;
while their whole tone and aim is so unmistakably high, that even
those who criticize the style will be apt to respect the writer.

I ought here to express a hope that it will not be thought
presumptuous on my part, to undertake the office of introduction. I
beg it to be understood that I address myself especially to those
readers who have (I speak it with deep gratitude and pleasure)
listened kindly and favourably to me for several years past, and who
will, I trust, be no less well disposed towards my daughter's
writings.

To them also it may be interesting to know, that in the "J.H.G." of
"Melchior's Dream," etc., they will find the original of my own
portrait of "Aunt Judy."

But I have still something more to say: another little bit of
gratification to express. What one sister has written, another has
illustrated by her pencil; a cause of double thankfulness in my heart
to Him from whom all good gifts come.

MARGARET GATTY.

NOTE.--_The foregoing Preface was written for the first
edition of "Melchior's Dream, and other Tales." This was published in
1862 under Mrs. Ewing's maiden initials, "J.H.G." It contained the
first five stories in the present volume, and these were illustrated
by the writer's eldest sister, "M.S.G."_

MELCHIOR'S DREAM.

AN ALLEGORY.

"Thou that hast given so much to me, Give one thing more--a
grateful heart."

GEORGE HERBERT.

"Well, father, I don't believe the Browns are a bit better off than we
are; and yet when I spent the day with young Brown, we cooked all
sorts of messes in the afternoon; and he wasted twice as much rum and
brandy and lemons in his trash, as I should want to make good punch
of. He was quite surprised, too, when I told him that our mince-pies
were kept shut up in the larder, and only brought out at meal-times,
and then just one apiece; he said they had mince-pies always going,
and he got one whenever he liked. Old Brown never blows up about that
sort of thing; he likes Adolphus to enjoy himself in the holidays,
particularly at Christmas."

The speaker was a boy--if I may be allowed to use the word in speaking
of an individual whose jackets had for some time past been resigned
to a younger member of his family, and who daily, in the privacy of
his own apartment, examined his soft cheeks by the aid of his sisters'
"back-hair glass." He was a handsome boy too; tall, and like
David--"ruddy, and of a fair countenance;" and his face, though
clouded th