[ii]
[Frontispiece]

“‘There they are,’ Phyl said, in a tremulous voice.” (Page 17.)
Three Little Maids] [Frontispiece

[iii]
Three Little Maids

ETHEL TURNER
(Mrs. H. R. CURLEWIS)

AUTHOR OF ‘SEVEN LITTLE AUSTRALIANS,’ ‘THE LITTLE LARRIKIN,’
‘THE CAMP AT WANDINONG,’ ETC.

“O to be young again!

O to have dreams and dreams!

And to talk in the gardens of Wonderland

With stars and flowers and streams!”

W. A. MacKenzie.

WARD, LOCK & CO., LIMITED
LONDON, MELBOURNE AND TORONTO

[v]
TO
MY TINY DAUGHTER

Here is a chain for you, sweet,

Hold up your soft hands to catch it;

Pansy and white marguerite,

You will think nothing can match it.

But you will say, Are they true?

All of the flowers in the chain, dear?

Did they all grow up with you,

Or some of them just in your brain, dear?

Count true the white marguerite,

Pansies—as false I must own them.

Life, it may well be, my sweet,

Had not so fair to you grown them.

E. S. C.

Mosman’s Bay
Sydney

CHAP.		PAGE
I.	TWELVE O’ THE CLOCK	11
II.	PRETENDING	21
III.	FAMILY MATTERS	35
IV.	A WINTER SUNDAY	41
V.	WHICH RUSHES FOURTEEN THOUSAND MILES AWAY	53
VI.	‘BROWNSES’ HOUSE’	66
VII.	A WAY TO WEALTH	73
VIII.	THE PITILESS LONDON STREETS	81
IX.	TRAVELS IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES	98
X.	THE LAST CHRISTMAS IN ENGLAND	112
XI.	‘GOING DOWN TO THE SEA IN SHIPS’	124
XII.	AUSTRALIA	133
XIII.	MOONDI-MOONDI	142
XIV.	TRYING TO LIVE	158
XV.	‘A LITTLE FOLDING OF THE HANDS TO SLEEP’	165
XVI.	THE END OF PLAY DAYS	175

CHAP.		PAGE
XVII.	RHYME AND RHYTHM	187
XVIII.	TEN AT TABLE	194
XIX.	GWENDOLEN TREVALLION AND A SOLDIER BRAVE AND TRUE	208
XX.	THE ‘GERMAN SAUSAGE’ LAND	218
XXI.	‘GOOD-BYE, GOOD-BYE!’	226
XXII.	THE WRITING-ROOM	234
XXIII.	ENTIRELY EDITORIAL	242
XXIV.	NEWS FROM THE FATHERLAND	253
XXV.	THE TRIALS OF WEENIE	266
XXVI.	MORE LETTERS	276
XXVII.	FINANCE AND FASHION	285
XXVIII.	ONE GLORIOUS HOUR	294
XXIX.	AND THEN NO MORE	307