She was not contented with the bare reading of God’s Word, but would frequently ask the meaning of it. And when she was at her work, she would often ask where such and such Places in Scripture were, and would mention the Words that she might be directed to find them.
It was her Practice to carry her Catechism or some other good Book to Bed with her, and in the Morning she would be sitting up in her Bed reading before any of the Family were awake.
Such goodness could not last, and on the thirteenth of June, 1718, poor little Elizabeth departed this life, “being eight years and just eleven months old.”
It is related of another child, Daniel Bradley, the son of Nathan and Hester Bradley of Guilford, Connecticut, that when the said child was about three years old, “he had one Night an Impression of the Fears of Death, which put him into Crying; his Mother told him, if he died he would go to Heaven; unto which he replied, He knew not how he would like that Place, where he would be acquainted with no body!”
It is curious how you run unexpectedly upon things which you have long desired. I always wanted a copy of George Fox’s Instructions for Right Spelling, printed by Reinier Jansen, in Philadelphia, in 1702. One day I stopped at Travers’s Bookshop in Trenton, New Jersey. Now Clayton L. Travers is a true bookman; he knows the business thoroughly. In fact he was an old crony of my uncle. I said to him that I had been looking several years for Fox’s book. When I told him the title, he thought for a moment, then disappeared to the back of the shop. Two minutes later he returned with a little volume which was in an old sheep binding, the title page decorated with an elaborate woodcut border. I opened it and read the great Friend’s simple description of a comma:—
“Comma,” wrote George Fox, “is a little stop or breathing; as Behold O Lord.” Please note that he placed no comma after Behold! The discovery of Fox’s old spelling book was a delight to me, but what made it still more pleasant was Travers’s generosity in letting me have it for about one quarter its worth. Collector’s luck!
“They be darned small, but the flavor am delicious,” said an old Southerner to me of the quail in his part of the country. The same can also be applied to these children’s books. I suppose many people will wonder why I, an old bachelor, prefer them? I can only answer with another question. Why is it that old bachelors also write the best children’s stories? There is no answer. But, thank heaven, I am not alone in my crime. Another confirmed bachelor, a dear friend of mine, is quite as enthusiastic on this youthful theme. Dr. Wilberforce Eames, of New York, one of the greatest students of books this country ever had, abets me; especially when he casually informs me of the probable whereabouts of some rarity that I have been seeking for years.
WILBERFORCE EAMES
Another bookman, my genial colleague, Mr. Lathrop C. Harper, also of New York, and a great specialist in Americana, has been as much interested in these little books as I myself. Instead of selling them to me, Mr. Harper gives me all the tiny juveniles that he can find. He has just presented to me a little book published in Boston in 1714, which contains embedded in a waste of theological discussion for infants, the following priceless gem:—