Unknown author 9 min read

In this quaint old penny-book fable, a solemn court is convened to try an ox that has killed a man, a whimsical morality tale dressed as a courtroom drama for children.

This anonymous 1850 chapbook is a charming Victorian penny-book fable for children. Quaint, moralizing, historically rare. Read it for a delightful artifact of early children's publishing, a droll little illustrated tale, sold for a penny at Banbury, that puts an animal on trial to teach its young readers a gentle lesson.

In its time

Published in 1850, during the 1850s, fairy tale and moral fantasy for a mass reading public; the sensation novel stirs.

Reading it

9 min read (a short story, a single idea, delivered and gone).