While the young folks in New England families were thus being warned in story and verse against the awful temptations that lay all around them, the children in old England were being entertained by popular penny-books that treated of all kinds of subjects, from the _History of Joseph and his Brother_ to _The Old Egyptian Fortune Teller's Last Legacy_. These books were of a size scarcely larger than that of the letter-paper made for little folks, and they contained usually from sixteen to twenty-four pages. Illustrations that looked a good deal like the pictures made by a small boy in his schoolbooks adorned the rough little volumes. In every city and town and even in the villages peddlers went along the streets selling these chapbooks, as they were called. Imagine how the children, and the grown people too, must have flocked around the peddler as he began taking out one after another of his queer little books, for he had something to please every one. The boys might choose stories like _The Mad Pranks of Tom Tram_, _A Wonderful and Strange Relation of a Sailor_ or _The True Tale of Robin Hood_, and we can see them almost getting into a brawl over the possession of _The Merry Life and Mad Exploits of Captain James Hind, the Great Robber of England_. Probably the girls would choose _Patient Grissel_, _The History of Mother Bunch_ or _Cinderella_. For the small children there were, for example, the _History of Two Children in the Wood_, _The Pleasant History of Jack Horner_ and _Tom Thumb_. Most likely it was only the pennies of much-tried mothers and fathers that were spent for _A Timely Warning to Rash and Disobedient Children_. The chapman or peddler we may well believe did not stand silently looking on as he disposed of his stock. He had at the tip of his tongue such a fair-sounding advertisement for every book that everybody, young and old, came under the spell of his words and bought of his wares. After he had departed with his traveling library, we can picture the children taking themselves off to quiet places with their new chapbooks. Perhaps you are wondering why it was that they were so eager to read them. If so, you may like to look into a few of these rare old story books. As you read, notice how quaint the wording seems when compared with that of the stories of to-day. (Extract from _The History of Tom Long the Carrier._)