Grandmother Dear A Book for Boys and Girls   By: Mrs. Molesworth (1839-1921)

A Book for Boys and Girls

by

MRS. MOLESWORTH

Author of 'Carrots,' 'Cuckoo Clock,' 'Tell Me a Story'

Illustrated by Walter Crane

MacMillan and Co., Limited St. Martin's Street, London 1932 First Edition November 1878. Reprinted December 1878 September and December 1882, 1886 1887, 1889, 1892, 1895, 1897, 1899, 1900, 1902, 1904, 1906, 1909, 1911 1918, 1920, 1932

Printed in Great Britain by R. & R. Clark, Limited, Edinburgh

[Illustration: 'I HOPE IT ISN'T HAUNTED.']

TO

OUR 'GRANDMOTHER DEAR,'

A. J. S.

Maison Du Chanoine, October 1878.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I. Making Friends

CHAPTER II. Lost in the Louvre

CHAPTER III. " Where is Sylvia?"

CHAPTER IV. The Six Pinless Brooches

CHAPTER V. Molly's Plan

CHAPTER VI. The Apple Tree of Stéfanos

CHAPTER VII. Grandmother's Grandmother

CHAPTER VIII. Grandmother's Story ( Continued )

CHAPTER IX. Ralph's Confidence

CHAPTER X. "That Cad Sawyer"

CHAPTER XI. "That Cad Sawyer" Part II.

CHAPTER XII. A Christmas Adventure

CHAPTER XIII. A Christmas Adventure Part II.

CHAPTER XIV. How this Book came to be written

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

Sylvia lost in the Louvre

"Whose Drawer is this?"

Under the Apple Tree

"Zwanzig Twenty Schelling, that Cup"

In the Coppice

"Good Bye again, my Boy, and God bless you!"

"I hope it isn't Haunted"

CHAPTER I.

MAKING FRIENDS.

"Good onset bodes good end." SPENSER.

"Well?" said Ralph.

"Well?" said Sylvia.

"Well?" said Molly.

Then they all three stood and looked at each other. Each had his or her own opinion on the subject which was uppermost in their minds, but each was equally reluctant to express it, till that of the others had been got at. So each of the three said "Well?" to the other two, and stood waiting, as if they were playing the old game of "Who speaks first?" It got tiresome, however, after a bit, and Molly, whose patience was the most quickly exhausted, at last threw caution and dignity to the winds.

"Well," she began, but the "well" this time had quite a different tone from the last; " well ," she repeated emphatically, "I'm the youngest, and I suppose you'll say I shouldn't give my opinion first, but I just will, for all that. And my opinion is, that she's just as nice as she can be."

"And I think so too," said Sylvia, "Don't you, Ralph?"

"I?" said Ralph loftily, "you forget. I have seen her before."

"Yes, but not to remember ," said Sylvia and Molly at once. "You might just as well never have seen her before as far as that goes. But isn't she nice?"

"Ye es," said Ralph. "I don't think she's bad for a grandmother."

"'For a grandmother!'" cried Molly indignantly. "What do you mean, Ralph? What can be nicer than a nice grandmother?"

"But suppose she wasn't nice? she needn't be, you know. There are grandmothers and grandmothers," persisted Ralph.

"Of course I know that ," said Molly. "You don't suppose I thought our grandmother was everybody's grandmother, you silly boy. What I say is she's just like a real grandmother not like Nora Leslie's, who is always scolding Nora's mother for spoiling her children, and wears such grand, quite young lady dresses, and has black hair," with an accent of profound disgust, "not nice, beautiful, soft, silver hair, like our grandmother's. Now, isn't it true, Sylvia, isn't our grandmother just like a real one?"

Sylvia smiled. "Yes, exactly," she replied. "She would almost do for a fairy godmother, if only she had a stick with a gold knob."

"Only perhaps she'd beat us with it," said Ralph.

"Oh no, not beat us," cried Molly, dancing about. "It would be worse than that. If we were naughty she'd point it at us, and then we'd all three turn into toads, or frogs, or white mice. Oh, just fancy! I am so glad she hasn't got a gold headed stick."