Chapter I: Preface

The contents of this volume are republished in order to make the Edition a complete collection of Mrs. Ewing's works, rather than because of their intrinsic worth. The fact that she did not republish the papers during her life shows that she did not estimate them very highly herself; but as each one has a special interest connected with it, I feel I am not violating her wishes in bringing the collection before the public.

One of Mrs. Ewing's strongest gifts was her power of mimicry; this made her an actor above the average of amateurs, and also enabled her to imitate any special style of writing that she wished. The first four stories in this volume are instances of this power. _The Mystery of the Bloody Hand_ was an attempt to vie with some of the early sensational novels, such as _Lady Audley's Secret_ and _The Moonstone_;--tales in which a glimpse of the supernatural is introduced amongst scenes of every-day life.

During my sister's girlhood we had a family MS. Magazine (as our Mother had done in her young days), and two of the stories in Mrs. Gatty's "Aunt Judy's Letters," _The Flatlands Fun Gazette_ and _The Black Bag_, were founded on this custom, Mrs. Ewing being the typical "Aunt Judy" of the book. Mrs. Gatty described how the children were called upon each to contribute a tale for _The Black Bag_, and how No. 5 remonstrated by saying--"I've been sitting over the fire this evening trying to think, but what _could_ come, with only the coals and the fire-place before one to look at? I dare say neither Hans Andersen nor Grimm nor any of those fellows would have written anything, if they had not gone about into caves and forests and those sort of places, or boated in the North Seas!" Aunt Judy replied that she also had been looking into the fire, and the longer she did so, the more she decided "that Hans Andersen was not beholden to caves or forests or any curious things or people for his story-telling inspirations"; but as it was difficult for the "little ones" to write she enclosed three tales as "jokes, imitations, in fact, of the Andersenian power of spinning gold threads out of old tow-ropes." So far this was Mrs. Gatty's own writing, but the three tales were the work of the real Aunt Judy, Mrs. Ewing herself. These three are (1) _The Smut_, (2) _The Crick_, (3) _The Brothers_. The last sentence in _The Brothers_ recalls the last entry in Mrs. Ewing's commonplace book, which is quoted in her Life--"If we still love those we lose, can we altogether lose those we love?"

_Cousin Peregrine's Wonder Stories_ and _Traveller's Tales_ were written after Mrs. Ewing's marriage, with the help of her husband; he supplied the facts and descriptions from things which he had seen during his long residence abroad. Colonel Ewing also helped my sister in translating the _Tales of the Khoja_ from the Turkish. The illustrations now reproduced were drawn by our brother, Alfred Scott-Gatty.

In _Little Woods_ and _May-Day Customs_ Mrs. Ewing showed her ready ability to take up any subject of interest that came under her notice--botany, horticulture, archæology, folk-lore, or whatever it might be. The same readiness was shown in her adaptation of the various versions of the _Mumming Play_, or _The Peace Egg_.

_In Memoriam_ was written under considerable restraint soon after our Mother's death. My sister knew that she did not wish her biography to be written, but still it was impossible to let the originator and editor of _Aunt Judy's Magazine_ pass away without some little record being given to the many children who loved her writings. In Ecclesfield Church there is a tablet erected to Mrs. Gatty's memory by one thousand children, who each contributed sixpence.

_The Snarling Princess_ and _The Little Parsnip Man_ are adaptations of two fairy tales which appeared in a German magazine; and as both the tales and their illustrations took Mrs. Ewing's fancy, she made a free rendering of them for _Aunt Judy's Magazine_.

_A Child's Wishes_ and _War and the Dead_ are more accurate translations, but it may be said they have not suffered in their transmission from one language to another. My sister's selection of the last sketch for translation is noticeable, as giving a foretaste of her keen sympathy with military interests.

CONTENTS.

The Mystery of the Bloody Hand

The Smut

The Crick

The Brothers

Cousin Peregrine's Wonder Stories:
1. The Chinese Jugglers, and the Englishman's Hands

2. Waves of the Great South Seas

Cousin Peregrine's Traveller's Tales:
Jack of Pera

The Princes of Vegetation

Little Woods

May-Day, Old Style and New Style

In Memoriam, Margaret Gatty

Tales of the Khoja (_from the Turkish_)

The Snarling Princess (_adapted from the German_)

The Little Parsnip-Man (_adapted from the German_)

A Child's Wishes (_from the German of R. Reinick_)

War and the Dead (_from the French of Jean Macé_)

THE MYSTERY OF THE BLOODY HAND.