Powders, etc., Chapmens Books and
Ballads." Bradford also advertised in seventeen hundred and thirty that
all persons could be supplied with "Primers and small Histories of many
sorts." "Small histories" were probably chap-books, which, hawked about
the country by peddlers or chapmen, contained tales of "Fair Rosamond,"
"Jane Grey," "Tom Thumb" or "Tom Hick-a-Thrift," and though read by old
and young, were hardly more suitable for juvenile reading than the
religious elegies then so popular. These chap-books were sold in
considerable quantities on account of their cheapness, and included
religious subjects as well as tales of adventure.

One of the earliest examples of this chap-book literature, thought
suitable for children, was printed in the colonies by the press of
Thomas Fleet, already mentioned as a printer of small books. This book
of 1736, being intended for ready sale, was such as every Puritan would
buy for the family library. Entitled "The Prodigal Daughter," it told in
Psalm-book metre of a "proud, vain girl, who, because her parents would
not indulge her in all her extravagances, bargained with the devil to
poisen them." The parents, however, were warned by an angel of her
intentions:

"One night her parents sleeping were in bed
Nothing but troubled dreams run in their head,
At length an angel did to them appear
Saying awake, and unto me give ear.
A messenger I'm sent by Heaven kind
To let you know your lives are both design'd;
Your graceless child, whom you love so dear,
She for your precious lives hath laid a snare.
To poison you the devil tempts her so,
She hath no power from the snare to go:
But God such care doth of his servants take,
Those that believe on Him He'll not forsake.

"You must not use her cruel or severe,
For though these things to you I do declare,
It is to show you what the Lord can do,
He soon can turn her heart, you'll find it so."

The daughter, discovered in her attempt to poison their food, was
reproached by the mother for her evil intention and swooned. Every
effort failed to "bring her spirits to revive:"

"Four days they kept her, when they did prepare
To lay her body in the dust we hear,
At her funeral a sermon then was preach'd,
All other wicked children for to teach....
But suddenly they bitter groans did hear
Which much surprized all that then were there.
At length they did ob