Bobby Shafto 1877 Young Children's Stories Engravings

Description: This odd little children's book is titled Bobby Shafto and was published by Dodd Mead in 1877. There are 17 different brief stories, illustrated with engravings, most only 2 pages long. While the early 1900's was a golden age of children's literature with exciting, imaginative stories and colorful illustrations, children's books of the mid to late 19th century often offered moralistic tales or simple stories without much of a plot aND a few black and white engravings. The first tale refers to an old English ballad "Bobby Shafto's gone to sea, Silver buckles on his knee; He'll come back and marry me, Bonnie Bobby Shafto!" The author notes that the Bobby Shafto of the story had ragged trouser with no silver buckles and stows away on a ship to get away from home. He lives through a shipwreck and is very happy to return home and help his mother. In another tale a recently orphaned boy has no luck finding a place as an apprentice. He saves a man from drowning and the man turns out to be a shoe maker who offers him work. Other stories are factual - an Eskimo dog who must pull a sled, gets little to eat and is beaten by his master - a cobra - one of the many snakes in India, where many thousands die from snake bites every year. Other stories are events in a child's life - a boy gets 2 rabbits, takes care of them and finds they have 3 babies. A little girl is given a kitten who is mischievous. Two boys are taken into the woods to camp, cook potatoes in the ashes of a fire and catch some trout. There's geography - an Arab from Syria uses a stick to plow with. He lives in a warm country where grain grows easily and he needs little to keep him alive. He's lazy and prefers to sit in the sun rather than work(?!) There's a few brief sentences about the Mayflower and on whaling ships. The book measures 4 1/4 by 6 inches. The cover is faded with wear on the edges. "Lutheran Sunday School of Marion" is written on the flyleaf, and there are traces of old decals. The pages are toned and foxed, some heavily, and there are several tears. The pages are pulling apart a bit at the gutter.There are some scribbles in pencil at the back.

Price: 17.5 USD

Location: Advance, North Carolina

End Time: 2024-12-27T01:14:05.000Z

Shipping Cost: 4.63 USD