Red, White, Blue Socks, Part First

A rainy afternoon and a hunger for fresh stories introduce a children's tale of friendship, discipline and make-believe soldiering. George and Helen complain of boredom, prompting their mother to promise new books and ask them to practise patience, obedience and kindness. Aunt Fanny contributes this opening frame to Sarah L. Barrow's first volume of the Sock Stories, which then turns to Colonel Freddy and the Dashahed Zouaves.

Freddy's military ambitions take a comic, domestic form: he admires his new uniform in a mirror, strikes a fierce pose and finds his family watching. Peter arrives in matching Zouave clothes, equally delighted, before the conversation settles around the breakfast table. The combination of lively dialogue, elaborate costumes and adult guidance gives the story its particular character. Readers interested in older children's fiction can see how imaginative play becomes a way to talk about good conduct while leaving room for vanity, appetite and mischief.