Chapter 0
Prefatory Note of Tildejane's Orphans. When the story of Tildejane appeared serially in the Youth's Companion in 1901, the original manuscript was very much condensed. When the time for book publication arrived, nearly all the omitted matter was restored. However, some incidents were still left out, and they have formed the beginning of a new
story written to please the many boys and girls who have expressed a wish to know something more of the fortunes of the orphan and her dogs. In this new story, a statement made by the editor at the conclusion of the serial, The Companion, has been ignored, namely that Tildejane grew up and married her friend and benefactor Hank.
This statement was not in the original manuscript, and it has seemed advisable to keep Tildejane for the present a young girl and the adopted sister for the good-natured Hank, without looking too far into the future. That the orphan's old friends will follow with interest her often groping and stumbling, yet never wearying steps along the path of uplift for human beings and dumb creatures
is the earnest hope of the author. That she should be awakened to a new interest in life, namely the care of birds, who are perhaps the weakest and most defenseless of God's creatures, seemed a fitting addition to her character. Another matter perhaps worth mentioning, Milkweed, the horse, has been made of a sociable disposition,
for an acute critic observed that one lack in horse stories is that the great sociability of their natures is not properly accentuated. Marshall Saunders, Halifax, September 20, 1909.
