Pleasing Stories for Good Children with Pictures

In Short

Pleasing Stories for Good Children with Pictures is a nineteenth-century juvenile conduct book published in Cincinnati that uses short moral vignettes and instructional verses to guide young readers toward proper behavior. Through episodes involving acts of kindness, playground mishaps, temper tantrums, and schoolroom diligence, the book contrasts the rewards of obedience and charity with the painful consequences of cruelty and disobedience. It has survived as a historical artifact of early American children's publishing, reflecting how foundational moral instruction and religious verse were integrated into early literacy and picture books for youth.

The Story

The book opens with little Jane Anderson and her sister taking a morning walk and encountering a lame, impoverished man lying on the ground. Showing immediate compassion, the sisters empty their bags of pennies to help the old gentleman buy bread or cake, establishing an early model for Christian charity and mindfulness of the less fortunate. This theme of benevolence is immediately reinforced by a reflective hymn on the blessings of food, clothing, and shelter.

The narrative tone shifts sharply from rewarding virtue to warning against folly with the introduction of Jane Jones, a rude girl who refuses to use the gate key and instead attempts to climb a fence. She suffers a dramatic fall, resulting in deep facial scratches and a bruised, flattened nose that renders her unrecognizable to her peers. Having learned her lesson the hard way, Jane completely abandons fence-climbing.

Cruelty is addressed next through John Stevens, who ties a string and stone to a newborn kitten and throws it into the river. The narrator confronts John's lack of remorse, expressing pity if he lacks parents to teach him better, while advising him to attend school and mend his ways. A brief visit to the school room follows, showcasing studious boys and industrious masters alongside a pair of mischievous children breaking the rules.

Domestic disobedience emerges with Jane Thompson, who whines, pouts, and refuses to go to bed when told, prompting a lesson on the beauty of an obedient child and a prayerful hymn about respecting parental commands. The sequence continues with an unnamed passionate boy who flies into a rage because his sister Mary borrows his knife to fix her doll, violently smashing the doll and breaking its arms on the floor. To combat such destructive temper, the book introduces a cautionary hymn warning that childish brawls and hard names can escalate into severe violence, echoing the story of Cain and Abel. The book concludes by advertising an extensive assortment of children's books available at the Cincinnati bookseller.

How It Unfolds

• The morning walk — Jane Anderson and her sister encounter a lame, destitute man on the street and cheerfully give him their pennies for food.
• The fence climber — Jane Jones disdains using the gate key, attempts to climb a fence, and suffers a brutal fall that leaves her face deeply scratched and bruised.
• The cruel act — John Stevens heartlessly ties a stone to a newborn kitten and drowns it in the river, earning swift moral condemnation from the narrator.
• The school room — A scene of industrious students and attentive teachers is briefly disrupted by two boys caught mischievously playing instead of studying.
• The bedtime resistance — Jane Thompson whines and pouts when her mother tells her it is time for bed, failing to demonstrate the obedience expected of a good child.
• The broken doll — A passionate boy flies into a violent rage when his sister borrows his knife, smashing her doll to pieces and prompting a severe warning against anger.

The People

• Jane Anderson and her sister want to enjoy a simple morning walk and respond with instinctive charity when they encounter need. They face a vulnerable stranger and end up enriched by the moral satisfaction of sharing their pennies.
• Jane Jones wants to visit a companion quickly without taking the proper route through the house. She faces a locked gate and her own impatience, ending up severely bruised and permanently cured of her dangerous habit.
• John Stevens acts out of unprovoked malice toward a helpless animal. He faces the silent judgment of the narrator and the reader, ending his episode looking guilty, ashamed, and in dire need of moral schooling.
• Jane Thompson wants to stay awake past her designated bedtime. She faces her mother's firm bedtime rule and her own peevish impulses, ending up as a negative example of childish whining.
• The passionate brother wants absolute control over his possessions without sharing with his sibling. He faces a minor frustration regarding a borrowed knife and ends up destroying his sister's toy while succumbing to a dangerous and wicked temper.

In Its Own Voice

We know not how soon we ourselves may become poor, and need the aid of friends.

This reflection follows Jane Anderson and her sister's act of charity toward the lame man, reminding young readers of the unpredictable nature of fortune.

In the picture on the next page, you can see her falling head foremost to the ground.

This dramatic description accompanies Jane Jones's ill-advised attempt to scale a locked fence rather than fetching the key.

Hard names at first, and threatening words, which are but noisy breath, may grow to clubs and naked swords; to murder, and to death.

This stark warning forms part of the hymn against anger, connecting minor sibling quarrels directly to catastrophic violence.

What It's Really About

The book explores the fragile boundary between orderly socialization and chaotic impulse in young minds. Its central argument posits that children are naturally prone to vanity, cruelty, impatience, and disobedience, and that these traits must be aggressively curbed through constant moral vigilance, religious verse, and vivid deterrents. It asks fundamental questions about human nature: whether children can be reasoned into goodness through gentle example or whether they require stark, sobering illustrations of physical and spiritual ruin. Underlying every vignette is a strict Calvinist-leaning worldview where minor infractions like climbing a fence or breaking a toy are treated as waystations on a potential road to moral degradation. The text constantly interrogates the responsibilities of authority figures in shaping impressionable souls against the backdrop of an unforgiving moral universe.

Why Read It Today

Readers interested in the history of education, nineteenth-century material culture, and the evolution of children's literature will find this volume deeply revealing. Reading it feels like stepping directly into a mid-nineteenth-century parlor or dame school, where didacticism was delivered without a trace of modern irony. You will be struck by the absolute directness of the prose and the astonishing severity of the lessons, where a bruised nose on a fence-climber or the drowning of a kitten serves as immediate moral pedagogy. However, modern readers must grapple with significant period difficulties, including harsh, uncompromising attitudes toward children's natural impulses, rigid gender expectations, and an absence of narrative subtlety. It offers no cozy escapism; instead, it provides an uncompromising historical window into what adults once believed children needed to read in order to survive both earthly dangers and spiritual peril.

What aspect of nineteenth-century children's literature interests you the most?