The inevitable temptation came when Miss Fanny went on “a visit to a Miss in the neighborhood; her mama ordered her to be home at eight o’clock; but she was engag’d at play, and did not mind how the time pass’d, so that she stay’d till near ten; and then her mama sent for her.”  The child of course was frightened by the lateness of the hour, and the maid—­who appears in the illustration with cocked hat and musket!—­tried to calm her fears with the advice to “tell her mama that the Miss she went to see had taken her out.” “No Mary, said Miss Fanny, wiping her pretty eyes, I am above a lye;” and she rehearsed for the benefit of the maid her father’s admonition.

Story IX tells of the Good Girl and Pretty Girl.  In this the pretty child had bright eyes and pretty plump cheeks and was much admired.  She, however, was a meanly proud girl, and so naughty as not to want to grow wiser, but applied to those good people who happened to be less favored in looks such terms as “bandy-legs, crump, and all such naughty names.”  The good sister “could read before the pretty miss could tell a letter; and though her shape was not so genteel her behavior was a great deal more so.  But alas! the pretty creature fell sick of the small-pox, and all her beauty vanished.”  Thus in the eighteenth century was the adage “Beauty is but skin deep” brought to bear upon conduct.

On the last page is a cut of “Louisburg demolished,” which had served its time already upon almanacs, but the eight cuts were undoubtedly made especially for children.  Moreover, since they do not altogether illustrate the various stories, they are good proof that similar chap-book tales were printed by Fowle and Draper for little ones before the War of Independence.

In the southern provinces the sea afforded better transportation facilities for household necessities and luxuries than the few post-lines from the north could offer.  Bills of exchange could be drawn against London, to be paid by the profits of the tobacco crops, a safer method of payment than any that then existed between the northern and southern towns.  In the regular orders sent by George Washington to Robert Carey in London, twice we find mention of the children’s needs and wishes.  In the very first invoice of goods to be shipped to Washington after his marriage with Mrs. Custis in seventeen hundred and fifty-nine, he ordered “10 Shillings worth of Toys, 6 little books for children beginning to read and a fashionable dressed baby to cost 10 Shillings;” and again later in ordering clothes, “Toys, Sugar, Images and Comfits” for his step-children he added:  “Books according to the enclosed list to be charged equally to John Parke Custis and Martha Parke Custis.”