Kas dar įdomiau, beveik visos istorijos tuose skaitiniuose buvo moralizuojančios ir pamokomos. Ištisos kartos mokėsi iš tų knygų - ir kartu išmokdavo ne tik gramatiką bei kalbą, bet ir tai kaip elgtis įvairiose situacijose, apie gerą elgesį, manieras ir pan. McGuffey skaitiniai buvo naudojami ir aristokratų, ir pačių šviežiausių imigrantų - ir tas anot kai kurių sociologų visoje šalyje sukūrė vientisą moralinę sistemą kuri skatino pasitikėjimą ir bendras vertybes ir iš dalies padarė JAV labai sėkminga šalimi.
Pabaigai - pamokoma istorija iš ketvirtojo McGuffey reader:
XVV. HARRY'S RICHES.
1. One day, our little Harry spent the morning with his
young playmate, Johnny Crane, who lived in a fine house, and
on Sundays rode to church in the grandest carriage to be seen
in all the country round.
2. When Harry returned home, he said, "Mother, Johnny
has money in both pockets!"
3. "Has he, dear?"
4. "Yes, ma'am; and he says he could get ever so much
more if he wanted it."
5. "Well, now, that's very pleasant for him," I returned,
cheerfully, as a reply was plainly expected. "Very pleasant;
don't you think so?"
6. "Yes, ma'am; only--"
7. "Only what, Harry?"
8. "Why, he has a big popgun, and a watch, and a
hobbyhorse, and lots of things." And Harry looked up at my
face with a disconsolate stare.
9. "Well, my boy, what of that?"
10. "Nothing, mother," and the telltale tears sprang to his
eyes, "only I guess we are very poor, aren't we?"
11. "No, indeed, Harry, we are very far from being poor.
We are not so rich as Mr. Crane's family, if that is what you
mean."
12. "O mother!" insisted the little fellow, "I do think we are
very poor; anyhow, I am!"
13. "O Harry!" I exclaimed, reproachfully.
14. "Yes, ma'am I am," he sobbed; "I have scarcely any
thing--I mean anything that's worth money--except things to
eat and wear, and I'd have to have them anyway."
15. "Have to have them?" I echoed, at the same time laying
my sewing upon the table, so that I might reason with him on
that point; "do you not know, my son--"
16. Just then Uncle Ben looked up from the paper he had
been reading: "Harry," said he, "I want to find out something
about eyes; so, if you will let me have yours, I will give you a
dollar apiece for them."
17. "For my eyes!" exclaimed Harry, very much astonished.
18. "Yes," resumed Uncle Ben, quietly, "for your eyes. I
will give you chloroform, so it will not hurt you in the least,
and you shall have a beautiful glass pair for nothing, to wear
in their place. Come, a dollar apiece, cash down! What do you
say? I will take them out as quick as a wink."
19. "Give you my eyes, uncle!" cried Harry, looking wild at
the very thought, "I think not." And the startled little fellow
shook his head defiantly.
20. "Well, five, ten, twenty dollars, then." Harry shook his
head at every offer.
21. "No, sir! I wouldn't let you have them for a thousand
dollars! What could I do without my eyes? I couldn't see
mother, nor the baby, nor the flowers, nor the horses, nor
anything," added Harry, growing warmer and warmer.
22. "I will give you two thousand," urged Uncle Ben,
taking a roll of bank notes out of his pocket. Harry, standing
at a respectful distance, shouted that he never would do any
such thing.
23. "Very well," continued the uncle, with a serious air, at
the same time writing something in his notebook, "I can't
afford to give you more than two
thousand dollars, so I shall have to do without your eyes; but,"
he added, "I will tell you what I will do, I will give you twenty
dollars if you will let me put a few drops from this bottle in
your ears. It will not hurt, but it will make you deaf. I want to
try some experiments with deafness, you see. Come quickly,
now! Here are the twenty dollars all ready for you."
24. "Make me deaf!" shouted Harry, without even looking
at the gold pieces temptingly displayed upon the table. "I
guess you will not do that, either. Why, I couldn't hear a single
word if I were deaf, could I?"
25. "Probably not," replied Uncle Ben. So, of course, Harry
refused again. He would never give up his hearing, he said,
"no, not for three thousand dollars."
26. Uncle Ben made another note in his book, and then
came out with large bids for "a right arm," then "left arm,"
"hands," "feet," "nose," finally ending with an offer of ten
thousand dollars for "mother," and five thousand for "the
baby."
27. To all of these offers Harry shook his head, his eyes
flashing, and exclamations of surprise and indignation
bursting from his lips. At last, Uncle Ben said he must give up
his experiments, for Harry's prices were entirely too high.
28. "Ha! ha!" laughed the boy, exultingly, and he folded his
dimpled arms and looked as if to say, "I'd like to see the man
who could pay them!"
29. "Why, Harry, look here!" exclaimed Uncle Ben,
peeping into his notebook, "here is a big addition sum, I tell
you!" He added the numbers, and they amounted to thirty-two
thousand dollars.
30. "There, Harry," said Uncle Ben, "don't you think you
are foolish not to accept some of my offers?" "No, sir, I don't,"
answered Harry, resolutely. "Then," said Uncle Ben, "you talk
of being poor, and by your own showing you have treasures
for which you will not take thirty-two thousand dollars. What
do you say to that?"
31. Harry didn't know exactly what to say. So he blushed
for a second, and just then tears came rolling down his cheeks,
and he threw his chubby arms around my neck. "Mother," he
whispered, "isn't God good to make everybody so rich?"
