the foregoing preface was written by mrs. ewing for the first edition of brothers of pity, and other tales. the book contains five stories, illustrated by the pictures of which my sister speaks; and it is still sold by the s.p.c.k. "toots and boots" was so minutely adapted to flinzer's pictures, that the tale suffers in being parted from them. still, it is to be hoped that readers of the un-illustrated version will not have as much difficulty as toots in solving the mystery of the mouse's escape! i have added four more tales of "beasts and men" to the present edition, as they have not been included in any previous collections of my sister's stories. "a week spent in a glass pond" appeared first in aunt judy's magazine, october 1876, and was afterwards published separately with coloured illustrations. the habits of the water beasts are described with the strictest fidelity to nature, even the delicate differences in character between the great and the big black water beetles are most accurately drawn.

"among the merrows" has not been republished since it came out in aunt judy's magazine, november 1872. at that time the crystal palace aquarium was a novelty, and the zoological station at naples not fully formed—but, though the paper is behind the times in statistics, it is worth retaining for other reasons.

"tiny's tricks and toby's tricks" as a specimen of versification might perhaps have been included in the volume of verses for children, but it seemed best to keep it with the "owl hoots," as these papers were the last that mrs. ewing wrote. the first appeared in the child's pictorial magazine a few days before her death, and the "hoots" soon afterwards. the illustrations to both were drawn by mr. gordon browne at my sister's special request, and they are now reproduced with gratitude for his labour of love.

horatia k. f. eden.

october 1895.