etty
illustrated edition of the principal nursery rhymes were made a
text-book in infant schools. You may try, and try, and try again, to
drive an ordinary dry school-book lesson into the infant mind, and
make very little progress--it is up-hill work. But take an
illustrated edition of a nursery rhyme, say the "Death of Cock
Robin," or "Mother Hubbard," and call the little one to you, begin to
teach it--how eagerly, how intently does it begin to learn now! What
animation in its little eyes! What music in its little, joyous,
interested voice! It learns this lesson ten times as fast as the
other one, and gives you ten times the pleasure in teaching it, and
this kind of teaching gradually and insensibly leads the child into a
love of learning: it interests and sets the young inquiring mind at
work. We all know how much easier it is to do a work we are
interested in than a work we are not. It is just so with the child,
and for that reason I would commence to teach the infant mind with
that which pleased it best, and so gradually create a love for
reading. For years I have allowed numbers of little children, of
their own accord, to stand and read nursery rhymes to themselves, and
to teach other youths to read interesting and instructive fiction,
gratis, in the Book Arcade; and I hold that, by its enticingly
creating a love for reading, which will lead to something higher,
time is one of the best and most effective schools in the country.

--E. W. Cole

[Page 163--Doggy Land]

Tom Tinker's Dog

Bow, wow, wow, whose dog art tho?
I'm Tom Tinker's dog, and I'll bite you.

Puppy

There was an Old Man of Leghorn,
The smallest as ever was born;
But quickly snapt up he
Was once by a puppy,
Who devoured that Old Man of Leghorn.

Doggy

The cat sat asleep by the side of the fire,
The mistress snored loud as a pig;
Jack took up his fiddle by doggy's desire,
And struck up a bit of a jig.

Hark, the Dogs bark

Hark, hark, the dogs do bark,
Beggars are coming to town;
Some in jags, some in rags,
And some in velvet gown.

Poor Dog Bright

Poor dog Bright
Ran off with all his might,
Because the cat was after him:
Poor dog Bright.

Dog Blue Bell

I had a little dog, and his name was Blue Bell,
I gave him some work, and he did it very well;
I sent him up stairs to pick up a pin,
He stepped into the coal-scuttle up