The illustration, quite similar to the image used in Goodrich’s Peter Parley series, introduces this set of stories compiled by Sarah Josepha Hale. Like Goodrich, Hale combined didacticism with amusement. As she states in her introduction to this work, “In childhood and early youth, the imagination and feelings are predominant.” Writing that sought to guide young readers to virtue, Hale believed, needed to take this into account.

Boston Public Library, Rare Books & Manuscripts