Author's note: My Dear Father, In offering to you a gift compiled from the ravellings of my own uneasy brain, I would not willingly be accused, in your mind, of that ugliest of human faults, egotism. Rather than to challenge your admiration of any production within the compass of my power, I intend to challenge your sympathy with the bias of my mind. And to whom, sooner than to yourself, should I look for such a sympathy? ...At every time, and in all things, you have been an unspotted benison to me. You have been the means of giving a rose-color of happiness to my lot. To you I owe the tendency to earnestness of character, which I value as an unpriced jewel. By your tenderness my life-path has been soft as if I had trod on velvet sward....Menie Parkes. December 25th, 1866.
