7 h 30 minAudiobook7 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if courage begins with admitting a mistake, and kindness starts with noticing who needs help?
In Last Words, Juliana Horatia Ewing brings a warm, practical voice to stories for children and families. This late collection explores courage, kindness and care for the natural world. Its quiet country settings invite you to notice small choices: telling the truth, standing by a friend and meeting hardship with good sense.
Ewing's gentle humour sits beside a firm belief in duty and honesty. Her tales turn toward people who have little, and toward the generosity that can soften a hard character or mend a quarrel. Gardens, hedgerows, birds and animals matter here too. The countryside is more than a setting; it is a place worth watching and caring for.
What you’ll discover
- Everyday acts of courage Explore bravery in owning a mistake, supporting a friend and bearing hardship without complaint.
- Kindness with quiet strength Discover how small acts of generosity can soften people and help mend a quarrel.
- A countryside worth noticing Look closely at gardens, hedgerows, birds and animals through Ewing's attentive love of nature.
- Humour and good sense Enjoy a gentle voice that brings warmth to questions of duty, honesty and care.
- Stories for family reading Share quiet moral tales that give children and adults everyday choices to think about together.
Who will love it
You will love it if you enjoy gardens, wildflowers and old-fashioned family life, or if you like fables and legends with a gentle moral and a good deal of humor.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A quarrel over a footpath begins everything
- Little Mother learns to give way
- An old book of flowers starts a game
- Traveller's Joy has work to do
- Garden advice from a friend who loves flowers
- Snapdragons and a house full of contradiction
- Small fables of time, dogs and obedience
- Three legends of service, work and love
- Two girls, a doctor and a night among sunflowers
Who’s who
- MaryA thoughtful girl who becomes Little Mother to her brothers and sister and plants flowers in hedges as Traveller's Joy.
- ChristopherThe youngest brother, who says odd, shrewd things and wants a second name in the game.
- The Old SquireA rich, hot-tempered neighbor who quarrels with Mary's father about a footpath and guards his meadow.
- Lady CatherineMary's rude but kind great-aunt, who is devoted to Christopher and joins the children's game.
- SaxonThe Squire's yellow bulldog, who looks fierce, grins, and loves the children and Bath Oliver biscuits.
- GraceA small, imaginative girl who loves sunflowers and misses her sister Margery.
- Dr. BrownA big, loud, kindly doctor who laughs easily, tells the truth and takes the girls' side.
Formats and delivery
- eBook
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- Large-print eBook
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- Audiobook
- 7 h 30 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 7 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
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25 languages, side by side
Read and hear Ultime parole in 25 languages and switch at any time. Or read two side by side, paragraph by paragraph: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
Ultime parole
by Juliana Horatia Ewing · 1886
Mary dreams of planting flowers in a meadow guarded by the Old Squire and his bulldog.
Medium level5–10 hours to read25 languages
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In short
What would you do if your neighbor guarded a field of cowslips with a bulldog and a bad temper? Juliana Horatia Ewing opens this collection with Mary's Meadow, where old gardening books inspire a children's game.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A quarrel over a footpath begins everything
The book opens with Mary's Meadow, told by a girl named Mary, one of a lively family of children. Their mother teaches them to love their neighbors as themselves, and that lesson meets its test in a quarrel. Their father and the Old Squire, a rich and stingy neighbor, have gone to law over a footpath through a field of cowslips.
The Old Squire rides about on a gray horse, with his yellow bulldog Saxon at his heels, to keep the children out. But Saxon only grins, and he adores Bath Oliver biscuits. The children know him well. Their brother Arthur imitates the Squire's weeding woman, who says his heart has shriveled like the walnuts he keeps until the kernels are dust.
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What is Last Words by Juliana Horatia Ewing about?
It is a collection of stories, legends and garden letters for young readers. The opening tale, Mary's Meadow, follows children making a garden game from old books, and later pieces are fables, legends and sketches about kindness and courage.
What does Traveller's Joy mean in Mary's Meadow?
Traveller's Joy is the common name of wild clematis. Mary takes it as her game name because she plants flowers in hedges and waste places for people who pass by and have no garden of their own.
Who is the hot-tempered gentleman in Snapdragons?
He is a friend of the Skratdj family who dislikes their constant bickering. He teases the children about forked tongues and warns them they are going to the Snap-Dragons.
The author
Juliana Horatia Ewing
1841–1885 · English children's writer
English writer of children's stories.
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