7 h 30 minAudiobook15 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 7 h 30 minPaperback · 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
Readers who love gardens, old flower names and gentle humor will feel at home here. It suits families who read aloud, and anyone who enjoys fables with dogs, owls and dragons.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A quarrel divides the neighbors
- Mary gives up her favorite part
- A gift meets an angry accusation
- A garden should suit its place
- Children copy the temper around them
- Kindness reaches beyond its giver
- Grace takes her curiosity outside
- Animals offer advice with comic pride
- Generous habits make an earthly paradise
Who’s who
- MaryThe narrator of Mary's Meadow, a Little Mother who loves flowers and wants to scatter them for travelers.
- ArthurMary's lively eldest brother, who builds mills and cold frames, imitates everyone, and plays John Parkinson in the garden game.
- ChristopherThe youngest brother, grave and odd, with a large head and a gift for sayings, who plays the Dwarf.
- Lady CatherineMother's rude and generous aunt, who adores Chris and wants to serve people who have no garden.
- The Old SquireThe rich, deaf neighbor who quarrels with Mary's father over the footpath and guards his meadow.
- SaxonThe Old Squire's yellow bulldog, fierce in looks and gentle in heart, who loves biscuits and the children.
- GraceA lonely girl who plays with sunflowers and wants to learn whether they sleep when candlelight falls on them.
- Dr. BrownA big, laughing family doctor who knows about flowers, speaks his mind, and stands up for the children.
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- Large print hardcover
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Last Words in 25 languages, side by side, paragraph by paragraph, once the book texts are online: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
Last Words
by Juliana Horatia Ewing · 1886
A girl named Mary plants cowslips in a meadow her neighbor guards with a bulldog called Saxon.
Medium level2–5 hours to read2 languages
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In short
Picture a girl crouched in a green field, pressing six double cowslips into the soil, when a shout rings across the grass. An old man in a white hat storms toward her, gripping the collar of a straining yellow bulldog.
Last Words at a glance
- Reading time
- About 4 h 15 min3 h 20 min fast, 5 h 5 min slow
- Length
- 60,700 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- 1886by Juliana Horatia Ewing
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A neighbors' quarrel keeps children out of a field
Mary's Meadow opens with a house full of children who are taught to love their neighbors as themselves. Mary tells the story, and she admits how hard that rule is when you want something badly. Her father and the Old Squire next door have quarreled over a footpath across a field called Mary's Meadow, and the quarrel has gone to law.
The Squire is rich, deaf and careful with his money. He rides his gray horse around the field each day with his yellow bulldog Saxon, to keep the children out. But Saxon is only funny. He adores biscuits and washes Mary's face with his tongue, and the children quietly adopt him as a brother.
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Which edition is right for me
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 15 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1886
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 4 h 55 min
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Ewing, Juliana Horatia. Last Words. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/last-words.
Ewing, J. H. (2026). Last words. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/last-words (Original work published 1886)
Ewing, Juliana Horatia. Last Words. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/last-words.
@book{ewing2026last,
author = {Ewing, Juliana Horatia},
title = {Last Words},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/last-words},
note = {First published 1886}
}
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What is Last Words by Juliana Horatia Ewing about?
It is a collection of tales, legends and garden letters for young readers. The longest tale, Mary's Meadow, follows children who play at an Earthly Paradise, while the others deal with temper, obedience, generosity and love of flowers.
Who is Traveller's Joy in Mary's Meadow?
Traveller's Joy is the game name given to Mary, the narrator. It is the common name of wild clematis, and she earns it by planting flowers along hedges and roads so that passing travelers will enjoy them.
What is the Earthly Paradise in Mary's Meadow?
It is the children's garden game, inspired by John Parkinson's flower book of 1629 and the story Mary tells about a Queen. Each child takes a part, such as the apothecary, the root-gatherer or the weeding woman.
The author
Juliana Horatia Ewing
1841–1885 · English children's writer
English writer of children's stories.
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