Any attempt to trace the slow development of the American child’s story of the nineteenth century must inevitably be made through the school-books written during the previous one. Before this, English books had been adapted to the American trade. But now the continued interest in education produced text-books pervaded with the American spirit. They cannot, therefore, be ignored as sporadically in the springtime of the young Republic, they, like crocuses, thrust forward in the different states their blue and yellow covers.

Next to clergymen, schoolmasters received the veneration of the people, for learning and godliness went hand in hand. It was the schoolmaster who reinforced the efforts of the parents to make good Americans of the young folks, by compiling text-books which outsold the English ones hitherto used. In the new editions of the old “New England Primer,” laudatory verse about General Washington replaced the alphabet rhyme:

“Whales in the Sea
God’s Voice obey.”

Proud parents thereafter heard their infants lisp:

“By Washington
Great deeds were done.”

For older pupils Noah Webster’s speller almost superseded Dilworth’s, and his “Little Readers’ Assistant” became the First Reader of many children. Webster as schoolmaster in a country district prepared this book for his own scholars. It was printed in Hartford in seventeen hundred and ninety, and contained a list of subjects suitable for farmers’ children:

I.A number of Stories mostly taken from the history of America, and adorned with Cuts.
II.Rudiments of English Grammar.
III.The Federal Catechism, being a short and easy explanation of the Constitution of the United States.
IV.General principles of Government and Commerce.
V.Farmers’ Catechism containing plain rules of husbandry.

Bennington, Vermont, contributed in “The Little Scholar’s Pretty Pocket Companion in Rhyme and Verse,” this indirect allusion to political affairs:

“’Twas a toy of royalty, of late almost forgot,
’Tis said she represented France
On English Monarchies arms,
But lately broke his chains by chance
And widely spread alarms.”

But the most naïve attempt to inculcate patriotism together with a lesson in obedience is found in “The Child’s Instructor,” published about seventeen hundred and ninety-one, and written by a Philadelphian. Philadelphia had become the residence of the President—a fact that may account for one of the stories in this book about an infant prodigy called Billy. “The child at five years of age was always good and obedient, and prone to make such a remark as, ‘If you would be wise you must always attend to your vowels and consonants.’ When General Washington came to town Billy’s mama asked him to say a speech to the ladies, and he began, ‘Americans! place constantly before your eyes, the deplorable scenes of your servitude, and the enchanting picture of your deliverance. Begin with the infant in his cradle; let the first word he lisps be Washington.’ The ladies were all delighted to hear Billy speak so well. One said he should be a lawyer, and another said he should be President of the United States. But Billy said he could not be either unless his mama gave him leave.”[123-*]