The May Flower

and

Miscellaneous Writings

By Harriet Beecher Stowe

AUTHOR OF "UNCLE TOM'S CABIN," "SUNNY MEMORIES OF FOREIGN LANDS," ETC.

BOSTON:
PHILLIPS, SAMPSON, AND COMPANY,
13 WINTER STREET
1855.

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1855, by
PHILLIPS, SAMPSON, AND COMPANY,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts.

STEREOTYPED AT THE
BOSTON STEREOTYPE FOUNDRY.

Truly Yours, H B Stowe

INTRODUCTION.

Mr. G. B. Emerson, in his late report to the legislature ofMassachusetts on the trees and shrubs of that state, thus describesThe May Flower.

"Often from beneath the edge of a snow bank are seen rising thefragrant, pearly-white or rose-colored flowers of this earliestharbinger of spring.

"It abounds in the edges of the woods about Plymouth, as elsewhere, andmust have been the first flower to salute the storm-beaten crew of theMayflower on the conclusion of their first terrible winter. Theirdescendants have thence piously derived the name, although its bloom isoften passed before the coming in of May."

No flower could be more appropriately selected as an emblem token by thedescendants of the Puritans. Though so fragrant and graceful, it isinvariably the product of the hardest and most rocky soils, and seems todraw its ethereal beauty of color and wealth of perfume rather from theair than from the slight hold which its rootlets take of the earth. Itmay often be found in fullest beauty matting a granite lodge, withscarcely any perceptible soil for its support.

What better emblem of that faith, and hope, and piety, by which ourfathers were supported in dreary and barren enterprises, and which drewtheir life and fragrance from heaven more than earth?

The May Flower was, therefore, many years since selected by the authoras the title of a series of New England sketches. That work hadcomparatively a limited circulation, and is now entirely out of print.Its articles are republished in the present volume, with othermiscellaneous writings, which have from time to time appeared indifferent periodicals. They have been written in all moods, from thegayest to the gravest—they are connected, in many cases, with thememory of friends and scenes most dear.

There are those now scattered through the world who will remember thesocial literary parties of Cincinnati, for whose genial meetings many ofthese articles were prepared. With most affectionate remembrances, theauthor dedicates the book to the yet surviving members of The Semicolon.

Andover, April, 1855.

CONTENTS.

UNCLE LOT.
LOVE versus LAW.
THE TEA ROSE.
TRIALS OF A HOUSEKEEPER.
LITTLE EDWARD.
AUNT MARY.
FRANKNESS.
THE SABBATH.—SKETCHES FROM A NOTE BOOK OF AN ELDERLY GENTLEMAN
LET EVERY MAN MIND HIS OWN BUSINESS.
COUSIN WILLIAM.
...