of John Gilpin ended,


Now, let us sing, "Long live the President
And Gilpin, Long live he."
But the wise editor of our Boston Mother Goose had no such fears
for the republicanism of his baby hearers. Those were happy years
in which the imagination of babies and their older brothers and
sisters were permitted to run free.

[*][Note from Brett: See the rhyme which starts "Little Jack
Nory..." for such a reference.]

I have asked and asked and have received no answer, as to the artist
who made many of the admirable designs which are distinctive in
this book. Abel Bowen's[*] name is signed to one, and his initials
appear on several. N.D. means Nathaniel Dearborn[+]. One is signed
"Chicket,"[&] but this does not account for the greater number
of them. I was the son of a printer and type-founder, so we had
a "type book" as a classic in our nursery. So I knew even as a
little child, that there were pictures in Mother Goose which were
put there merely because the block from which they were printed
existed in the printer's office. But there were other designs made
by some artist of genius; and who was he? He represented the man
in the moon, hanging with one arm to the crescent of the moon. That
man, whoever he was, is to be ranked among the original artists of
the world. He gave to childhood his first and best images of the
blackbirds who were baked in the pie.

[*][Note from Brett: Abel Bowen (1790-1850) was Boston's first