of the present day are so beautifully produced that
the elders are naturally induced to exclaim, "We never had such books as
these," but probably we enjoyed our books as well as our children do
theirs. What a thrill of pleasure the middle-aged man feels when a book
which amused his childhood comes in his way: this, however, is seldom, for
time has laid his decaying hand upon them--

"All, all are gone, the old familiar faces."

The children for whom Miss Kate Greenaway and Mr. Caldecott draw and Mrs.
Gatty and Mrs. Ewing wrote are indeed fortunate, but we must not forget
that Charles and Mary Lamb wrote delightful books for the young, that Miss
Edgeworth's stories are ever fresh, and that one of the most charming
children's stories ever written is Mrs. Sherwood's _Little Woodman_.

A short list of a Child's Library is quoted in the _Library Journal_ (vol.
viii. p. 57) from the _Woman's Journal_. The family for whom it was chosen
consisted of children from three to twelve, the two eldest being girls.
The books are mostly American, and but little known in this country--

Snow-bound. Illustrated. Whittier.
Life of Longfellow. Kennedy.
A Summer in the Azores. Baker.
Among the Isles of Shoals. Celia Thaxter.
The boys of '76. Coffin.
The boys of '61. Coffin.
Story of our Country. Higginson.
Sir Walter Raleigh. Towle.
Child's History of England. Dickens.
Tales from Shakespear. Lamb.
Tales from Homer. Church.
The Wonder-book. Illustrated. Hawthorne.
Young folks' book of poetry. Campbell.
Poetry for childhood. Eliot.
Bits of talk about home matters. H.H.
The Seven Little Sisters. Andrews.
Hans Brinker, or the Silver Skates. Dodge.
Room for one more. Mary T. Higginson.
King Arthur for boys. Lanier.
Doings of the Bodley family. Scudder.
Mother-play and Nursery-rhymes.
Children's Robinson Crusoe.
The four-footed lovers.
Mammy Tittleback and her family. H.H.
The Little Prudy books. Six volumes.

The editor of the _Library Journal_ remarks on the list, "Guest's Lectures
on English History is better than Dickens's, and the 'Prudy' children are
so mischievous, so full of young Americanisms, and so far from being
'wells of English undefiled,' that they are not always good companions for
boys and girls. I have known a child's English spoiled by reading the
Prudy books."

Some of the old-fashioned children's books have been reprinted, and these
will generally be found