his Hands, wherein the Entertainment that he finds might draw him
on, and reward his Pains in Reading, and yet not such as will fill his
head with perfectly useless Trumpery, or lay the Principles of Vice and
Folly. To this Purpose, I think Aesop's Fables the best which being
Stories apt to delight and entertain a child, may yet afford useful
Reflections to a grown Man.... If his Aesop has pictures in it, it will
entertain him much better and encourage him to read." The two hundred
pictures in Rivington's edition made it, of course, high priced in
comparison with Newbery's books: but New York then contained many
families well able to afford this outlay to secure such an acquisition
to the family library.

Hugh Gaine at this time, as a rule, received each year two shipments of
books, among which were usually some for children, yet about 1762 he
began to try his own hand at reprinting Newbery's now famous little
duodecimos.

In that year we find an announcement through the "New York Mercury" that
he had himself printed "Divers diverting books for infants." The
following list gives some idea of their character:

_Just published by Hugh Gaine_

A pretty Book for Children; Or an Easy Guide to the English Tongue.

The private Tutor for little Masters and Misses.

Food for the Mind; or a new Riddle Book compiled for the use of
little Good Boys and Girls in America. By Jack the Giant-Killer,
Esq.

A Collection of Pretty Poems, by Tommy Tag, Esq.

Aesop's Fables in Verse, with the Conversation of Beasts and Birds,
at their several Meetings. By Woglog the great Giant.

A Little pretty Book, intended for the Amusement of Little Master
Tommy and pretty Miss Polly, with two Letters from Jack the
Giant-Killer.

Be Merry and Wise: Or the Cream of the Jests. By Tommy Trapwit, Esq.

The title of "Food for the Mind" is of special importance, since in it
Gaine made a clever alteration by inserting the words "Good Boys and
Girls in _America_." The colonials were already beginning to feel a
pride in the fact of belonging to the new country, America, and
therefore Gaine shrewdly changed the English title to one more likely to
induce people to purchase.

Gaine and Rivington alone have left records of printing children's
story-books in the town of New York before the Revolution; but before
they began to print, other booksellers advertised their invoices o