The illustrated inscription in this little volume of stories will make you laugh out loud. Miss Cha (short for Charlotte) Osborn gave it as a gift to Helen McDonnell in 1842. It looks as if someone who was not Cha drew in pencil a kite with its string fastened to the number 2 in 1842. That same person may have drawn the balloon below (if that’s what it is).
That’s just a lagniappe before the main course, the group portrait of Cha and her three siblings. Big sister Cha seems to be presenting a book (possibly this copy of Aunt Mary’s Stories) to someone. Next comes little sister Laura in a matching dress, holding a doll in one hand. Then comes Osborn number three, brother Harry in skirts and waving a whip. Last and very definitely least is the tightly swaddled baby Frank lying on the ground with a “V” growing out of his chest. I haven’t figured out yet what Cha intended the “V” to represent.
I’m sure the four children were always as good as they were in Cha’s picture!