TO PARENTS. THE success which has attended the publication of several of the more expensive Annuals, has led to the belief that a work of a similar class, adapted, in all respects, for the perusal of children, from the age of six to twelve years, would, if carefully and judiciously arranged, be secure of meeting with considerable encouragement; without in the smallest degree encroaching upon ground which is already so fully and ably pre-occupied. The Editor would, however, have despaired of accomplishing the object she had in view, with satisfaction to herself, had she not been so fortunate as to secure the aid of many friendly pens, fitted to adorn a far higher walk of literature than that to which she has, of necessity, restricted them. This array of popular names, whatever eclât it might bestow upon an Annual of more lofty pretensions, would, however, have conferred but little real value on her work, had not their owners kindly consented to adapt their several contributions to the comprehensions of the class of readers for whose especial perusal they were destined. And hence it is, that the thanks of the Editor are doubly due to them for their exertions. The leading aim of the Tales and Sketches, of which the NEW YEAR'S GIFT is composed, has been, undoubtedly, the AMUSEMENT of the juvenile reader; but, as the minds of children receive decided impressions of either good or evil from all that passes under their observation, it has been deemed expedient that each story should inculcate some moral truth. With this view, whilst the extravagances of those apocryphal personages-giants, ghosts, and fairies -have been entirely banished from her pages, as tending not only to enervate the |