"Who learnt me how to read and Spell, And with my Needle work as well, And called me her good little Girl? My Governess. "Who made the Scholar proud to show The Sampler work'd to friend and foe, And with Instruction fonder grow? My Governess." We have the contemporary opinion of Charles Lamb of this new school of juvenile literature. In 1802 he wrote thus to Coleridge:-- "Goody Two Shoes is almost out of print. Mrs. Barbauld's stuff has banished all the old classics of the nursery, and the shopman at Newbery's hardly deigned to reach them off an old exploded corner of a shelf, when Mary asked for them. Mrs. Barbauld's and Mrs. Trimmer's nonsense lay in piles about. Knowledge as insignificant and vapid, as Mrs. Barbauld's books convey, it seems must come to a child in the shape of knowledge; his empty noddle must be turned with the conceit of his own powers when he has learned that a horse is an animal, and Billy is better than a horse, and such-like, instead of the beautiful interest in mild tales which made the child a man, while all the time he suspected himself to be no bigger than a child.... Hang them!--I mean the cursed Barbauld crew, those blights and blasts of all that is human in man and child." [Illustration: 40 The Juvenile Biographer. One Day, [f.]ome one of Mi[f.]s Polly's little Acquaintances, coming along the Road near Mi[f.]s Charity's Hou[f.]e, found her [f.]tanding and crying over a little Beggar, who [f.]at by the Side of the Road. This is a ju[f.]t Repre[f.]entation of this pitiful Scene. Her Acquaintance a[f.]ked her what [f.]he The Juvenile Biographer. 41 was crying for. "My dear, ([f.]aid Polly) this poor little Creature is [f.]tarving, and I have not a Penny to give her; but if you will lend me Two-pence, if you have [f.]o much about you, I will certainly pay you again very [f.]oon. What a terrible Thing it is to think, that while we live upon Dainties, this poor little Girl [f.]hall be [f.]tarving!" "My dear, ([f.]aid Miss Polly's Acquaintance) I am happy that I have Two-pence about me, which is all I am worth in the World, and tho[f.]e were ju[f.]t now given me by a Gentleman for my pretty Behaviour to him. Here they are, and you [f.]hall be indebted to me only One Penny, for I will give her the other my[f.]elf." They eagerly embraced each other, The Juvenile Biographer] In the _Boston Gazette and Country Journal_, January 20, 1772, the Boston booksellers, Cox and Berry, have this notice of their wares:-- "The following Little Books for the Instruction and Amusement of all good Boys and Girls:-- The Brother Gift or the Naughty Girl Reformed. The Sister Gift or the Naughty Boy Reformed. Hobby Horse or Christian Companion. Robin Good-Fellow, a Fairy Tale. Puzzling Cap, a Collection of Riddles. The Cries of London as exhibited in the Streets.