Children’s catechisms

A few entries from the 1899 ABCs for Baby Patriots .

C is for colonies

Rightly we boast,

That of all the great nations

Great Britain has the most.

D is for daring

We show in the field

Which makes every enemy

Vanish or yield.

E is for empire

Where sun never sets;

The larger we make it

The bigger it gets.

Not to be outdone, one Thomas Stevens wrote a Babes of the Empire: An Alphabet for Young England , which begins:

A is an Australian born in the bush,

An A.1 ally when it comes to a push.

He can ride well and choose; his gun and his horse

Are the flower of the Empire’s irregular force.