Learning the alphabet went hand in hand with learning Calvinist principles in early America. The phrase “In Adam’s fall, we sinned all,” taught children the first letter of the alphabet and the concept of original sin at the same time. More than 6 million copies in 450 editions of the New England Primer were printed between 1681 and 1830 and were a part of nearly every child’s life. The illustration for the letter C in this 1803 edition, in which a cat plays a fiddle as mice dance, gives us a hint of the sense of humor of the times.