12mo. 36pp. With an engraved frontispiece and several engraved illustrations in the text. Original publisher's red roan-backed limp marbled boards, ruled and lettered in gilt. Extremities rubbed. Hinges exposed, early inked gift inscription to verso of FFEP.

A Religious Tract Society edition of Mary Martha Sherwood's (1775-1851) popular short story for young children. The narrative follows one of five young sisters who are gifted by their father ‘a number of little books bound in red, and made to close like pocket-books’ each titled ‘Daily Food for Christians, being a promise and another scriptural portion for every day of the year, together with a verse of a hymn’. Given on the condition that they ‘keep them on their toilet, and repeat or read the portions for the day, every time you look in your glasses’, the books serve as succour for our anonymous heroine through a near fatal illness.