k is far beyond, for
the author's purpose is to sow broadcast the seeds of true dignity,
manliness, and republicanism. The hero is a good one, but of no
uncommon type.

The young Yankee finds the battle of life hard, but also fights it
bravely, and, in good time, conquers. The secondary actor, Dan
Dishaway, is a wholly original character, a tin peddler with little
education and unpolished manners, but with a loyal heart, and a
simple, unconscious character that impressed and influenced the whole
village. The teacher of teachers, to him, was his mother. The very
foundation of the story is the value of human character, apart from
the accidents of birth or position. The plot develops rapidly, and is
illustrated by exciting incidents of river freshets, shipwreck on one
of the great lakes, and a prairie fire. Love is shown to be no
respecter of persons, but is found faithful, pure, and delicate, in
people who never heard of cosmic philosophy, or the term "altruism,"
who knew not the classics, who went sadly astray in grammar. Without
direct preaching, the story shows that the way of the transgressor is
hard, and that the hardness is not lessened by worldly prosperity.

The critic quickly notices, however, that Carleton is not so
successful in his pictures of city life as those of the country.
Nevertheless, in modern days, when the population of Boston consists
not of people born there, but chiefly of newcomers from the country,
from Canada, or from Europe, Carleton was all the more a helper. An
American who has mastered French, even though not perfect in
pronunciation, may be a better teacher of it than a native.

Bertha Wayland's success in society, and her Boston life, made a very
attractive portion of the book to a large number of readers at rural
firesides. For who in New England, and still young, does not hope some
day to live in sight of the golden dome? In later years, "Caleb
Krinkle" was republished, with some revision and in much handsomer
form, as "Dan of Millbrook," by Estes and Lauriat, of Boston.

His next work, which still remains the most popular of all, the one
least likely to suffer by the lapse of time, and the last probably to
reach oblivion, because it appeals to young Americans in the whole
nation, is his "Boys of '76." The first lore to which Carleton
listened after his infant lips had learned prayer, and "line upon
line, and precept upon precept," from the Bible, was from his soldier
grandfathers.