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
"And I should like to go, too; but if I did it would be years before
I could be anything but an expense and a burden, and that would make
me unhappy."
"You are almost ready for college, Grant, are you not?"
"Very nearly. I could get ready for the September examination. I
have only to review Homer, and brush up my Latin."
"And your uncle Godfrey is ready to help you through."
"That gives me an idea, mother. It would cost Uncle Godfrey as much
as nine hundred dollars a year over and above all the help I could
get from the college funds, and perhaps from teaching school this
winter. Now, if he would allow me that sum for a single year and let
me go to work, I could pay up all father's debts, and give him a new
start. It would save Uncle Godfrey nine hundred dollars."
"He has set his heart on your going to college. I don't think he
would agree to help you at all if you disappoint him."
"At any rate, I could try the experiment. Something has got to be
done, mother."
"Yes, Grant, there is no doubt of that. Mr. Tudor is evidently in
earnest. If we don't pay him, I think it very likely he will refuse
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