The New Mother

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"The New Mother" is a short story by the English writer Lucy Clifford and first published in her collection of children's stories, The Anyhow Stories, Moral and Otherwise in 1882. The story has been reprinted in anthologies, including The Dark Descent, and was rewritten for the Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark series. The story starts with two sisters who live with their mother at a forest house, while their estranged father is far away. The girls are initially well-behaved, but they are tempted to be naughty by a strange girl. She promises to eventually reward their new behavior by showing them what she hides in her musical instrument. The girls' mother threatens to abandon them, and tells them that she will be replaced by an intimidating new mother. She eventually fulfills her threat. The strange girl never fulfills her promise, but she informs the sisters that their mother will never return. The sisters live in fear of their new mother, and learn to survive on their own by foraging...

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