ringtime 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For older pupils Noah Webster's speller almost superseded Dilworth's,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 naive 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