The New Mother

"The New Mother" is a short story written by Lucy Clifford and first published in her collection of children's stories, "The Anyhow Stories, Moral and Otherwise" in 1882. The story has been reprinted and rewritten numerous times, including in the anthologies "Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark" and "The Dark Descent".

The story concerns two well-behaved children, living with their mother and their baby sibling in the forest. One day the children meet a strange little girl, who tells them that she has a tiny man and woman in a box, and will only show them to naughty children. The children return home, and do their best to be naughty despite their love for their mother. The mother, despondent, tells the children that if they don't behave she will have to go away, and be replaced by a "new mother" with "glass eyes and a wooden tail". When the children next meet the girl, she tells them they haven't been nearly naughty enough, and suggests ways for them to be more naughty. This cycle repeats three times, at the end of which the girl tells the children that they will never be naughty enough to see the little people and disappears. At this point, the children's mother has also left, replaced by their new mother with glass eyes and a wooden tail.

External links

* [http://www.geocities.com/orwellus/newmother.htm Read "The New Mother"]