There was once a little boy whose name was James, he had often asked his Papa to give him a dog, & on his 9^th birthday his Uncle John gave him one, it was white with large black spots. James was very much pleased with it & promised to be kind to it, & at first he was, he called the dog Brisky.

However he soon got tired of it & even left it sometimes a whole day without food. So the poor little dog grew at last quite thin, it would have died if a little boy whose name was Henry had not fed it. Henry knew James but he did not know that it was his dog that he was so kind to.

One day these two little boys were walking together & they saw the little dog. Henry went up to it & gave it some bread that he had brought out with him. James said, “Why do you play with that little ugly thing?”

“I think that it is very pretty, do you know who it belongs to?”

“Yes it belongs to me,” said James.

“Oh I did not think you were so cruel as to let it go without food so long.”

“Cruel”, said James.

“You pretend to be very humane but I can tell you, I think you are very silly.”

James went to hit Henry but the dog seeing him jumped up & bit him so as to make him cry out. Henry was sorry for him but could not help thinking he deserved it. When they got home James Papa saw that he had been crying & asked him what was the matter. He did not answer for he knew it would be wrong to tell a story & he did not like to tell the truth. So M^r Hickins (that was the name of James’s Papa) asked Henry.

“The dog bit him sir,” answered Henry.

“What dog?”

“His own.”

“Did he do anything to it?”

“No, he did nothing to the dog.”

“What made the dog bite him then?”

“Why,” said Henry, “he struck me.”

“Then he deserves it,” said M^r Hickins, “& I am very angry with him.”

M^rs Hickins now came in & said “My dear M^r Hickins, I have had such a bad account of our son.”

“What have you heard?” asked he.

“Oh he has left poor little Brisky without food for I do not know how long. A good little boy has fed it a little to keep it from starving.”

“Oh,” cried James, “it was Henry.”

“Then he shall have your dog.”

“Thank you, & when he is quite fat I will give him back to James & then I think he will be kind to it.” Henry kept it & when it was fat James had it again.

You will be glad to hear James was never afterwards known to be cruel to dogs.

There was once a little boy whose name was George. He had always been very fond of monkeys & when he went to London he bought one. He kept it in a cage & fed it every day. He taught it many funny tricks.

He had some clothes made for him. One day a party came there & Pug came in, jumped on the table & began to eat like one of the company. The Gentlemen all laughed very much but the Ladies said they were quite disgusted; some even took their bonnets & walked home.

This put George quite in a passion & he said that he would put it into the room where the most affected of the Ladies was, so after he took the Monkey under his arm to one of the Ladies houses & put it in.

The Lady jumped up & ran away; he sent it after her. It jumped on her back & tore her fine gown. She did not put on her bonnet in her hurry so Pug pulled her hair which made her cry out & all the people came running out of the town & they all laughed very much to see so fine a lady with a monkey on her back. George took the monkey away for he only meant to frighten her. Very mischievous of him was not it? Yes but if she had not been so foolish it would not have happened.

Mary Phelps 1822 - 1896 and Anne Evans 1820 - 1870 were first cousins. Mary, whose home was in Madeira, was living (for health reasons) with her aunt and uncle at Market Bosworth. Her uncle, Arthur Benoni Evans 1781 - 1854, was headmaster of the Market Bosworth (boys only) Grammar School. Girls did not attend the school but this did not stop them from learning Latin and Greek, the arts and being proficient writers in English. Put in another way, Arthur Benoni Evans, a kind man and great educationist, was happy to teach his daughters and niece.

The books were handmade in 1833 by the girls and measure 10cm x 14cm.