheltered harbor. Perhaps the craft may bear to some reader a memory of his own childhood, as well as stories of the children of an ancient day; a day so gray and sad as seen through the haze of centuries that the only cheerful light is found in the faces of the children.
Transcriber's note:
Minor typographical errors have been corrected without note. Irregularities and inconsistencies in the text have been retained as printed.
Missing page numbers are page numbers that were not shown in the original text.
The illustrations have been moved so that they do not break up paragraphs, thus the page number of the illustration might not match the page number in the List of Illustrations.
Mismatched quotes are not fixed if it's not sufficiently clear where the missing quote should be placed.
The transcriber has changed hyphenation in the index to match the book in the following cases: