[Note to the Reader] Inked inscriptions and the printed material on many of the early children's handkerchiefs have faded with time and although great care was given to their transcription, many were difficult to read or were simply illegible.

[Introduction] Nevertheless, as scholarly analyses contribute to our intellectual understandng of these small quilts, and subsequently to their increased significance as objects of our material culture, we must remember that these "small endearments" are objects of the heart, and therein may lie their truest worth.

Reluctant to deny what may indeed be only a magnificent myth, it is those bright barefoot children we can still imagine beneath small Log Cabint quilts, small endearments for ninteenth-century children...

[Epilogue] This evening Cousin William Caroline Loisa and Cornelia came down adn spent the rest of the evening and Louisa is a going to satyal all night, and now Good night.