AustLit

Dedication:

To you, my children, I these lines address -
A simple story told in simple phrase,
Yet with a moral worthy not the less
Of imitation than of gen'rous praise.
Nor is the story merely one of thought:
Spun out the brain to please thy little ears -
Nay it is truth - by sad experience bought -
A record of a family's hopes and fears.
Thus, while you trace the weary wand'rers through,
Oh, be it yours to learn the faith divine,
That, like a star, while darkness darker grew,
Did 'mid its glory still more brightly shine;
And when on earth your journeyings are o'er,
'Twill bear you safe Death's darksome Jordan through,
And bring you 'mong the hosts on Salem's peaceful shore.

Author's note: 'These incidents have been gathered from the Melbourne Argus of the latter end of 1864, from which we also learn that the three children lived with their parents in the district of the Mallee Scrub. The manner in which they were lost is preserved in the text; and the scarcely credible statement that for "nine long days and eight long weary nights," these children, of from five to nine years, wandered the dreary heath without a morsel of bread to allay their hunger, or a drop of water (save once) to quench their thirst, forms to our mind one of the most amazing acts of Divine preservation which we ever had brought under our observation.'

The author of this work is identified on the title page only as 'the author of 'Little Jessie', etc.' In Notes and Queries vol.146 (January 26, 1924), there is the suggestion that 'the book referred to as "Little Jessie" may be "Little Jessie ; or, the Death-Bed of a Young Believer," published anonymously in Edinburgh in 1856'. The author suggests that 'Little Jessie' may be the work 'Little Jessie's Work', which was published in London in 1857, and may have been written by Sarah Maria Fry, who wrote children's literature that dealt with religious themes.