ional questions.

While Dr. McGuffey was at Oxford, teaching mental philosophy to the
pupils in Miami University, he prepared the manuscript for the two lower
readers of the graded series which bore his name. To test his work while
in progress, he collected in his own house a number of small children
whom he taught to read by the use of his lessons.

It is evident that these readers were prepared at the solicitation of
the publishers and on such a general plan as to number and size as was
desired by the publishers. Dr. McGuffey was selected by them as the most
competent teacher known to them for the preparation of successful books.
He did not prepare the manuscripts and search for a publisher.

[The Copyright Contract]

On April 28, 1836, he made a contract with Truman & Smith, publishers of
Cincinnati, for the preparation and publication of a graded series of
readers to consist of four books. The First and Second readers were then
in manuscript, the Third and Fourth readers were to be completed within
eighteen months. They were both issued in 1837. Dr. Benjamin Chidlaw,
then a student in college, aided the author by copying the indicated
selections and preparing them for the printer. He received for this work
five dollars and thought himself well paid.

These four books constituted the original series of the Eclectic Readers
by W.H. McGuffey which in all the subsequent revisions have borne his
name and retained the impress of his mind.

The First Reader made a thin 18mo book of seventy-two pages, having
green paper covered sides; the Second Reader contained one hundred and
sixty-four pages of the same size. The Third Reader had a larger page
and was printed as a duodecimo of one hundred and sixty-five pages. The
fourth Reader ranked in size with the Third and contained three hundred
and twenty-four printed pages. Each was printed from the type, which was
distributed when the required number for the edition came from the
press.

By the terms of the contract the publishers paid a royalty of ten per
cent on all copies sold until the copyright should reach the sum of one
thousand dollars, after which the Readers became the absolute property
of the publishers. It must be remembered that in those days this sum of
money seemed much larger than it would at the present time, and it may
be questioned whether this newly organized firm of publishers commanded
as much as a thousand dollars in their entire business. At any ra