1. The Squirrel on a Golden Chain:
Pet Making, Self-Mastery, and
Enlightenment Boyhood
SPENCER D. C. KERALIS
DIRECTOR FOR DIGITAL SCHOLARSHIP | RESEARCH ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR
UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS
DIGITAL SCHOLARSHIP CO-OPERATIVE
SPENCER.KERALIS@UNT.EDU
@HAUNTOLOGIST

2. Boy with a
Squirrel (Henry
Pelham)
John Singleton
Copley, 1765

3. Rebecca Orne
(Mrs. Joseph
Cabot)
Joseph Badger, 1757

4. Sanders’
Pictorial
Primer: or An
Introduction
to “Sanders’
First Reader.”
W. & J. C. Sanders.
(New York: Ivison &
Phinney, 178 Fulton
Street, 1846).

5. Reward of
Merit, 1833
American Broadsides
and Ephemera, Series 1,
no. 17782

6. Now as nuts and almonds are
The infant’s
progress, from hidden under rough shells, and as
the valley of honey is concealed in the bells and
destruction, to cups of flowers; so there is a hidden
everlasting meaning in every part of my
glory.
allegory, which I hope you will be
Mrs Sherwood (Mary
Martha). (Boston:
enabled to draw forth for your
Published by Samuel T. profit.
Armstrong, and Crocker
& Brewster, no 50,
Cornhill., 1821)

7. Nuts for Boys to
Crack
John Todd. (New York:
American Tract Society,
1866)

9. “The Cat doth
play
and after slay”
The New-England
Primer (1727)

10. Lessons for Where is puss?
Children, From Puss is got under the table.
Two to Four You cannot catch puss.
Years Old
Do not pull her by the tail, you hurt her.
Anna Laetitia
Barbauld, 1779 Stroke poor puss. You stroke her the wrong
way. This is the right way.
But puss, why did you kill the rabbit?
You must catch mice, you must not kill
rabbits.
Well, what do you say, did you kill the
rabbit?
Why do you not speak, puss?
Puss cannot speak.

11. Lessons for Do you know why you are better than Puss?
Children, From Puss can play as well as you; and Puss can
Two to Four drink milk, and lie upon the carpet; and she
Years Old can run as fast as you, and faster too, a great
Anna Laetitia Barbauld,
deal; and she can climb trees better; and she
1779 can catch mice, which you cannot do. But
can Puss talk? No. Can Puss read? No. Then
that is the reason why you are better than
Puss — because you can talk and read. Can
Pompey, your dog, read? No. Will you teach
him? Take the pin and point out to the
words. No — he will not learn. I never saw a
dog or cat learn to read. But little boys can
learn. If you do not learn, Charles, you are
not good for half as much as a Puss. You
had better be drowned.

12. I cannot but commend … a mother I
knew, who was wont always to indulge her
Some Thoughts
Concerning daughters when any of them desired
Education dogs, squirrels, birds, or any such things, as
young girls use to be delighted with; but
John Locke, 1693
then when they had them, they must be sure
to keep them well and look diligently after
them, that they wanted nothing, or were not
ill used.

13. The Stages of
Cruelty
William Hogarth. The
Works of William
Hogarth. (London:
William Hogarth, 1735)
While various Scenes of sportive Woe,
The Infant Race employ,
And tortur'd Victims bleeding shew,
The Tyrant in the Boy.
Behold! a Youth of gentler Heart,
To spare the Creature's pain,
O take, he cries—take all my Tart,
But Tears and Tart are vain.
Learn from this fair Example—You
Whom savage Sports delight,
How Cruelty disgusts the view,
While Pity charms the sight.

15. Daniel
Crommelin
Verplanck
John Singleton
Copley, 1771.