Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1866, by
GRAVES & YOUNG,
in the Clerk's Office for the District Court of Massachusetts


Copyright, 1895, by Elizabeth Stuart Phelps Ward.

PREFACE.

Having been asked to write a preface to the new edition of the Gypsybooks, I am not a little perplexed. I was hardly more than a girlmyself, when I recorded the history of this young person; and I find ithard, at this distance, to photograph her as she looks, or ought to lookto-day. She does not sit still long enough to be "taken." I see a livelygirl in pretty short dresses and very long stockings,—quite a Tom-boy,if I remember rightly. She paddles a raft, she climbs a tree, she skatesand tramps and coasts, she is usually very muddy, and a little torn.There is apt to be a pin in her gathers; but there is sure to be a laughin her eyes. Wherever there is mischief, there is Gypsy. Yet, whereverthere is fun, and health, and hope, and happiness,—and I think,wherever there is truthfulness and generosity,—there is Gypsy, too.

And now, the publishers tell me that Gypsy is thirty years old, and thatgirls who were not so much as born when I knew the little lady, are herreaders and her friends to-day.

Thirty years old? Indeed, it is more than that! For is it not thirtyyears since the publication of her memoirs? And was she, at that time,possibly sixteen? Forty-six years? Incredible! How in the world didGypsy "grow up?" For that was before toboggans and telephones, beforebicycles and electric cars, before bangs and puffed sleeves, beforegirls studied Greek, and golf-capes came in. Did she go to college? Forthe Annex, and Smith, and Wellesley were not. Did she have a career? Ortake a husband? Did she edit a Quarterly Review, or sing a baby tosleep? Did she write poetry, or make pies? Did she practice medicine,or matrimony? Who knows? Not even the author of her being.

Only one thing I do know: Gypsy never grew up to be "timid," or silly,or mean, or lazy; but a sensible woman, true and strong; asking littlehelp of other people, but giving much; an honor to her brave and lovingsex, and a safe comrade to the girls who kept step with her into middlelife; and I trust that I may bespeak from their daughters and theirscholars a kindly welcome to an old story, told again.

Elizabeth Stuart Phelps.

Newton Centre, Mass.,
April, 1895.

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