The Children's Book: A Collection of Short Stories and Poems; A Mormon Book for Mormon Children

From the Preface:

The thought came into my mind, Write a book for the children; and while I listened, it became a desire and a pleasant one, for I would dearly love to become the household friend of many little children who are growing up within the homes of the Saints.

If they are willing to listen, I will tell them a few true stories, not fairy ones, indeed, of which little ones are so fond, so fascinating, but, alas! so false. No, these must be true.

Many pleasant hours have I spent in story-telling, and surely my pleasure was as great as theirs ; stories to sleepy eyes, out in the summer moonlight on the veranda, with great patches of flowers faintly showing in the shadows of wide branches, and night-birds singing over us; story-telling on rainy afternoons, or by roaring hearth-light; at home and abroad—how many listeners there have been. But I must not tell you what I have read, as I did those little hearers, it must be some things that I have known. If I could only show to my little friends of the present time, the sweet faces remembered looking anxiously into mine, it would be the best part of the book; those—no story could equal.

Would that I could make these, also, my friends, as the authors I so loved were mine.

And, if I should ever travel from home, as some of the Sisters do, to visit the associations, I would be happy to have you tell me, if we meet, if anything written herein has pleased you.

Pleasant smiles and kind words from good hearts are sometimes worth more than silver and gold.

This book is the fulfillment of a wish expressed by President Brigham Young a short time before his death, and in conclusion he said, “Who will write a book for the children?”

To attempt this was in my power, but it required means to publish, and this I could not do alone. Two good Brethren, who think more of the youth of our people than they do of riches, were kind enough to lend me the use of what was needed to accomplish the object.

AUGUSTA JOYCE CROCHERON
Bountiful, Davis County, Utah, September 3, 1890