Caleb in the Country

Transcriber's Note
Frontispiece


The object of this little work, and of others of its family, which may perhaps follow, is, like that of the “Rollo Books,” to furnish useful and instructive reading to young children. The aim is not so directly to communicate knowledge, as it is to develop the moral and intellectual powers,—to cultivate habits of discrimination and correct reasoning, and to establish sound principles of moral conduct. The “Rollo Books” embrace principally intellectual and moral discipline; “Caleb,” and the others of its family, will include also religious training, according to the evangelical views of Christian truth which the author has been accustomed to entertain, and which he has inculcated in his more serious writings.
J. A.


Caleb was a bright-looking, blue-eyed boy, with auburn hair and happy countenance. And yet he was rather pale and slender. He had been sick. His father and mother lived in Boston, but now he was spending the summer at Sandy River country, with his grandmother. His father thought that if he could run about a few months in the open air, and play among the rocks and under the trees, he would grow more strong and healthy, and that his cheeks would not look so pale.
His grandmother made him a blue jacket with bright buttons. She liked metal buttons, because they would wear longer than covered ones, but he liked them because they were more beautiful. “Besides,” said he, “I can see my face in them, grandmother.”
Little Caleb then went to the window, so as to see his face plainer. He stood with his back to the window, and held the button so that the light from the window could shine directly upon it.
“Why grandmother,” said Caleb, “I cannot see now so well as I could before.”