Johnny Blossom
TELLEF’S GRANDMOTHER
Preface
HAVING made acquaintance with JohnnyBlossom in his native land of Norwaythrough the stories about him by MissDikken Zwilgmeyer, the desire to introduce theamusing, sound-natured boy to American childrenhas resulted in this translation.
Some liberty has been taken with the originaltext, chiefly to eliminate circumstances or incidentswhich would not be clear to child readersin a different environment; but I have takenpains to keep the translation faithful to theoriginal in spirit and expression, appreciatingthat in these lies much of the wholesome powerof the book.
Johnny Blossom is not local but universal.Interest in him is not even limited to boys.When the book first appeared, a Norwegianreviewer wrote:
“Our most popular author of books for littlegirls has this year forsaken them, and apparentlygone over to the boys, since her book is about aboy; ... but I have yet to see the little girlwho would not be glad to read of such a boy asJohnny Blossom.... Although a genuine boy,he is a right-minded little fellow with earnestchildlike spirit; and he can never be thoroughlycontent until he has had his mother’s full forgivenesswhen he has been naughty, or, if hehas wronged any one, until he has maderestitution.”
With confidence that such a child will be agood story-book friend for our children, and afavorite with them as he is among his littlecompatriots, I send Johnny