eagerly grasped by Franklin and other future makers of the American
nation. The scarcity of historical works concerning the colonies made
Burton's account of the "English Empire in America" at once a mine of
interest to wide-awake boys of the day. Number VIII, entitled "Winter
Evenings' Entertainment," was long a source of amusement with its
stories and riddles, and its title was handed down to other books of a
similar nature. To children, however, the best-known volume of the
series was Burton's illustrated versification of Bible stories called
"The Youth's Divine Pastime." But the subjects chosen by Burton were
such as belonged to a very plain-spoken age; and as the versifier was no
euphuist in his relation of facts, the result was a remarkable "Pastime
for Youth." The literature read by English children was, of course, the
same; the little ones of both countries ate of the same tree of
knowledge of facts, often either silly or revolting.

To deliver the younger and future generations from such unpalatable and
indigestible mental food, there was soon to appear in London a man, John
Newbery by name, who, already a printer, publisher, and vendor of patent
medicines, seized the opportunity to issue stories written especially
for the amusement of little children.

While Newbery was making his plans to provide pleasure for young folks
in England, in the colonies the idea of a child's need of recreation
through books was slowly gaining ground. It is well to note the manner
in which the little colonists were prepared to receive Newbery's books
as recreative features crept gradually into the very few publications of
which there is record.

In seventeen hundred and forty-five native talent was still entirely
confined to writing for little people lugubrious sermons or discourses