as will be seen in the illustration.  Charles’s plates for a series of moral tales in verse were used by his successors, Mary Charles, Morgan & Yeager, and Morgan & Sons, for certainly fifteen years after the originals were made.  To William Charles the children in the vicinity of Philadelphia were also probably indebted for the introduction of colored pictures.  It is possible that the young folks of Boston had the novelty of colored picture-books somewhat before Charles introduced them in Philadelphia, as we find that “The History and Adventures of Little Henry exemplified in a series of figures” was printed by J. Belcher of the Massachusetts town in 1812.  These “figures” exhibited little Henry suitably attired for the various incidents of his career, with a movable head to be attached at will to any of the figures, which were not engraved with the text, but each was laid in loose on a blank page.  William Charles’s method of coloring the pictures engraved with the text was a slight advance, perhaps, upon the illustrations inserted separately; but it is doubtful whether these immovable plates afforded as much entertainment to little readers as the separate figures similar to paper dolls which Belcher, and somewhat later Charles also, used in a few of their publications.

[Illustration:  Tom the Piper’s Son]

The “Peacock at Home,” engraved by Charles and then colored in aqua-tint, is one of the rare early colored picture-books still extant, having been first issued in eighteen hundred and fourteen.  The coloring of the illustrations at first doubled the price, and seems to have been used principally for a series of stories belonging to what may be styled the Ethics-in-Play type of juvenile literature, and entitled the “History and Adventures of Little William,” “Little Nancy,” etc.  These tales, written after the objective manner of Miss Edgeworth, glossed over by rhyme, contained usually eight colored plates, and sold for twenty-five cents each instead of twelve cents, the price of the picture-book without colored plates.  Sometimes, as in the case of “Cinderella,” we find the text illustrated with a number of “Elegant Figures, to dress and undress.”  The paper doll could be placed behind the costumes appropriate to the various adventures, and, to prevent the loss of the heroine, the book was tied up with pink or blue ribbon after the manner of a portfolio.

With engravers on wood and copper able to make more attractive the passion for instruction which marked the first quarter of the nineteenth century, the variety of toy-book literature naturally became greater.  Indeed, without pictures to render somewhat entertaining the Labor-in-Play school, it is doubtful whether it could have attained its widespread popularity.

It is, of course, possible to name but a few titles typical of the various kinds of instruction offered as amusement.  “To present to the young Reader a Little Miscellany of Natural History, Moral Precept, Sentiment, and Narrative,” Dr. Kendall wrote “Keeper’s Travels in Search of his Master,” “The Canary Bird,” and “The Sparrow.”  “The Prize for Youthful Obedience” endeavored to instill a love for animals, and to promote obedient habits.  Its story runs in this way: