NOTE ON THE ILLUSTRATION OF THE PRETTY MAIDEN:  This illustration was pasted onto the cover of the small, very old book that we used to edit the text. Both Jude and I were very taken with her, and wanted to include her picture here. Jude worked very hard to get the colors just right, to do right by the lady we came to call "the pretty maiden." She sent the scanned graphic to me, offering to make the maiden look like new if I liked, but wondering if this might not be best. I agreed wholeheartedly, and told Jude: "To have her like new might be nice, but would lose the character of the maiden, who has been through so much in these many years ... I can only imagine where she has been. Starting out life as a gift, surely, from the inscription inside the book ... later perhaps, a kitchen windowsill (read over breakfast to start the day) ... taken to college because of a worrying parent ... tucked under stacks of text books, surfacing only occasionally, to a smile, "oh there you are!" ... later in life, stacked on a shelf, "what's this dear?" "oh just an old book" ... sold perhaps in an estate sale, to someone taken with the pretty maiden ... picked up by a young person who wonders what's inside and finds so much ... packed away in a box in the attic, "someday I'll do something with those" ... languishing there for years until unpacked, perhaps by the Salvation Army, with a welcoming smile "ah I know that book" ... given to someone sore in need of it, and cherished for years, until once again the maiden journeys to someone else -- the edges flaking now, the picture not so bright, but warmed with the love with which she and her book were kept ... well, who knows? But she needs to be as she is, wearing the marks of time proudly and with grace, her beauty undiminshed, even enhanced by them. You are so right."

~Susan.
Christmas 1998.