The Project Gutenberg EBook of Pinafore Palace, by Various

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Title: Pinafore Palace

Author: Various

Editor: Kate Douglas Wiggin
Nora Archibald Smith

Release Date: July 11, 2009 [EBook #29378]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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[Illustration: "And sing to the praise of the Doll"]

_CHILDREN'S CRIMSON SERIES_

PINAFORE PALACE

BY

KATE DOUGLAS WIGGIN

AND

NORA ARCHIBALD SMITH

GROSSET & DUNLAP PUBLISHERS NEW YORK

_Copyright, 1907, by The McClure Company_

* * * * *

PREFACE

TO THE MOTHER

_"A Court as of angels,
A public not to be bribed,
Not to be entreated,
Not to be overawed."_

_Such is the audience--in long clothes or short frocks, in pinafores
or kilts, or in the brief trousers that bespeak the budding man--such
is the crowing, laughing court, the toddling public that awaits these
verses._

_Every home, large or small, poor or rich, that has a child in it, is
a Pinafore Palace, and we have borrowed the phrase from one of
childhood's most whimsical and devoted poets-laureate, thinking no
other words would so well express our meaning._

_If the two main divisions of the book--"The Royal Baby" and "Little
Prince and Princess"--should seem to you a trifle sentimental it will
be because you forget for the moment the gayety and humor of the
title with its delightful assumptions of regal dignity and state.
Granted the Palace itself, everything else falls easily into line, and
if you cannot readily concede the royal birth and bearing of your
neighbor's child you will see nothing strange in thinking of your own
nursling as little prince or princess, and so you will be able to
accept gracefully the sobriquet of Queen Mother, which is yours