Extract: "The three girls were the guests of a delightful old lady, who had know their mothers and was fond of renewing her acquaintance with them through their daughters. She loved young people, and each summer invited parties of them to enjoy the delights of her beautiful country house, where she lived alone now, being the childless widow of a somewhat celebrated man." Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888) was an American novelist and poet best known as the author of the novel Little Women (1868) and its sequels Little Men (1871) and Jo's Boys (1886). Alcott was an abolitionist and a feminist. Table of Contents: • May Flowers • An Ivy Spray and Ladies' Slippers • Pansies • Water-Lilies • Poppies and Wheat • Little Button-Rose • Mountain-Laurel and Maiden-Hair • Mountain-Laurel • "These stories were written for my own amusement during a period of enforced seclusion. The flowers which were my solace and pleasure suggested titles for the tales and gave an interest to the work. If my girls find a little beauty or sunshine in these common blossoms, their old friend will not have made her Garland in vain." - L. M. Alcott, Introduction