Sophie Kennedy's Experience

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1855, by the
GEN. PROT. EPISCOPAL S. S. UNION and CHURCH BOOK SOCIETY,
in the Office of the Clerk of the United States' District Court for
The Southern District of New York.

PREFACE.

THE following story was written with a view of doing something, if possible, towards overcoming the prejudice existing in the minds of children and grown people against Stepmothers. It is the impression of the writer that that most useful and sorely tried class of women have hardly received fair play at the hands of authors, from the times of Cinderella down to the present. No one will deny that it is a very difficult station. To take at once the whole charge of a family of children, usually after two or three years of unsettled habits of indulgence and mismanagement—with an abundance of friends, relatives, and acquaintances, all watching eagerly the conduct of the new mamma, and ready to take fire at the first approach to energetic government,—this is surely enough to tax to the uttermost the principles and capacity of any woman, particularly when she is young and inexperienced in the care of children.
It is the serious impression of the Author that about as many stepmothers err on the side of indulgence as on that of strictness or severity. Of course, unprincipled and foolish women are to be found in this class as in every other; and in that case, it is usually hard to tell which are the greatest sufferers, her own children or her husband's.
It is the Author's desire that the present little book may make matters easier for some good women who have assumed the charge of little ones not their own. She hopes, too, that if it falls into the hands of any young girl who has a second mother, it may lead her to consider seriously whether she is not sometimes wanting in the respect and obedience which her own mother would certainly have exacted. Should it accomplish either of these ends, the Author's best wishes for it will be fulfilled.
L. E. G.
ROCHESTER, N. Y., Oct. 10, 1855.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER

I. SCHOOL NEWS.

II. BETSEY.

III. THE NEW MAMMA.

IV. NEW STUDIES.

V. THE BAD COLD.

VI. THE WORDS OF THE TALE-BEARER.

VII. SOPHIE'S GREAT TROUBLE.

VIII. THE BABY.

IX. GAWKY ANNE.

X. CONCLUSION.