Our Little French Cousin

By

Blanche McManus

Illustrated by

The Author

Boston
The Page Company
Publishers
Copyright, 1905
By L. C. PAGE & COMPANY (INCORPORATED)
All rights reserved

Published May, 1905
Fourth Impression, May, 1908
Fifth Impression, October, 1909
Sixth Impression, June, 1911
Seventh Impression, February, 1913
Eighth Impression, October, 1915
Ninth Impression, March, 1918

Preface:

     “OUR Little French Cousin” is an attempt to tell, in plain, simple language, something of the daily life of a little French girl, living in a Norman village, in one of the most progressive and opulent sections of France.

      The old divisions, or ancient provinces, of France each had its special characteristics and manners and customs, which to this day have endured to a remarkable extent.

     To American children, no less than to our English cousins, the memories of the great names of history which have come down to us from ancient Norman times are very numerous.

      Besides the great Norman William who conquered England, and Richard the Lion-hearted, there are the lesser lights, such as Champlain, La Salle, and Jean Denys, — the discoverer of Newfoundland; and before them was the Northman ancestor of Rollo, Lief, the son of Eric, who was perhaps the real discoverer of America. All these link Normandy with the New World in a manner that is perhaps not at first remembered.

      “Our Little French Cousin” lives in Normandy, simply because she must live somewhere, and not because any attempt has been made to specialize or localize the every-day life of Germaine, her parents, and her friends. Indeed, for a little French girl, it may be thought that she had remarkable opportunities for acquaintanceship with the outside world.

      But to-day even little French girls live in a progressive world, and what with tourists and automobilists, to say nothing of a reasonably large colony of English-speaking folk who had actually settled near her home, it was but natural that her outlook was somewhat different from what it might have been had she lived a hundred years ago.

      So far as France in general goes, the great world of Paris, and much that lay beyond, were also brought to her notice in, it is believed, a perfectly rational and plausible fashion; and thus within the restricted limits of this little book will be found many references to the life and history of Old France which, in one way or another, has linked itself with the early days in the history of America, in a manner of which little American cousins are in no way ignorant.

      Joliet, Champlain, La Salle, Père Marquette, and many others first pointed the way and mapped out the civilization of America, when it was but the home of the red man, now so nearly disappeared.

      Later came Lafayette and Rochambeau, who were indeed good friends to the then new nation, and lastly, if it is permissible to think of it in that light, the great Statue of Liberty, in New York Harbour, is another witness of the friendliness of the French nation for the people of the United States. A reciprocal echo of this is found in the recent erection, in Paris, of a statue of Washington.

      To her cousins across the sea little Germaine, “Our Little French Cousin,” holds out a cordial hand of greeting.

      Les Andelys, Eure, January, 1905.