there he took
He had received a little book.
With covers neat and cuts so pretty
There's not its like in all the city;
And that for three-pence he could buy
A story book would make one cry;
For little more a book of Riddles:
Then let us not buy drums and fiddles
Nor yet be stopped at pastry cooks',
But spend our money all in books;
For when we've learnt each bit by heart
Mamma will treat us with a tart."

Later, when engraving had become more general in use, William Charles
cut for an advertisement, as frontispiece to some of his imprints, an
interior scene containing a shelf of books labelled "W. Charles' Library
for Little Folks." About the same time another form of advertisement
came into use. This was the publisher's _Recommendation_, which
frequently accompanied the narrative in place of a preface. The "Story
of Little Henry and his Bearer," by Mrs. Sherwood, a writer of many
English Sunday-school tales, contained the announcement that it was
"fraught with much useful instruction. It is recommended as an excellent
thing to be put in the hands of children; and grown persons will find
themselves well paid for the trouble of reading it."

Little Henry belonged to the Sunday-school type of hero, one whose
biography Dr. Holmes doubtless avoided when possible. Yet no history of
toy-books printed presumably for children's amusement as well as
instruction should omit this favorite story, which represents all others
of its class of Religion-in-Play books. The following incidents are
taken from an edition printed by Lincoln and Edmunds of Boston. This
firm made a special feature of "Books suitable for Presents in
Sunday-School." They sold wholesale for eight dollars a hundred, such
tales as Taylor's "Hymns for Infant Minds," "Friendly Instruction,"
Fenelon's "Reflections," Doddridge's "Principles of the Christian
Religion," "Pleasures of Piety in Youth," "Walks of Usefulness,"
"Practical Piety," etc.

The objective point of little Henry's melancholy history was to prove
the "Usefulness of Female Missionaries," said its editor, Mrs. Cameron,
a sister of the author, who at the time was herself living in India.
Mrs. Sherwood based the thread of her story upon the life of a household
in India, but it winds itself mainly around the conversion of the
faithful Indian bearer who served five-year-old Henry. This small
orphan was one of those morbidly religious children who "never sai