AUNT HEPSY’S COURTSHIP.

The author addresses her readers in these words, by way of Prefaceto the Second Volume of Fern Leaves:—

“Six months since, I was in a deplorable state of ignorance asto the most felicitous style in which I could address my readers; atthis lapse of time I find myself not a whit wiser. You will permitme, therefore, in pressing again your kindly hands, simply to say,that I hope my second offering of Fern Leaves will be more worthyof your acceptance than the first.”

To this the Publishers of the English edition need only add, thatthe great popularity which this and the preceding series of FernLeaves have attained, both in England and America, has inducedthem to enter into arrangements with the proprietors of the copyright,whereby the present edition of this work might obtain thebenefit of the author’s sanction and revision. To say anything byway of recommending so well-known a writer as the sister ofN. P. Willis is quite unnecessary—the acute knowledge of the world,ivthe womanly pathos and sympathy for the poor and neglected, thegenial, almost masculine, sense of humour and force of language,the fearless expression of opinion, and the true wit and genius displayedin these Leaves from Fanny’s Portfolio, cannot fail to ensurefor them a large and sympathising audience among the Britishpublic.