From Canal Boy to President
The present series of volumes has been undertaken with the view of supplying the want of a class of books for children, of a vigorous, manly tone, combined with a plain and concise mode of narration. The writings of Charles Dickens have been selected as the basis of the scheme, on account of the well-known excellence of his portrayal of children, and the interests connected with children--qualities which have given his volumes their strongest hold on the hearts of parents. These delineations having thus received the approval of readers of mature age, it seemed a worthy effort to make the young also participants in the enjoyment of these classic fictions, to introduce the children of real life to these beautiful children of the imagination. With this view, the career of Little Nell and her Grandfather, Oliver, Little Paul, Florence Dombey, Smike, and the Child-Wife, have been detached from the large mass of matter with which they were originally connected, and presented, in the author's own language, to a new class of readers, to whom the little volumes will we doubt not, be as attractive as the larger originals have so long proved to the general public. We have brought down these famous stories from the library to the nursery--the parlor table to the child's hands--having a precedent
de Conti for a mistress, and in it every convenience and luxury had
been placed.
"That will suit me," said his wife. "The Dutchman who lives there has
put it in good order, and now that he is obliged to return to India,
he would probably let us have it for thirty thousand francs."
"We shall be close to Champagne," said Moreau. "I am in hopes of
buying the farm and mill of Mours for a hundred thousand francs. That
would give us ten thousand a year in rentals. Nogent is one of the
most delightful residences in the valley; and we should still have an
income of ten thousand from the Grand-Livre."
"But why don't you ask for the post of juge-de-paix at Isle-Adam? That
would give us influence, and fifteen hundred a year salary."
"Well, I did think of it."
With these plans in mind, Moreau, as soon as he heard from the count
that he was coming to Presles, and wished him to invite Margueron to
dinner on Saturday, sent off an express to the count's head-valet,
inclosing a letter to his master, which the messenger failed to
deliver before Monsieur de Serizy retired at his usually early hour.
Augustin, however, placed it, according to custom in such cases, on
his master's desk. In this letter Moreau begged the count not to
trouble himself to come down, but to trust entirely to him. He added
The present series of volumes has been undertaken with the view of supplying the want of a class of books for children, of a vigorous, manly tone, combined with a plain and concise mode of narration. The writings of Charles Dickens have been selected as the basis of the scheme, on account of the well-known excellence of his portrayal of children, and the interests connected with children--qualities which have given his volumes their strongest hold on the hearts of parents. These delineations having thus received the approval of readers of mature age, it seemed a worthy effort to make the young also participants in the enjoyment of these classic fictions, to introduce the children of real life to these beautiful children of the imagination. With this view, the career of Little Nell and her Grandfather, Oliver, Little Paul, Florence Dombey, Smike, and the Child-Wife, have been detached from the large mass of matter with which they were originally connected, and presented, in the author's own language, to a new class of readers, to whom the little volumes will we doubt not, be as attractive as the larger originals have so long proved to the general public. We have brought down these famous stories from the library to the nursery--the parlor table to the child's hands--having a precedent