This will be the first wedding we've ever been to at which there's a wishing well. Yesterday afternoon saw the first caterpillars of the gulf fritillary consuming passionvine and this afternoon saw the first monarch butterflies heading north. The economy can't be as bad as it's painted--evidence: mail-order catalogues just received, orders attempted, nearly everything out of stock--or else merchants were extremely pessimistic about the business they'd do and stocked practically nothing. Every day a little bit of work gets done on the book catalogue: one of the ones today was one of my favorites as a kid and that very copy was one of my maternal grandfather's favorites as well: Aunt Charlotte's Stories of Bible History for the Little Ones. The front page has always been missing, so I never knew who was the author. There are fifty-two sections, one for each Sunday in the Year, half for the Old Testament and half for the New. They were very lively retellings and this edition has a few chromolithographs still with it. Today I learned that the author is Charlotte Mary Yonge, whose novels I enjoyed, as many as have been available, in the Virago paperback editions. The Bible stories were first published in 1875; others were: Aunt Charlotte's Evenings at Home with the Poets: A collection of Poems for the Young, with conversations, arranged in twenty-five evenings (1881), Aunt Charlotte's Scripture Readings (1876) , Aunt Charlotte's Stories of English History for the little ones (1873), Aunt Charlotte's Stories of French History for the little ones (1874), Aunt Charlotte's Stories of German History for the little ones (1877-8), Aunt Charlotte's Stories of Greek History for the little ones (1876), Aunt Charlotte's Stories of Roman History for the little ones (1877). I wonder whether they first appeared in magazines. I know I've read The Heir of Redclyffe and The Daisy Chain for sure. Charlotte Yonge has a web shrine in the U.K.