Even now, I cannot resist employing the whimsical mask of an odd title; but my dear friends, try my pop-guns, and if then you are convinced that I have sincerely endeavored to “shoot folly as it flies,” pray believe also, that Aunt Fanny well knows that stories called “Pop-Guns,” will make quicker and more enduring marks in the loving hearts of her darlings, the children, than twenty folios, written by a thousand times greater authors, with the dry title of “Moral Lessons for the Young.”
New York, May, 1864.
POP-GUNS.
A POP-GUN LETTER FROM AUNT FANNY.
Darling Children,—
Last summer, when I was in the country, I met a family of six charming children. As soon as they heard who I was, they did not stop one minute to think about it, but just ran up and kissed and hugged me, and told me they loved me dearly.
Oh! how sweet that was to know: but I put on a funny grave face, and said—
“I cannot imagine why you should love such a little brown woman; don’t you think you have made some mistake?”