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Introductory Note
The contrast between the dainty picture books that are provided to entice the school children of the present along the paths of knowledge, and the sparsely illustrated volumes conned by the little folk of two or three generations ago, is very great; and yet the old books seemed beautiful to the children then, and the charm all comes back when a person of middle age or beyond happens on one of these humble friends of his youth. What an aroma of the far-gone days of childhood hovers in the yellow pages ! The scenes in the schoolroom rise in the memory, one is young again, and has in gentle illusion the same feelings and the same juvenile companions as of old.
But the pleasure of seeing the books of our schooldays is seldom experienced; for, once their work was done, they received scant care, and most of the multitude that were printed have perished utterly. The wear and tear of use and the accidents and exigencies of time have made way with them, and to-day one could hardly find the books he studied as a child save by long and patient search, and perhaps some of them not at all. My
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