Cruel Fred

Four different children--three boys and one girl--with severe character defects are taught the error of their ways over the course of three or four pages of verse for each of them. Every page includes a humorous illustration to accompany the verse. While two of them learn their lesson, reform their ways, and live happily ever after, the other two are punished rather dramatically by modern standards--one of them eaten by wolves and the other by "birds of prey."

Originally published in 1855 b...