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+Project Gutenberg's The Art of the Story-Teller, by Marie L. Shedlock
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+Title: The Art of the Story-Teller
+
+Author: Marie L. Shedlock
+
+Release Date: June, 2004 [EBook #5957]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on September 29, 2002]
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+Edition: 10
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+Language: English
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+Character set encoding: ASCII
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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ART OF THE STORY-TELLER ***
+
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+This etext was created by Doug Levy, _literra scripta manet_.
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+
+ART OF THE STORY-TELLER, by MARIE L. SHEDLOCK
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+Some day we shall have a science of education comparable to the
+science of medicine; but even when that day arrives the art of
+education will still remain the inspiration and the guide of all
+wise teachers.  The laws that regulate our physical and mental
+development will be reduced to order; but the impulses which lead
+each new generation to play its way into possession of all that
+is best in life will still have to be interpreted for us by the
+artists who, with the wisdom of years, have not lost the direct
+vision of children.
+
+Some years ago I heard Miss Shedlock tell stories in England.  Her
+fine sense of literary and dramatic values, her power in sympathetic
+interpretation, always restrained within the limits of the art she was
+using, and her understanding of educational values, based on a wide
+experience of teaching, all marked her as an artist in story-telling.
+She was equally at home in interpreting the subtle blending of wit and
+wisdom in Daudet, the folk lore philosophy of Grimm, or the deeper
+world philosophy and poignant human appeal of Hans Christian Andersen.
+
+Then she came to America and for two or three years she taught us the
+difference between the nightingale that sings in the tree tops and the
+artificial bird that goes with a spring.  Cities like New York, Boston,
+Pittsburgh and Chicago listened and heard, if sometimes indistinctly,
+the notes of universal appeal, and children saw the Arabian Nights
+come true.
+
+Yielding to the appeals of her friends in America and England, Miss
+Shedlock has put together in this little book such observations and
+suggestions on story-telling as can be put in words.  Those who have
+the artist's spirit will find their sense of values quickened by her
+words, and they will be led to escape some of the errors into which
+even the greatest artists fall.  And even those who tell stories with
+their minds will find in these papers wise generalizations and
+suggestions born of wide experience and extended study which well go
+far towards making even an artificial nightingale's song less
+mechanical.  To those who know, the book is a revelation of the
+intimate relation between a child's instincts and the finished art of
+dramatic presentation.  To those who do not know it will bring echoes
+of reality.
+            Earl Barnes.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+PART I.  THE ART OF STORY-TELLING.
+
+  CHAPTER.
+
+    I.   THE DIFFICULTIES OF THE STORY.
+    II.  THE ESSENTIALS OF THE STORY.
+    III. THE ARTIFICES OF STORY-TELLING.
+    IV.  ELEMENTS TO AVOID IN SELECTION OF MATERIAL.
+    V.   ELEMENTS TO SEEK IN THE CHOICE OF MATERIAL.
+    VI.  HOW TO OBTAIN AND MAINTAIN THE EFFECT OF THE STORY.
+    VII. QUESTIONS ASKED BY TEACHERS.
+
+
+PART II.  THE STORIES.
+
+    STURLA, THE HISTORIAN.
+    A SAGA.
+    THE LEGEND OF ST. CHRISTOPHER.
+    ARTHUR IN THE CAVE.
+    HAFIZ, THE STONE-CUTTER.
+    TO YOUR GOOD HEALTH.
+    THE PROUD COCK.
+    SNEGOURKA.
+    THE WATER NIXIE.
+    THE BLUE ROSE.
+    THE TWO FROGS.
+    THE WISE OLD SHEPHERD.
+    THE FOLLY OF PANIC.
+    THE TRUE SPIRIT OF A FESTIVAL DAY.
+    FILIAL PIETY.
+
+  THREE STORIES FROM HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN.
+    THE SWINEHERD.
+    THE NIGHTINGALE.
+    THE PRINCESS AND THE PEA.
+
+
+PART III.  LIST OF STORIES.  BOOKS SUGGESTED TO THE STORY-TELLER AND
+                BOOKS REFERRED TO IN THE LIST  OF STORIES.
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION.
+
+
+Story-telling is almost the oldest art in the world--the first
+conscious form of literary communication.  In the East it still
+survives, and it is not an uncommon thing to see a crowd at a street
+corner held by the simple narration of a story.  There are signs in
+the West of a growing interest in this ancient art, and we may yet
+live to see the renaissance of the troubadours and the minstrels whose
+appeal will then rival that of the mob orator or itinerant politician.
+One of the surest signs of a belief in the educational power of the
+story is its introduction into the curriculum of the training-college
+and the classes of the elementary and secondary schools.  It is just
+at the time when the imagination is most keen, the mind being
+unhampered by accumulation of facts, that stories appeal most vividly
+and are retained for all time.
+
+It is to be hoped that some day stories will be told to school groups
+only by experts who have devoted special time and preparation to the
+art of telling them.  It is a great fallacy to suppose that the
+systematic study of story-telling destroys the spontaneity of
+narrative.  After a long experience, I find the exact converse to be
+true, namely, that it is only when one has overcome the mechanical
+difficulties that one can "let one's self go" in the dramatic interest
+of the story.
+
+By the expert story-teller I do not mean the professional elocutionist.
+The name, wrongly enough, has become associated in the mind of the
+public with persons who beat their breast, tear their hair, and declaim
+blood-curdling episodes.  A decade or more ago, the drawing-room reciter
+was of this type, and was rapidly becoming the bugbear of social
+gatherings.  The difference between the stilted reciter and the simple
+story-teller is perhaps best illustrated by an episode in Hans Christian
+Andersen's immortal "Story of the Nightingale."  The real Nightingale
+and the artificial Nightingale have been bidden by the Emperor to unite
+their forces and to sing a duet at a Court function. The duet turns out
+most disastrously, and while the artificial Nightingale is singing his
+one solo for the thirty-third time, the real Nightingale flies out of
+the window back to the green wood--a true artist, instinctively choosing
+his right atmosphere.  But the bandmaster--symbol of the pompous
+pedagogue--in trying to soothe the outraged feelings of the courtiers,
+says, "Because, you see, Ladies and Gentlemen, and above all, Your
+Imperial Majesty, with the real nightingale you never can tell what you
+will hear, but in the artificial nightingale everything is decided
+beforehand.  So it is, and so it must remain.  It cannot be otherwise."
+
+And as in the case of the two nightingales, so it is with the stilted
+reciter and the simple narrator: one is busy displaying the machinery,
+showing "how the tunes go"; the other is anxious to conceal the art.
+Simplicity should be the keynote of story-telling, but (and her the
+comparison with the nightingale breaks down) it is a simplicity which
+comes after much training in self-control, and much hard work in
+overcoming the difficulties which beset the presentation.
+
+I do not mean that there are not born story-tellers who _could_ hold an
+audience without preparation, but they are so rare in number that we can
+afford to neglect them in our general consideration, for this work is
+dedicated to the average story-tellers anxious to make the best use of
+their dramatic ability, and it is to them that I present my plea for
+special study and preparation before telling a story to a group of
+children--that is, if they wish for the far-reaching effects I shall
+speak of later on.  Only the preparation must be of a much less
+stereotyped nature than that by which the ordinary reciters are trained
+for their career.
+
+Some years ago, when I was in America, I was asked to put into the
+form of lectures my views as to the educational value of telling
+stories. A sudden inspiration seized me.  I began to cherish a dream
+of long hours to be spent in the British Museum, the Congressional
+Library in Washington and the Public Library in Boston--and this
+is the only portion of the dream which has been realized.  I planned
+an elaborate scheme of research work which was to result in a
+magnificent (if musty) philological treatise.  I thought of trying to
+discover by long and patient researches what species of lullaby were
+crooned by Egyptian mothers to their babes, and what were the
+elementary dramatic poems in vogue among Assyrian nursemaids which
+were the prototypes of "Little Jack Horner," "Dickory, Dickory Dock"
+and other nursery classics.  I intended to follow up the study of
+these ancient documents by making an appendix of modern variants,
+showing what progress we had made--if any--among modern nations.
+
+But there came to me suddenly one day the remembrance of a scene from
+Racine's "Plaideurs," in which the counsel for the defence, eager to
+show how fundamental his knowledge, begins his speech: "Before the
+Creation of the World"--And the Judge (with a touch of weariness
+tempered by humor) suggests:
+
+"Let us pass on to the Deluge."
+
+And thus I, too, have passed on to the Deluge.  I have abandoned an
+account of the origin and past of stories which at best would only
+have displayed a little recently acquired book knowledge.  When I
+thought of the number of scholars who could treat this part of the
+question infinitely better than myself, I realized how much wiser it
+would be--though the task is more humdrum--to deal with the present
+possibilities of story-telling for our generation of parents
+and teachers.
+
+My objects in urging the use of stories in the education of children
+are at least fivefold:
+
+First, to give them dramatic joy, for which they have a natural
+craving; to develop a sense of humor, which is really a sense of
+proportion; to correct certain tendencies by showing the consequences
+in the career of the hero in the story [Of this motive the children
+must be quite unconscious and there should be no didactic emphasis];
+to present by means of example, not precept, such ideals as will
+sooner or later be translated into action; and finally, to develop the
+imagination, which really includes all the other points.
+
+But the art of story-telling appeals not only to the educational world
+and to parents as parents, but also to a wider public interested in
+the subject from a purely human point of view.
+
+In contrast to the lofty scheme I had originally proposed to myself, I
+now simply place before all those who are interested in the art of
+story-telling in any form the practical experiences I have had in my
+travels in America and England.
+
+I hope that my readers may profit by my errors, improve on my methods,
+and thus help to bring about the revival of an almost lost art.
+
+In Sir Philip Sydney's "Defence of Poesie: we find these words:
+
+"Forsooth he cometh to you with a tale, which holdeth children from
+play, and old men from the chimney-corner, and pretending no more,
+doth intend the winning of the mind from wickedness to virtue even as
+the child is often brought to take most wholesome things by hiding them
+in such other as have a pleasant taste."
+
+                                         MARIE L. SHEDLOCK, LONDON.
+
+
+
+
+PART I.  THE ART OF THE STORY-TELLER.
+
+
+CHAPTER I.  THE DIFFICULTIES OF THE STORY.
+
+I propose to deal in this chapter with the difficulties or dangers
+which beset the path of the story-teller, because, until we have
+overcome these, we cannot hope to bring out the full value of the
+story.
+
+The difficulties are many, and yet they ought not to discourage the
+would-be narrators, but only show them how all-important is the
+preparation for the story, if it is to have the desired effect.
+
+I propose to illustrate by concrete examples, thereby serving a
+twofold purpose: one to fix the subject more clearly in the mind of
+the student, the other to use the art of story-telling to explain
+itself.
+
+I have chosen one or two instances from my own personal experience.
+The grave mistakes made in my own case may serve as a warning to
+others who will find, however, that experience is the best teacher.
+For positive work, in the long run, we generally find out our own
+method.  On the negative side, however, it is useful to have certain
+pitfalls pointed out to us, in order that we may save time by avoiding
+them.  It is for this reason that I sound a note of warning.
+
+1.  There is _the danger of side issues_.  An inexperienced story-teller
+is exposed to the temptation of breaking off from the main dramatic
+interest in a short exciting story in order to introduce a side issue
+which is often interesting and helpful but which must be left for a
+longer and less dramatic story.  If the interest turns on some dramatic
+moment, the action must be quick and uninterrupted, or it will lose half
+its effect.
+
+I had been telling a class of young children the story of Polyphemus
+and Ulysses, and just at the most dramatic moment in the story some
+impulse for which I cannot account prompted me to go off on a side
+issue to describe the personal appearance of Ulysses.
+
+The children were visibly bored, but with polite indifference they
+listened to my elaborate description of the hero.  If I had given them
+an actual description from Homer, I believe that the strength of the
+language would have appealed to their imagination (all the more
+strongly because the might not have understood the individual words)
+and have lessened their disappointment at the dramatic issue being
+postponed; but I trusted to my own lame verbal efforts, and signally
+failed.  Attention flagged, fidgeting began, the atmosphere was
+rapidly becoming spoiled in spit of the patience and toleration still
+shown by the children.  At last, however, one little girl in the front
+row, as spokeswoman for the class, suddenly said: "If you please,
+before you go on any further, do you mind telling us whether, after
+all, that Poly . . . [slight pause] . . . that . . . [final attempt]
+. . . _Polyanthus_ died?"
+
+Now, the remembrance of this question has been of extreme use to me in
+my career as a story-teller.  I have realized that in a short dramatic
+story the mind of the listeners must be set at ease with regard to
+the ultimate fate of the special Polyanthus who takes the center of
+the stage.
+
+I remember, too, the despair of a little boy at a dramatic
+representation of "Little Red Riding-Hood," when that little person
+delayed the thrilling catastrophe with the Wolf, by singing a pleasant
+song on her way through the wood. "Oh, why," said the little boy,
+"does she not get on?"  And I quite shared his impatience.
+
+This warning is necessary only in connection with the short dramatic
+narrative.  There are occasions when we can well afford to offer short
+descriptions for the sake of literary style, and for the purpose of
+enlarging the vocabulary of the child.  I have found, however, in
+these cases, it is well to take the children into your confidence,
+warning them that they are to expect nothing particularly exciting in
+the way of dramatic event.  They will then settle down with a freer
+mind (though the mood may include a touch of resignation) to the
+description you are about to offer them.
+
+2.  _Altering the story to suit special occasions_ is done  sometimes
+from extreme conscientiousness, sometimes from sheer ignorance of the
+ways of children.  It is the desire to protect them from knowledge which
+they already possess and with which they, equally conscientious, are apt
+to "turn and rend" the narrator.  I remember once when I was telling the
+story of the Siege of Troy to very young children, I suddenly felt
+anxious lest there should be anything in the story of the rape of Helen
+not altogether suitable for the average age of the class, namely, nine
+years.  I threw, therefore, a domestic coloring over the whole subject
+and presented an imaginary conversation between Paris and Helen, in
+which Paris tried to persuade Helen that she was strong-minded woman
+thrown away on a limited society in Sparta, and that she should come
+away and visit some of the institutions of the world with him, which
+would doubtless prove a mutually instructive journey.[1]  I then gave
+the children the view taken by Herodotus that Helen never went to Troy,
+but was detained in Egypt.  The children were much thrilled by the
+story, and responded most eagerly when, in my inexperience, I invited
+them to reproduce in writing for the next day the story I had just told
+them.  A small child presented _me_, as you will see, with the ethical
+problem from which I had so laboriously protected _her_.  The essay ran:
+
+
+  Once upon a time the King of Troy's son was called Paris.  And he
+  went over to _Greace_ to see what it was like.  And here he saw the
+  beautiful Helen_er,_ and likewise her husband Menela_yus_.  And one
+  day, Menelayus went out hunting, and left Paris and Helener alone,
+  and Paris said: "Do you not feel _dul_ in this _palis_?"_[2] And
+  Helener said: "I feel very dull in this _pallice_," and Paris said:
+  "Come away and see the world with me."  So they _sliped_ off together,
+  and they came to the King of Egypt, and _he_ said: "Who _is_ the
+  young lady"?  So Paris told him.  "But," said the King, "it is not
+  _propper_ for you to go off with other people's _wifes_.  So Helener
+  shall stop here."  Paris stamped his foot.  When Menelayus got home,
+  _he_ stamped his foot.  And he called round him all his soldiers,
+  and they stood round Troy for eleven years.  At last they thought it
+  was no use _standing_ any longer, so they built a wooden horse in
+  memory of Helener and the Trojans and it was taken into the town.
+
+
+Now, the mistake I made in my presentation was to lay any particular
+stress on the reason for elopement by my careful readjustment, which
+really called more attention to the episode than was necessary for
+the age of my audience; and evidently caused confusion in the minds
+of some of the children who knew the story in its more accurate
+original form.
+
+While traveling in America, I was provided with a delightful appendix
+to this story.  I had been telling Miss Longfellow and her sister the
+little girl's version of the Siege of Troy, and Mrs. Thorpe made the
+following comment, with the American humor the dryness of which adds
+so much to its value:
+
+"I never realized before," she said, "how glad the Greeks must have
+been to sit down even inside a horse, when they had been standing for
+eleven years."
+
+3.  _The danger of introducing unfamiliar words_ is the very opposite
+danger of the one to which I have just alluded; it is the taking for
+granted that children are acquainted with the meaning of certain words
+upon which turns some important point in the story.  We must not
+introduce, without at least a passing explanation, words which, if not
+rightly understood, would entirely alter the picture we wish to present.
+
+I had once promised to tell stories to an audience of Irish peasants,
+and I should like to state here that, though my travels have brought
+me in touch with almost every kind of audience, I have never found one
+where the atmosphere is so "self-prepared" as in that of a group of
+Irish peasants.  To speak to them, especially on the subject of fairy-
+tales, is like playing on a delicate harp: the response is so quick
+and the sympathy so keen.  Of course, the subject of fairy-tales is
+one which is completely familiar to them and comes into their everyday
+life.  They have a feeling of awe with regard to fairies, which is
+very deep in some parts of Ireland.
+
+On this particular occasion I had been warned by an artist friend who
+had kindly promised to sing songs between the stories, that my
+audience would be of varying age and almost entirely illiterate.  Many
+of the older men and women, who could neither read nor write, had
+never been beyond their native village.  I was warned to be very
+simple in my language and to explain any difficult words which might
+occur in the particular Indian story I had chosen for that night,
+namely, "The Tiger, the Jackal and the Brahman."[3]--at a proper
+distance, however, lest the audience should class him with the wild
+animals.  I then went on with my story, in the course of which I
+mentioned a buffalo.  In spite of the warning I had received, I found
+it impossible not to believe that the name of this animal would be
+familiar to any audience.  I, therefore, went on with the sentence
+containing this word, and ended it thus: "And then the Brahman went a
+little further and met an old buffalo turning a wheel."
+
+The next day, while walking down the village street, I entered into
+conversation with a thirteen-year-old girl who had been in my audience
+the night before and who began at once to repeat in her own words the
+Indian story in questions.  When she came to the particular sentence I
+have just quoted, I was greatly startled to hear _her_ version, which
+ran thus: "And the priest went on a little further, and he met another
+old gentleman pushing a wheelbarrow."  I stopped her at once, and not
+being able to identify the sentence as part of the story I had told, I
+questioned her a little more closely.  I found that the word "buffalo,"
+had evidently conveyed to her mind an old "buffer" whose name was "Lo,"
+probably taken to be an Indian form of appellation, to be treated with
+tolerance though it might not be Irish in sound.  Then, not knowing of
+any wheel more familiarly than that attached to a barrow, the young
+narrator completed the picture in her own mind--but which, one must
+admit, had lost something of the Indian atmosphere which I had
+intended to gather about.
+
+4.  _The danger of claiming cooperation of the class by means of
+questions_ is more serious for the teacher than the child, who
+rather enjoys the process and displays a fatal readiness to give any
+sort of answer if only he can play a part in the conversation.  If we
+could in any way depend on the children giving the kind of answer we
+expect, all might go well and the danger would be lessened; but
+children have a perpetual way of frustrating our hopes in this
+direction, and of landing us in unexpected bypaths from which it is
+not always easy to return to the main road without a very violent
+reaction.  As illustrative of this, I quote from the "The Madness of
+Philip," by Josephine Daskam Bacon, a truly delightful essay on child
+psychology in the guise of the lightest of stories.
+
+The scene takes place in a kindergarten, where a bold and fearless
+visitor has undertaken to tell a story on the spur of the moment to a
+group of restless children.
+
+She opens thus:
+
+"Yesterday, children, as I came out of my yard, what do you think
+I saw?"
+
+The elaborately concealed surprise in store was so obvious that
+Marantha rose to the occasion and suggested, "An el'phunt."
+
+"Why, no.  Why should I see an elephant in my yard?  It was not
+_nearly_ so big as that--it was a little thing."
+
+"A fish," ventured Eddy Brown, whose eye fell upon the aquarium in the
+corner.  The raconteuse smiled patiently.
+
+"Now, how could a fish, a live fish, get into my front yard?"
+
+"A dead fish," says Eddy.
+
+He had never been known to relinquish voluntarily an idea.
+
+"No; it was a little kitten," said the story-teller decidedly.  "A
+little white kitten.  She was standing right near a big puddle of
+water. Now, what else do you think I saw?"
+
+"Another kitten," suggests Marantha, conservatively.
+
+"No; it was a big Newfoundland dog.  He saw the little kitten near the
+water.  Now, cats don't like water, do they?  What do they like?"
+
+"Mice," said Joseph Zukoffsky abruptly.
+
+"Well, yes, they do; but there were no mice in my yard.  I'm sure you
+know what I mean.  If they don't like _water_, _what_ do they like?"
+
+"Milk," cried Sarah Fuller confidently.
+
+"They like a dry place," said Mrs. R. B. Smith.  "Now, what do you
+suppose the dog did?"
+
+It may be that successive failures had disheartened the listeners.
+Itmay be that the very range of choice presented to them and the
+dog alike dazzled their imagination.  At all events, they made
+no answer.
+
+"Nobody knows what the dog did?" repeated the story-teller
+encouragingly.  "What would you do if you saw a little kitten
+like that?"
+
+And Philip remarked gloomily:
+
+"I'd pull its tail."
+
+"And what do the rest of you think?  I hope you are not as cruel as
+that little boy."
+
+A jealous desire to share Philip's success prompted the quick response:
+
+"I'd pull it too."
+
+Now, the reason of the total failure of this story was the inability
+to draw any real response from the children, partly because of the
+hopeless vagueness of the questions, partly because, there being no
+time for reflection, children say the first thing that comes into
+their heads without any reference to their real thoughts on the subject.
+
+I cannot imagine anything less like the enlightened methods of the
+best kindergarten teaching.  Had Mrs. R. B. Smith been a real, and not
+a fictional, person, it would certainly have been her last appearance
+as a raconteuse in this educational institution.
+
+5.  _The difficulty of gauging the effect of a story upon the
+audience_ rises from lack of observation and experience; it is the
+want of these qualities which leads to the adoption of such a method
+as I have just presented.  We learn in time that want of expression on
+the faces of the audience and want of any kind of external response do
+not always mean either lack of interest or attention.  There is often
+real interest deep down, but no power, or perhaps no wish, to display
+that interest, which is deliberately concealed at times so as to
+protect oneself from questions which may be put.
+
+6.  _The danger of overillustration_.  After long experience, and
+after considering the effect produced on children when pictures are
+shown to them during the narration, I have come to the conclusion that
+the appeal to the eye and the ear at the same time is of doubtful
+value, and has, generally speaking, a distracting effect: the
+concentration on one channel of communication attracts and holds the
+attention more completely.  I was confirmed in this theory when I
+addressed an audience of blind people[4] for the first time, and
+noticed how closely they attended, and how much easier it seemed to
+them because they were so completely "undistracted by the sights
+around them."
+
+I have often suggested to young teachers two experiments in support
+of this theory.  They are not practical experiments, nor could they
+be repeated often with the same audience, but they are intensely
+interesting, and they serve to show the _actual_ effect of appealing to
+one sense at a time.  The first of these experiments is to take a small
+group of children and suggest that they should close their eyes while
+you tell them a story.  You will then notice how much more attention is
+given to the intonation and inflection of the voice.  The reason is
+obvious.  With nothing to distract the attention, it is concentrated on
+the only thing offered the listeners, that is, sound, to enable them to
+seize the dramatic interest of the story.
+
+We find an example of the dramatic power of the voice in its appeal to
+the imagination in one of the tributes brought by an old pupil to
+Thomas Edward Brown, Master at Clifton College:
+
+"My earliest recollection is that his was the most vivid teaching I
+ever received; great width of view and poetical, almost passionate,
+power of presentment.  We were reading Froude's History, and I shall
+never forget how it was Brown's words, Brown's voice, not the
+historian's, that made me feel the great democratic function which the
+monasteries performed in England; the view became alive in his mouth."
+And in another passage: "All set forth with such dramatic force and
+aided by such a splendid voice, left an indelible impression on my
+mind."[5]
+
+A second experiment, and a much more subtle and difficult one, is to
+take the same group of children on another occasion, telling them a
+story in pantomime form, giving them first the briefest outline of the
+story. In this case it must be of the simplest construction, until the
+children are able, if you continue the experiment, to look for
+something more subtle.
+
+I have never forgotten the marvelous performance of a play given in
+London many years ago entirely in pantomime form.  The play was called
+"L'Enfant Prodigue," and was presented by a company of French artists.
+It would be almost impossible to exaggerate the strength of that
+"silent appeal" to the public.  One was so unaccustomed to reading
+meaning and development of character into gesture and facial expression
+that it was really a revelation to most of those present--certainly to
+all Anglo-Saxons.
+
+I cannot touch on this subject without admitting the enormous dramatic
+value connected with the cinematograph.  Though it can never take the
+place of an actual performance, whether in story form or on the stage,
+it has a real educational value in its possibilities of representation
+which it is difficult to overestimate, and I believe that its
+introduction into the school curriculum, under the strictest
+supervision, will be of extraordinary benefit.  The movement, in its
+present chaotic condition, and in the hands of commercial management,
+is more likely to stifle than to awaken or stimulate the imagination,
+but the educational world is fully alive to the danger, and I am
+convinced that in the future of the movement good will predominate.
+
+The real value of the cinematograph in connection with stories is that
+it provides the background that is wanting to the inner vision of the
+average child, and does not prevent its imagination from filling in
+the details later.  For instance, it would be quite impossible for the
+average child to get an idea from mere word-painting of the atmosphere
+of the polar regions as represented lately on the film in connection
+with Captain Scott's expedition, but any stories told later on about
+these regions would have an infinitely greater interest.
+
+There is, however, a real danger in using pictures to illustrate the
+story, especially if it be one which contains a direct appeal to the
+imagination of the child and one quite distinct from the stories which
+deal with facts, namely, that you force the whole audience of children
+to see the same picture, instead of giving each individual child the
+chance of making his own mental picture.  That is of far greater joy,
+and of much great educational value, since by this process the child
+cooperates with you instead of having all the work done for him.
+
+Queyrat, in his works on "La Logique chez l'Enfant," quotes Madame
+Necker de Saussure:[6] "To children and animals actual objects present
+themselves, not the terms of their manifestations.  For them thinking
+is seeing over again, it is going through the sensations that the real
+object would have produced.  Everything which goes on within them is
+in the form of pictures, or rather, inanimate scenes in which life is
+partially reproduced. . . . Since the child has, as yet, no capacity
+for abstraction, he finds a stimulating power in words and a
+suggestive inspiration which holds him enchanted.  They awaken vividly
+colored images, pictures far more brilliant than would be called into
+being by the objects themselves."
+
+Surely, if this be true, we are taking from children that rare power
+of mental visualization by offering to their outward vision an _actual_
+picture.
+
+I was struck with the following note by a critic of the _Outlook_,
+referring to a Japanese play but which bears quite directly on the
+subject in hand.
+
+"First, we should be inclined to put insistence upon appeal by
+_imagination_.  Nothing is built up by lath and canvas; everything
+has to be created by the poet's speech."
+
+He alludes to the decoration of one of the scenes which consists
+of three pines, showing what can be conjured up in the mind of
+the spectator.
+
+
+              Ah, yes.  Unfolding now before my eyes
+              The views I know: the Forest, River, Sea
+              And Mist--the scenes of Ono now expand.
+
+
+I have often heard objections raised to this theory by teachers
+dealing with children whose knowledge of objects outside their own
+circle is so scanty that words we use without a suspicion that they
+are unfamiliar are really foreign expressions to them.  Such words as
+sea, woods, fields, mountains, would mean nothing to them, unless some
+explanation were offered.  To these objections I have replied that
+where we are dealing with objects that can actually be seen with the
+bodily eyes, then it is quite legitimate to show pictures before you
+begin the story, so that the distraction between the actual and mental
+presentation may not cause confusion; but, as the foregoing example
+shows, we should endeavor to accustom the children to seeing much more
+than mere objects themselves, and in dealing with abstract qualities
+we must rely solely on the power and choice of words and dramatic
+qualities of presentation, and we need not feel anxious if the
+response is not immediate, nor even if it is not quick and eager.[7]
+
+7.  _The danger of obscuring the point of the story with too many
+details_ is not peculiar to teachers, nor is it shown only in the
+narrative form.  I have often heard really brilliant after-dinner
+stories marred by this defect.  One remembers the attempt made by
+Sancho Panza to tell a story to Don Quixote.  I have always felt a
+keen sympathy with the latter in his impatience over the recital.
+
+"In a village of Estramadura there was a shepherd--no, I mean a
+goatherd--which shepherd or goatherd as my story says, was called
+Lope Ruiz--and this Lope Ruiz was in love with a shepherdess
+called Torralva, who was daughter to a rich herdsman, and this rich
+herdsman---"
+
+"If this be thy story, Sancho," said Don Quixote, "thou wilt not have
+done these two days.  Tell it concisely, like a man of sense, or else
+say no more."
+
+"I tell it in the manner they tell all stories in my country,"
+answered Sancho, "and I cannot tell it otherwise, nor ought your
+Worship to require me to make new customs."
+
+"Tell it as thou wilt, then," said Don Quixote, "since it is the will
+of fate that I should here it, go on."
+
+Sancho continued:
+
+"He looked about him until he espied a fisherman with a boat near him,
+but so small that it could only hold one person and one goat.  The
+fisherman got into the boat and carried over on goat; he returned and
+carried another; he came back again and carried another.  Pray, sir,
+keep an account of the goats which the fisherman is carrying over, for
+if you lose count of a single one, the story ends, and it will be
+impossible to tell a word more. . . . I go on, then. . . . He returned
+for another goat, and another, and another and another---"
+
+"_Suppose_ them all carried over," said Don Quixote, "or thou wilt not
+have finished carrying them this twelve months!"
+
+"Tell me, how many have passed already?" said Sancho.
+
+"How should I know?" answered Don Quixote.
+
+"See there, now!  Did I not tell thee to keep an exact account?  There
+is an end of the story.  I can go no further."
+
+"How can this be?" said Don Quixote.  "Is it so essential to the story
+to know the exact number of goats that passed over, that if one error
+be made the story can proceed no further?"
+
+"Even so," said Sancho Panza.
+
+8.  _The danger of overexplanation_ is fatal to the artistic success of
+any story, but it is even more serious in connection with stories told
+from an educational point of view, because it hampers the imagination of
+the listener, and since the development of that faculty is one of our
+chief aims in telling these stories, we must leave free play, we must
+not test the effect, as I have said before, by the material method of
+asking questions.  My own experience is that the fewer explanations you
+offer, provided you have been careful with the choice of your material
+and artistic in the presentation, the more the child will supplement by
+his own thinking power what is necessary for the understanding of the story.
+
+Queyrat says: "A child has no need of seizing on the exact meaning of
+words; on the contrary, a certain lack of precision seems to stimulate
+his imagination only the more vigorously, since it gives him a broader
+liberty and firmer independence."[8]
+
+9.  _The danger of lowering the standard_ of the story in order to
+appeal to the undeveloped taste of the child is a special one.  I
+am alluding here only to the story which is presented from the
+educational point of view.  There are moments of relaxation in a
+child's life, as in that of an adult, when a lighter taste can be
+gratified.  I allude now to the standard of story for school purposes.
+
+There is one development of story-telling which seems to have been
+very little considered, either in America or in our own country,
+namely, the telling of stories to _old_ people, and that not only
+in institutions or in quiet country villages, but in the heart of the
+busy cities and in the homes of these old people.  How often, when the
+young people are able to enjoy outside amusements, the old people,
+necessarily confined to the chimney-corner and many unable to read
+much for themselves, might return to the joy of their childhood by
+hearing some of the old stories told them in dramatic form.  Here is
+a delightful occupation for those of the leisured class who have the
+gift, and a much more effective way of reading aloud.
+
+Lady Gregory, in talking to the workhouse folk in Ireland, was moved
+by the strange contrast between the poverty of the tellers and the
+splendors of the tale.  She says:
+
+"The stories they love are of quite visionary things; of swans that
+turn into kings' daughters, and of castles with crowns over the doors,
+and of lovers' flights on the backs of eagles, and music-loving
+witches, and journeys to the other world, and sleeps that last for
+seven hundred years."
+
+I fear it is only the Celtic imagination that will glory in such
+romantic material; but I am sure the men and women of the poorhouse
+are much more interested than we are apt to think in stories outside
+the small circle of their lives.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.  THE ESSENTIALS OF THE STORY.
+
+It would be a truism to suggest that dramatic instinct and dramatic
+power of expression are naturally the first essentials for success in
+the art of story-telling, and that, without these, no story-teller
+would go very far; but I maintain that, even with these gifts, no high
+standard of performance will be reached without certain other
+qualities, among the first of which I place _apparent_ simplicity,
+which is really the _art_ of concealing_ the art.
+
+I am speaking here of the public story-teller, or of the teacher with
+a group of children, not the spontaneous (and most rare) power of
+telling stories such as Beranger gives us in his poem, "Souvenirs du
+Peuple":
+
+
+                   Mes enfants, dans ce village,
+                   Suivi de rois, il passa;
+                   Voila; bien longtemps de cela!
+                   Je venais d'entrer en menage,
+                   A pied grimpant le coteau,
+                   Ou pour voir je m'tais mise.
+
+                   Il avait petit chapeau et redingote grise.
+                   Il me dit: Bon jour, ma chere.
+                   Il vous a parle, grand mere?
+                   Il vous a parle?
+
+
+I am skeptical enough to think that it is not the spontaneity of the
+grandmother but the art of Beranger which enhances the effect of the
+story told in the poem.
+
+This intimate form of narration, which is delightful in its special
+surroundings, would fail to _reach_, much less _hold_, a large audience,
+not because of its simplicity, but often because of the want of skill in
+arranging material and of the artistic sense of selection which brings
+the interest to a focus and arranges the side lights.  In short, the
+simplicity we need for the ordinary purpose is that which comes from
+ease and produces a sense of being able to let ourselves go, because we
+have thought out our effects.  It is when we translate our instinct into
+art that the story becomes finished and complete.
+
+I find it necessary to emphasize this point because people are apt to
+confuse simplicity of delivery with carelessness of utterance, loose
+stringing of sentences of which the only connections seem to be the
+ever-recurring use of "and" and "so," and "er . . .," this latter
+inarticulate sound having done more to ruin a story and distract the
+audience than many more glaring errors of dramatic form.
+
+
+Real simplicity holds the audience because the lack of apparent effort
+in the artist has the most comforting effect upon the listener.  It is
+like turning from the whirring machinery of process to the finished
+article, which bears no traces of the making except the harmony and
+beauty of the whole, which make one realize that the individual parts
+have received all proper attention.  What really brings about this
+apparent simplicity which insures the success of the story?  It has
+been admirably expressed in a passage from Henry James' lecture
+on Balzac:
+
+"The fault in the artist which amounts most completely to a failure of
+dignity is the absence of _saturation with his idea_.  When
+saturation fails, no other real presence avails, as when, on the other
+hand, it operates, no failure of method fatally interferes."
+
+I now offer two illustrations of the effect of this saturation, one
+to show that the failure of method does not prevent successful effect,
+the other to show that when it is combined with the necessary secondary
+qualities the perfection of the art is reached.
+
+In illustration of the first point, I recall an experience in the
+north of England when the head mistress of an elementary school asked
+me to hear a young inexperienced girl tell a story to a group of very
+small children.
+
+When she began, I felt somewhat hopeless, because of the complete
+failure of method.  She seemed to have all the faults most damaging to
+the success of a speaker.  Her voice was harsh, her gestures awkward,
+her manner was restless and melodramatic; but, as she went on I soon
+began to discount all these faults and, in truth, I soon forgot about
+them, for so absorbed was she in her story, so saturated with her
+subject, that she quickly communicated her own interest to her
+audience, and the children were absolutely spellbound.
+
+The other illustration is connected with a memorable peep behind the
+stage, when the late M. Coquelin had invited me to see him in the
+greenroom between the first and second acts of "L'abbe Constantin," one
+of the plays given during his last season in London, the year before his
+death.  The last time I had met M. Coquelin was at a dinner party, where
+I had been dazzled by the brilliant conversation of this great artist in
+the role of a man of the world.  But on this occasion I met the simple,
+kindly priest, so absorbed in his role that he inspired me with the wish
+to offer a donation for his poor, and, on taking leave, to ask for his
+blessing for myself.  While talking to him, I had felt puzzled.  It was
+only when I had left him that I realized what had happened, namely, that
+he was too thoroughly saturated with his subject to be able to drop his
+role during the interval, in order to assume the more ordinary one of
+host and man of the world.
+
+Now, it is this spirit I would wish to inculcate into the would-be
+story-tellers.  If they would apply themselves in this manner to their
+work, it would bring about a revolution in the art of presentation,
+that is, in the art of teaching.  The difficulty of the practical
+application of this theory is the constant plea, on the part of
+teachers, that there is not the time to work for such a standard in an
+art which is so apparently simple that the work expended on it would
+never be appreciated.
+
+My answer to this objection is that, though the counsel of perfection
+would be to devote a great deal of time to the story, so as to prepare
+the atmosphere quite as much as the mere action of the little drama
+(just as photographers use time exposure to obtain sky effects, as
+well as the more definite objects in the picture), yet it is not so
+much a question of time as concentration on the subject, which is one
+of the chief factors in the preparation of the story.
+
+So many story-tellers are satisfied with cheap results, and most
+audiences are not critical enough to encourage a high standard.[9]
+The method of "showing the machinery" has more immediate results, and
+it is easy to become discouraged over the drudgery which is not
+necessary to secure the approbation of the largest number.  But, since
+I am dealing with the essentials of really good story-telling, I may
+be pardoned for suggesting the highest standard and the means for
+reaching it.
+
+Therefore, I maintain that capacity for work, and even drudgery, is
+among the essentials of story-telling.  Personally, I know of nothing
+more interesting than watching the story grow gradually from mere
+outline into a dramatic whole.  It is the same pleasure, I imagine,
+which is felt over the gradual development of a beautiful design on a
+loom.  I do not mean machine-made work, which has to be done under
+adverse conditions in a certain time and which is similar to thousands
+of other pieces of work; but that work, upon which we can bestow
+unlimited time and concentrated thought.
+
+The special joy in the slowly-prepared story comes in the exciting
+moment when the persons, or even the inanimate objects, become alive
+and move as of themselves.  I remember spending two or three
+discouraging weeks with Andersen's story of the "Adventures of a
+Beetle."  I passed through times of great depression, because all the
+little creatures, beetles, ear-wigs, frogs, etc., behaved in such a
+conventional way, instead of displaying the strong individuality which
+Andersen had bestowed upon them that I began to despair of presenting
+a live company at all.
+
+But one day, the _Beetle_, so to speak, "took the stage," and at once
+there was life and animation among the minor characters.  Then the main
+work was done, and there remained only the comparatively easy task of
+guiding the movement of the little drama, suggesting side issues and
+polishing the details, always keeping a careful eye on the Beetle,
+that he might "gang his ain gait" and preserve to the full his own
+individuality.
+
+There is a tendency in preparing stories to begin with detail work,
+often a gesture or side issue which one has remembered from hearing a
+story told, but if this is done before the contemplative period, only
+scrappy, jerky and ineffective results are obtained, on which one
+cannot count for dramatic effects.  This kind of preparation reminds
+one of a young peasant woman who was taken to see a performance of
+"Wilhelm Tell," and when questioned as to the plot could only sum it
+up saying, "I know some fruit was shot at."[10]
+
+I realize the extreme difficulty teachers have to devote the necessary
+time to perfecting the stories they tell in school, because this is
+only one of the subjects they have to teach in an already over-crowded
+curriculum.  To them I would offer this practical advice: Do not be
+afraid to repeat your stories.[11]  If you do not undertake more than
+seven stories a year, chosen with infinite care, and if you repeated
+these stories six times during the year of forty-two weeks, you would
+be able to do artistic and, therefore, lasting work; you would also be
+able to avoid the direct moral application, for each time a child
+hears a story artistically told, a little more of the meaning
+underlying the simple story will come to him without any explanation
+on your part.  The habit of doing one's best instead of one's second-
+best means, in the long run, that one has no interest except in the
+preparation of the best, and the stories, few in number, polished and
+finished in style, will have an effect of which one can scarcely
+overstate the importance.
+
+In the story of the "Swineherd," Hans Andersen says:
+
+"On the grave of the Prince's father there grew a rose-tree.  It only
+bloomed once in five years, and only bore one rose.  But what a rose!
+Its perfume was so exquisite that whoever smelt it forgot at once all
+his cares and sorrows."
+
+Lafcadio Hearn says:
+
+"Time weeds out the errors and stupidities of cheap success, and
+presents the Truth.  It takes, like the aloe, a long time to flower,
+but the blossom is all the  more precious when it appears."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.  THE ARTIFICES OF STORY-TELLING.
+
+By this term I do not mean anything against the gospel of simplicity
+which I am so constantly preaching, but, for want of a better term, I
+use the word "artifice" to express the mechanical devices by which we
+endeavor to attract and hold the attention of the audience.  The art
+of telling stories is, in truth, much more difficult than acting a
+part on the stage: First, because the narrator is responsible for the
+whole drama and the whole atmosphere which surrounds it.  He has to
+live the life of each character and understand the relation which each
+bears to the whole. Secondly, because the stage is a miniature one,
+gestures and movements must all be so adjusted as not to destroy the
+sense of proportion.  I have often noticed that actors, accustomed to
+the more roomy public stage, are apt to be too broad in their gestures
+and movements when they tell a story.  The special training for the
+story-teller should consist not only in the training of the voice and
+in choice of language, but above all in power of delicate suggestion,
+which cannot always be used on the stage because this is hampered by
+the presence of actual things.  The story-teller has to present
+these things to the more delicate organism of the "inward eye."
+
+So deeply convinced am I of the miniature character of the story-
+telling art that I believe one never gets a perfectly artistic
+presentation of this kind in a very large hall or before a very
+large audience.
+
+I have made experiments along this line, having twice told a story to
+an audience in America[12] exceeding five thousand, but on both
+occasions, though the dramatic reaction upon oneself from the response
+of so large an audience was both gratifying and stimulating, I was
+forced to sacrifice the delicacy of the story and to take from its
+artistic value by the necessity of emphasis, in order to be heard by
+all present.
+
+Emphasis is the bane of all story-telling, for it destroys the
+delicacy, and the whole performance suggests a struggle in conveying
+the message.  The indecision of the victory leaves the audience
+restless and unsatisfied.
+
+Then, again, as compared with acting on the stage, in telling a story
+one misses the help of effective entrances and exits, the footlights,
+the costume, the facial expression of your fellow-actor which interprets
+so much of what you yourself say without further elaboration on your
+part; for, in the story, in case of a dialogue which necessitates great
+subtlety and quickness in facial expression and gesture, one has to be
+both speaker and listener.
+
+Now, of what artifices can we make use to take the place of all the
+extraneous help offered to actors on the stage?  First and foremost,
+as a means of suddenly pulling up the attention of the audience, is
+the judicious art of pausing.  For those who have not actually had
+experience in the matter, this advice will seem trite and unnecessary,
+but those who have even a little experience will realize with me the
+extraordinary efficacy of this very simple means.  It is really what
+Coquelin spoke of as a "high light," where the interest is focused, as
+it were, to a point.
+
+I have tried this simple art of _pausing_ with every kind of audience,
+and I have rarely know it to fail.  It is very difficult to offer a
+concrete example of this, unless one is giving a "live" representation,
+but I shall make an attempt, and at least I shall hope to make myself
+understood by those who have heard me tell stories.
+
+
+In Hans Andersen's "Princess and the Pea," the King goes down to open
+the door himself.  Now, one may make this point in two ways.  One may
+either say: "And then the King went to the door, and at the door there
+stood a real Princess," or, "And then the King went to the door, and
+at the door there stood--(pause)--a real Princess."
+
+It is difficult to exaggerate the difference of effect produced by so
+slight a pause.[13]  With children it means an unconscious curiosity
+which expresses itself in a sudden muscular tension.  There is just time
+during that instant's pause to _feel_, though not to _formulate, the
+question: "What is standing at the door?"  By this means, half your work
+of holding the attention is accomplished.  It is not necessary for me to
+enter into the psychological reason of this, but I strongly recommend
+those who are interested in the question to read the chapter in Ribot's
+work on this subject, "Essai sur L'Imagination Creatrice," as well as
+Mr. Keatinge's work on "Suggestion."
+
+I would advise all teachers to revise their stories with a view to
+introducing the judicious pause, and to vary its use according to the
+age, the number, and, above all, the mood of the audience.  Experience
+alone can insure success in this matter.  It has taken me many years
+to realize the importance of this artifice.
+
+Among other means for holding the attention of the audience and
+helping to bring out the points of the story is the use of gesture.  I
+consider, however, that it must be a sparing use, and not of a broad
+or definite character.  We shall never improve on the advice given by
+Hamlet to the actors on this subject: "See that ye o'erstep not the
+modesty of Nature."
+
+And yet, perhaps it is not necessary to warn story-tellers against
+abuse of gesture.  It is more helpful to encourage them in the use of
+it, especially in Anglo-Saxon countries, where we are fearful of
+expressing ourselves in this way, and when we do the gesture often
+lacks subtlety. The Anglo-Saxon, when he does move at all, moves in
+solid blocks--a whole arm, a whole leg, the whole body but if one
+watches a Frenchman or an Italian in conversation, one suddenly
+realizes how varied and subtle are the things which can be suggested
+by the mere turn of the wrist or the movement of a finger.  The power
+of the hand has been so wonderfully summed up in a passage from
+Quintillian that I am justified in offering it to all those who wish
+to realize what can be done by a gesture:
+
+"As to the hands, without the aid of which all delivery would be
+deficient and weak, it can scarcely be told of what a variety of
+motions they are susceptible, since they almost equal in expression
+the power of language itself.  For other parts of the body assist the
+speaker, but these, I may almost say, speak themselves.  With our
+hands we ask, promise, call persons to us and send them away,
+threaten, supplicate, intimate dislike or fear; with out hands we
+signify joy, grief, doubt, acknowledgement, penitence, and indicate
+measure, quantity, number and time.  Have not our hands the power of
+inciting, of restraining, or beseeching, of testifying approbation?
+. . . So that amidst the great diversity of tongues pervading all
+nations and people, the language of the hands appears to be a language
+common to all men."[14]
+
+One of the most effective of artifices in telling stories to young
+children is the use of mimicry--the imitation of animals' voices and
+sound in general is of never-ending joy to the listeners.  However,
+I should wish to introduce a note of grave warning in connection with
+this subject.  This special artifice can only be used by such narrators
+as have special aptitude and gifts in this direction.  There are many
+people with good imaginative power but who are wholly lacking in
+the power of mimicry, and their efforts in this direction, however
+painstaking, remain grotesque and therefore ineffective.  When listening
+to such performances, of which children are strangely critical, one is
+reminded of the French story in which the amateur animal painter is
+showing her picture to an undiscriminating friend:
+
+"Ah!" says the friend, "this is surely meant for a lion?"
+
+"No," says the artist (?), with some slight show of temper, "it is my
+little lap-dog."
+
+Another artifice which is particularly successful with very small
+children is to insure their attention by inviting their cooperation
+before one actually begins the story.  The following has proved quite
+effective as a short introduction to my stories when I was addressing
+large audiences of children:
+
+"Do you know that last night I had a very strange dream, which I am
+going to tell you before I begin the stories?  I dreamed that I was
+walking along the streets of---[here would follow the town in which I
+happened to be speaking], with a large bundle on my shoulders, and this
+bundle was full of stories which I had been collecting all over the
+world in different countries; and I was shouting at the top of my voice:
+'Stories! Stories! Stories!  Who will listen to my stories?'  And the
+children came flocking round me in my dream, saying: 'Tell _us_ your
+stories.  _We_ will listen to your stories.'  So I pulled out a story
+from my big bundle and I began in a most excited way, "Once upon a time
+there lived a King and a Queen who had no children, and they---' Here
+a little boy, _very_ much like that little boy I see sitting in the
+front row, stopped me, saying: 'Oh, I know _that_ old story: it's
+Sleeping Beauty.'
+
+"So I pulled out a second story, and began: 'Once upon a time there
+was a little girl who was sent by her  mother to visit her grandmother
+---'  Then a little girl, _so_ much like the one sitting at the end of
+the second row, said: 'Oh! everybody knows that story!  It's---'"
+
+Here I would like to make a judicious pause, and then the children in
+the audience would shout in chorus, with joyful superiority: "Little
+Red Riding-Hood!" before I had time to explain that the children in my
+dream had done the same.
+
+This method I repeated two or three times, being careful to choose
+very well-known stories.  By this time the children were all encouraged
+and stimulated.  I usually finished with congratulations on the number
+of stories they knew, expressing a hope that some of those I was going
+to tell that afternoon would be new to them.  I have rarely found this
+plan to fail to establish a friendly relation between oneself and the
+juvenile audience.  It is often a matter of great difficulty, not to
+_win_ the attention of an audience but to _keep_ it, and one of the most
+subtle artifices is to let the audience down (without their perceiving
+it) after a dramatic situation, so that the reaction may prepare them
+for the interest of the next situation.
+
+An excellent instance of this is to be found in Rudyard Kipling's
+story of "The Cat That Walked . . ." where the repetition of words
+acts as a sort of sedative until one realizes the beginning of a
+fresh situation.
+
+The great point is never to let the audience quite down, that is, in
+stories which depend on dramatic situations.  It is just a question of
+shade and color in the language.  If you are telling a story in
+sections, and one spread over two or three occasions, you should
+always stop at an exciting moment.  It encourages speculation in the
+children's minds, which increases their interest when the story is
+taken up again.
+
+Another very necessary quality in the mere artifice of story-telling
+is to watch your audience, so as to be able to know whether its mood
+is for action or reaction, and to alter your story accordingly.  The
+moods of reaction are rarer, and you must use them for presenting a
+different kind of material.  Here is your opportunity for introducing
+a piece of poetic description, given in beautiful language, to which
+the children cannot listen when they are eager for action and dramatic
+excitement.
+
+Perhaps one of the greatest artifices is to take a quick hold of your
+audience by a striking beginning which will enlist their attention
+from the start.  You can then relax somewhat, but you must be careful
+also of the end because that is what remains most vivid to the children.
+If you question them as to which story they like best in a program, you
+will constantly find it to be the last one you have told, which has for
+the moment blurred out the others.
+
+Here are a few specimens of beginnings which seldom fail to arrest the
+attention of the child:
+
+"There was once a giant ogre, and he lived in a cave by himself."
+From "The Giant and Jack-straws," David Starr Jordan.
+
+"There were once twenty-five tin soldiers, who were all brothers, for
+they had been made out of the same old tin spoon."  From "The Tin
+Soldier," Hans Christian Andersen.
+
+"There was once an Emperor who had a horse shod with gold."  From
+"The Beetle," Hans Christian Andersen.
+
+"There was once a merchant who was so rich that he could have paved
+the whole street with gold, and even then he would have had enough for
+a small alley."  From the "The Flying Trunk," Hans Christian Andersen.
+
+"There was once a shilling which came forth from the mint springing
+and shouting, 'Hurrah!  Now I am going out into the wide world.'"
+From "The Silver Shilling," Hans Christian Andersen.
+
+"In the High and Far Off Times the Elephant, O Best Beloved, had
+no trunk."  From "The Elephant's Child": "Just So Stories,"
+Rudyard Kipling.
+
+"Not always was the Kangaroo as now we behold him, but a Different
+Animal with four short legs."   From "Old Man Kangaroo": "Just So
+Stories," Rudyard Kipling.
+
+"Whichever way I turn," said the weather-cock on a high steeple, "no
+one is satisfied."  From "Fire-side Fables," Edwin Barrow.
+
+"A set of chessmen, left standing on their board, resolved to alter
+the rules of the game."  From the same source.
+
+"The Pink Parasol had tender whalebone ribs and a slender stick of
+cherry-wood."  From "Very Short Stories," Mrs. W. K. Clifford.
+
+"There was once a poor little Donkey on Wheels: it had never wagged
+its tail, or tossed its head, or said 'Hee-haw,' or tasted a tender
+thistle."  From the same source.
+
+Now, some of these beginnings are, of course, for very young children,
+but they all have the same advantage, that of plunging _in medias res_,
+and, therefore, arrest attention at once, contrary to the stories which
+open on a leisurely note of description.
+
+In the same way we must be careful about the endings of stories.  They
+must impress themselves either in a very dramatic climax to which the
+whole story has worked up, as in the following:
+
+"Then he goes out the Wet Wild Woods, or up the Wet Wild Trees, or on
+the Wet Wild Roofs, waving his Wild Tail, and walking by his Wild Lone."
+From "Just So Stories," Rudyard Kipling.
+
+Or by an anti-climax for effect:
+
+"We have all this straight from the alderman's newspaper, but it is not
+to be depended on."  From "Jack the Dullard," Hans Christian Andersen.
+
+Or by evading the point:
+
+"Whoever does not believe this must buy shares in the Tanner's yard."
+From "A Great Grief," Hans Christian Andersen.
+
+Or by some striking general comment:
+
+"He has never caught up with the three days he missed at the beginning
+of the world, and he has never learnt how to behave."  From "How the
+Camel got his Hump":  "Just So Stories," Rudyard Kipling.
+
+I have only suggested in this chapter a few of the artifices which I
+have found useful in my own experience, but I am sure that many more
+might be added.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.  ELEMENTS TO AVOID IN THE SELECTION OF MATERIAL.
+
+I am confronted in this portion of my work with a great difficulty,
+because I cannot afford to be as catholic as I could wish (this
+rejection or selection of material being primarily intended for those
+story-tellers dealing with normal children); but I do wish from the
+outset to distinguish between a story told to an individual child in
+the home circle or by a personal friend, and a story told to a group
+of children as part of the school curriculum.  And if I seem to
+reiterate this difference, it is because I wish to show very clearly
+that the recital of parents and friends may be quite separate in
+content and manner from that offered by the teaching world.  In the
+former case, almost any subject can be treated, because, knowing the
+individual temperament of the child, a wise parent or friend knows
+also what can be presented or not presented to the child; but in
+dealing with a group of normal children in school much has to be
+eliminated that could be given fearlessly to the abnormal child; I
+mean the child who, by circumstances or temperament, is developed
+beyond his years.
+
+I shall now mention some of the elements which experience has shown
+me to be unsuitable for class stories.
+
+I.  _Stories dealing with analysis of motive and feeling_.  This
+warning is specially necessary today, because this is, above all, an
+age of introspection and analysis.  We have only to glance at the
+principal novels and plays during the last quarter of a century, more
+especially during the last ten years, to see how this spirit has crept
+into our literature and life.
+
+Now, this tendency to analyze is obviously more dangerous for children
+than for adults, because, from lack of experience and knowledge of
+psychology, the child's analysis is incomplete.  It cannot see all the
+causes of the action, nor can it make that philosophical allowance for
+mood which brings the adult to truer conclusions.
+
+Therefore, we should discourage the child who shows a tendency to
+analyze too closely the motives of its action, and refrain from
+presenting to them in our stories any example which might encourage
+them to persist in this course.
+
+I remember, on one occasion, when I went to say good night to a little
+girl of my acquaintance, I found her sitting up in bed, very wide-
+awake.  Her eyes were shining, her cheeks were flushed, and when I
+asked her what had excited her so much, she said:
+
+"I _know_ I have done something wrong today, but I cannot quite
+remember what it was."
+
+I said: "But, Phyllis, if you put your hand, which is really quite
+small, in front of your eyes, you could not see the shape of anything
+else, however large it might be.  Now, what you have done today
+appears very large because it is so close, but when it is a little
+further off, you will be able to see better and know more about it.
+So let us wait till tomorrow morning."
+
+I am happy to say that she took my advice.  She was soon fast asleep,
+and the next morning she had forgotten the wrong over which she had
+been unhealthily brooding the night before.
+
+2.  _Stories dealing too much with sarcasm and satire_.  These
+are weapons which are too sharply polished, and therefore too
+dangerous, to place in the hands of children.  For here again, as in
+the case of analysis, they can only have a very incomplete conception
+of the case. They do not know the real cause which produces the
+apparently ridiculous appearance, and it is only the abnormally gifted
+child or grown-up person who discovers this by instinct.  It takes a
+lifetime to arrive at the position described in Sterne's words: "I
+would not have let fallen an unseasonable pleasantry in the venerable
+presence of misery to be entitled to all the with which Rabelais has
+ever scattered."
+
+I will hasten to add that I should not wish children to have their
+sympathy too much drawn out, of their emotions kindled too much to
+pity, because this would be neither healthy nor helpful to themselves
+or others.  I only want to protect children from the dangerous
+critical attitude induced by the use of satire which sacrifices too
+much of the atmosphere of trust and belief in human beings which ought
+to be an essential of child life.  By indulging in satire, the sense of
+kindness in children would become perverted, their sympathy cramped,
+and they themselves would be old before their time.  We have an
+excellent example of this in Hans Christian Andersen's "Snow Queen."
+
+When Kay gets the piece of broken mirror into his eye, he no longer
+sees the world from the normal child's point of view; he can no longer
+see anything but the foibles of those about him, a condition usually
+reached by a course of pessimistic experience.
+
+Andersen sums up the unnatural point of view in these words: "When
+Kay tried to repeat the Lord's Prayer, he could only remember the
+multiplication table."  Now, without taking these words in any literal
+sense, we can admit that they represent the development of the head at
+the expense of the heart.
+
+An example of this kind of story to avoid is Andersen's "Story of the
+Butterfly."  The bitterness of the Anemones, the sentimentality of the
+Violets, the schoolgirlishness of the Snowdrops, the domesticity of
+the Sweetpeas--all this tickles the palate of the adult, but does
+not belong to the place of the normal child.  Again, I repeat, that
+the unusual child may take all this in and even preserve his kindly
+attitude towards the world, but it is dangerous atmosphere for the
+ordinary child.
+
+3.  _Stories of a sentimental character_.  Strange to say, this
+element of sentimentality appeals more to the young teachers than to
+the children themselves.  It is difficult to define the difference
+between real sentiment and sentimentality, but the healthy normal
+boy or girl of, let us say, ten or eleven years old, seems to feel
+it unconsciously, though the distinction is not so clear a few
+years later.
+
+Mrs. Elisabeth McCracken contributed an excellent article some years
+ago to the _Outlook_ on the subject of literature for the young,
+in which we find a good illustration of this power of discrimination
+on the part of a child.
+
+A young teacher was telling her pupils the story of the emotional lady
+who, to put her lover to the test, bade him pick up the glove which
+she had thrown down into the arena between the tiger and the lion.
+The lover does her bidding in order to vindicate his character as a
+brave knight.  One boy after hearing the story at once states his
+contempt for the knight's acquiescence, which he declares to be
+unworthy.
+
+"But," says the teacher, "you see he really did it to show the lady
+how foolish she was."  The answer of the boy sums up what I have been
+trying to show: "There was no sense in _his_ being sillier than
+_she_ was, to show her _she_ was silly."
+
+If the boy had stopped there, we might have concluded that he was
+lacking in imagination or romance, but his next remark proves what a
+balanced and discriminating person he was, for he added: "Now, if
+_she_ had fallen in, and he had leapt after her to rescue her, that
+would have been splendid and of some use."  Given the character of the
+lady, we might, as adults, question the last part of the boy's
+statement, but this is pure cynicism and fortunately does not enter
+into the child's calculations.
+
+In my own personal experience, and I have told this story often in the
+German ballad form to girls of ten and twelve in the high schools in
+England, I have never found one girl who sympathized with the lady or
+who failed to appreciate the poetic justice meted out to her in the
+end by the dignified renunciation of the knight.
+
+Chesterton defines sentimentality as "a tame, cold, or small and
+inadequate manner of speaking about certain matters which demand
+very large and beautiful expression."
+
+I would strongly urge upon young teachers to revise, by this
+definition, some of the stories they have included in their
+repertories, and see whether they would stand the test or not.
+
+4.  _Stories containing strong sensational episodes_.  The danger
+of this kind of story is all the greater because many children delight
+in it and some crave for it in the abstract, but fear it in the
+concrete.[15]
+
+An affectionate aunt, on one occasion, anxious to curry favor with a
+four-year-old nephew, was taxing her imagination to find a story
+suitable for his tender years.  She was greatly startled when he
+suddenly said, in a most imperative tone: "Tell me the story of a bear
+eating a small boy."  This was so remote from her own choice of
+subject that she hesitated at first, but coming to the conclusion that
+as the child had chosen the situation he would feel no terror in the
+working up of its details, she a most thrilling and blood-curdling
+story, leading up to the final catastrophe.  But just as she reached
+the great dramatic moment, the child raised his hands in terror and
+said: "Oh! Auntie, don't let the bear really eat the boy!"
+
+"Don't you know," said an impatient boy who had been listening to a
+mild adventure story considered suitable to his years, "that I don't
+take any interest in the story until the decks are dripping with
+gore?"  Here we have no opportunity of deciding whether or not the
+actual description demanded would be more alarming than the listener
+had realized.
+
+Here is a poem of James Stephens, showing a child's taste for
+sensational things:
+
+
+              A man was sitting underneath a tree
+              Outside the village, and he asked me
+              What name was upon this place, and said he
+              Was never here before.  He told a
+              Lot of stories to me too.  His nose was flat.
+              I asked him how it happened, and he said,
+              The first mate of the _Mary Ann_ done that
+              With a marling-spike one day, but he was dead,
+              And a jolly job too, but he'd have gone a long way
+                to have killed him.
+              A gold ring in one ear, and the other was bit off by
+                a crocodile, bedad,
+              That's what he said: He taught me how to chew.
+              He was a real nice man.  He liked me too.
+
+
+The taste that is fed by the sensational contents of the newspapers
+and the dramatic excitement of street life, and some of the lurid
+representations of the cinematograph, is so much stimulated that the
+interest in normal stories is difficult to rouse.  I will not here
+dwell on the deleterious effects of over-dramatic stimulation, which
+has been known to lead to crime, since I am keener to prevent the
+telling of too many sensational stories than to suggest a cure when
+the mischief is done.
+
+Kate Douglas Wiggin has said:
+
+"Let us be realistic, by all means, but beware, O story-teller, of
+being too realistic.  Avoid the shuddering tale of 'the wicked boy who
+stoned the birds,' lest some hearer should be inspired to try the
+dreadful experiment and see if it really does kill."
+
+I must emphasize the fact, however, that it is only the excess of this
+dramatic element which I deplore.  A certain amount of excitement is
+necessary, but this question belongs to the positive side of the
+subject, and I shall deal with it later on.
+
+5.  _Stories presenting matters quite outside the plane of a child's
+interests, unless they are wrapped in mystery_.  Experience with
+children ought to teach us to avoid stories which contain too much
+_allusion_ to matters of which the hearers are entirely ignorant.
+But judging from the written stories of today, supposed to be for
+children, it is still a matter of difficulty to realize that this form
+of allusion to "foreign" matters, or making a joke, the appreciation
+of which depends solely on a special and "inside" knowledge, is always
+bewildering and fatal to sustained dramatic interest.
+
+It is a matter of intense regret that so very few people have
+sufficiently clear remembrance of their own childhood to help them to
+understand the taste and point of view of the _normal_ child.
+There is a passage in the "Brownies," by Mrs. Ewing, which illustrates
+the confusion created in the child mind by a facetious allusion in a
+dramatic moment which needed a more direct treatment.  When the
+nursery toys have all gone astray, one little child exclaims joyfully:
+
+"Why, the old Rocking-Horse's nose has turned up in the oven!"
+
+"It couldn't," remarks a tiresome, facetious doctor, far more anxious
+to be funny than to sympathized with the child, "it was the purest
+Grecian, modeled from the Elgin marbles."
+
+Now, for grownup people this is an excellent joke, but for a child has
+not yet become acquainted with these Grecian masterpieces, the whole
+remark is pointless and hampering.[16]
+
+6.  _Stories which appeal to fear or priggishness_.  This is a
+class of story which scarcely counts today and against which the
+teacher does not need a warning, but I wish to make a passing allusion
+to these stories, partly to round off my subject and partly to show
+that we have made some improvement in choice of subject.
+
+When I study the evolution of the story from the crude recitals
+offered to our children within the last hundred years, I feel that,
+though our progress may be slow, it is real and sure.  One has only to
+take some examples from the Chaps Books of the beginning of last
+century to realize the difference of appeal.  Everything offered then
+was either an appeal to fear or to priggishness, and one wonders how
+it is that our grandparents and their parents every recovered from the
+effects of such stories as were offered to them.  But there is the
+consoling thought that no lasting impression was made upon them, such
+as I believe _may_ be possible by the right kind of story.
+
+I offer a few examples of the old type of story:
+
+Here is an encouraging address offered to children by a certain Mr.
+Janeway about the year 1828:
+
+"Dare you do anything which your parents forbid you, and neglect to do
+what they command?  Dare you to run up and down on the Lord's Day, or
+do you keep in to read your book, and learn what your good parents
+command?"
+
+Such an address would have almost tempted children to envy the lot of
+orphans, except that the guardians and less close relations might have
+been equally, if not more, severe.
+
+From "The Curious Girl," published about 1809:
+
+"Oh! papa, I hope you will have no reason to be dissatisfied with me,
+for I love my studies very much, and I am never so happy at my play as
+when I have been assiduous at my lessons all day."
+
+"Adolphus: How strange it is, papa, you should believe it possible for
+me to act so like a child, now that I am twelve years old!"
+
+Here is a specimen taken from a Chap Book about 1835:
+
+Edward refuses hot bread at breakfast.  His hostess asks whether he
+likes it.
+
+"Yes, I am extremely fond of it."
+
+"Why did you refuse it?"
+
+"Because I know that my papa does not approve of my eating it.  Am I
+to disobey a Father and Mother I love so well, and forget my duty,
+because they are a long way off?  I would not touch the cake, were
+I sure nobody would see me.  I myself should know it, and that would
+be sufficient.
+
+"Nobly replied!" exclaimed Mrs. C.  "Act always thus, and you must be
+happy, for although the whole world should refuse the praise that is
+due, you must enjoy the approbation of your conscience, which is
+beyond anything else."
+
+Here is a quotation of the same kind from Mrs. Sherwood:
+
+
+  Tender-souled little creatures, desolated by a sense of sin, if they
+  did but eat a spoonful of cupboard jam without Mamma's express
+  permission. . . . Would a modern Lucy, jealous of her sister Emily's
+  doll, break out thus easily into tearful apology for her guilt: 'I
+  know it is wicked in me to be sorry that Emily is happy, but I feel
+  that I cannot help it'?  And would a modern mother retort with
+  heartfelt joy: 'My dear child, I am glad you have confessed.  Now I
+  shall tell you why you feel this wicked sorrow'?--proceeding to
+  an account of the depravity of human nature so unredeemed by comfort
+  for a childish mind of common intelligence that one can scarcely
+  imagine the interview ending in anything less tragic than a fit of
+  juvenile hysteria.
+
+
+Description of a good boy:
+
+
+  A good boy is dutiful to his Father and Mother, obedient to his master
+  and loving to his playfellows.  He is diligent in learning his book
+  and takes a pleasure in improving himself in everything that is worthy
+  of praise.  He rises early in the morning, makes himself clean and
+  decent, and says his prayers.  He loves to hear good advice, is
+  thankful to those who give it and always follows it.  He never
+  swears[17] or calls names or uses ill words to companions.  He is
+  never peevish and fretful, always cheerful and good-tempered.
+
+
+7.  _Stories of exaggerated and coarse fun_.  In the chapter on
+the positive side of this subject I shall speak more in detail of the
+educational value of robust and virile representation of fun and of
+sheer nonsense, but as a preparation to these statements, I should
+like to strike a note of warning against the element of exaggerated
+and coarse fun being encouraged in our school stories, partly, because
+of the lack of humor in such presentations (a natural product of
+stifling imagination) and partly, because the strain of the abnormal
+has the same effect as the too frequent use of the melodramatic.
+
+In an article in _Macmillans's Magazine_, December, 1869, Miss
+Yonge writes:
+
+"A taste for buffoonery is much to be discouraged, an exclusive taste
+for extravagance most unwholesome and even perverting.  It becomes
+destructive of reverence and soon degenerates into coarseness.  It
+permits nothing poetical or imaginative, nothing sweet or pathetic to
+exist, and there is a certain self-satisfaction and superiority in
+making game of what others regard with enthusiasm and sentiment which
+absolutely bars the way against a higher or softer tone."
+
+Although these words were written nearly half a century ago, they
+are so specially applicable today that they seem quite "up-to-date."
+Indeed, I think they will hold equally good fifty years hence.
+
+In spite of a strong taste on the part of children for what is ugly
+and brutal, I am sure that we ought to eliminate this element as far
+as possible from the school stories, especially among poor children.
+Not because I think children should be protected from all knowledge of
+evil, but because so much of this knowledge comes into their life
+outside school that we can well afford to ignore it during school
+hours.  At the same time, however, as I shall show by example when I
+come to the positive side, it would be well to show children by story
+illustration the difference between brutal ugliness without anything
+to redeem it and surface ugliness, which may be only a veil over the
+beauty that lies underneath.  It might be possible, for instance, to
+show children the difference between the real ugliness in the priest's
+face of the "Laocoon" group, because of the motive of courage and
+endurance behind the suffering.  Many stories in everyday life could
+be found to illustrate this.
+
+8.  _Stories of infant piety and death-bed scenes_.  The stories
+for children forty years ago contained much of this element, and the
+following examples will illustrate this point:
+
+Notes from poems written by a child between six and eight years of
+age, by name Philip Freeman, afterwards Archdeacon of Exeter:
+
+
+                 Poor Robin, thou canst fly no more,
+                 Thy joys and sorrows all are o'er.
+                 Through Life's tempestuous storms thou'st trod,
+                 But now art sunk beneath the sod.
+                 Here lost and gone poor Robin lies,
+                 He trembles, lingers, falls and dies.
+                 He's gone, he's gone, forever lost,
+                 No more of him they now can boast.
+                 Poor Robin's dangers all are past,
+                 He struggled to the very last.
+                 Perhaps he spent a happy Life,
+                 Without much struggle and much strife.[18]
+
+
+The prolonged gloom of the main theme is somewhat lightened by the
+speculative optimism of the last verse.
+
+
+                 Life, transient Life, is but a dream,
+                 Like Sleep which short doth lengthened seem
+                 Till dawn of day, when the bird's lay
+                 Doth charm the soul's first peeping gleam.
+
+                 Then farewell to the parting year,
+                 Another's come to Nature dear.
+                 In every place, thy brightening face
+                 Does welcome winter's snowy drear.
+
+                 Alas! our time is much mis-spent.
+                 Then we must haste and now repent.
+                 We have a book in which to look,
+                 For we on Wisdom should be bent.
+
+                 Should God, the Almighty, King of all,
+                 Before His judgment-seat now call
+                 Us to that place of Joy and Grace
+                 Prepared for us since Adam's fall.
+
+
+I think there is no doubt that we have made considerable progress in
+this matter.  Not only do we refrain from telling these highly moral
+(_sic_) stories but we have reached the point of parodying them,
+in sign of ridicule, as, for instance, in such writing as Belloc's
+"Cautionary Tales."  These would be a trifle too grim for a timid
+child, but excellent fun for adults.
+
+It should be our study today to prove to children that the immediate
+importance to them is not to think of dying and going to Heaven, but
+of living and--shall we say?--of going to college, which is a far better
+preparation for the life to come than the morbid dwelling upon the
+possibility of an early death.
+
+In an article signed "Muriel Harris," I think, from a copy of the
+_Tribune_, appeared a delightful article on Sunday books, from which
+I quote the following:
+
+"All very good little children died young in the storybooks, so that
+unusual goodness must have been the source of considerable anxiety to
+affectionate parents.  I came across a little old book the other day
+called 'Examples for Youth.'  On the yellow fly-leaf was written, in
+childish, carefully-sloping hand: 'Presented to Mary Palmer Junior, by
+her sister, to be read on Sundays,' and was dated 1828.  The accounts
+are taken from a work on "Piety Promoted," and all of them begin with
+unusual piety in early youth and end with the death-bed of the little
+paragon, and his or her dying words."
+
+9.  _Stories containing a mixture of fairy tale and science_.  By
+this combination one loses what is essential to each, namely, the
+fantastic on the one side, and accuracy on the other.  The true fairy
+tale should be unhampered by any compromise of probability even; the
+scientific representation should be sufficiently marvelous along its
+own lines to need no supernatural aid.  Both appeal to the imagination
+in different ways.
+
+As an exception to this kind of mixture, I should quote "The Honey
+Bee, and Other Stories," translated from the Danish of Evald by C. G.
+Moore Smith.  There is a certain robustness in these stories dealing
+with the inexorable laws of Nature.  Some of them will appear hard to
+the child but they will be of interest to all teachers.
+
+Perhaps the worst element in the choice of stories is that which
+insists upon the moral detaching itself and explaining the story.  In
+"Alice in Wonderland" the Duchess says, "'And the moral of _that_
+is: Take care of the sense and the sounds will take care of
+themselves.' "How fond she is of finding morals in things," thought
+Alice to herself."  (This gives the point of view of the child.)
+
+The following is a case in point, found in a rare old print in the
+British Museum:
+
+
+  Jane S. came home with her clothes soiled and hands badly torn.
+ "Where have you been?" asked her mother.
+
+  "I fell down the bank near the mill," said Jane, "and I should have
+  been drowned, if Mr. M. had not seen me and pulled me out."
+
+  "Why did you go so near the edge of the brink?"
+
+  "There was a pretty flower there that I wanted, and I only meant to
+  take one step, but I slipped and fell down."
+
+  _Moral_: Young people often take but one step in sinful
+  indulgence [Poor Jane!], but they fall into soul-destroying sins.
+  They can do it by a single act of sin.  [The heinous act of picking a
+  flower!] They do it; but the act leads to another, and they fall into
+  the gulf of Perdition, unless God interposes.
+
+
+Now, quite apart from the folly of this story we must condemn it on
+moral grounds.  Could we imagine a lower standard of a Deity than that
+presented here to the child?
+
+Today the teacher would commend Jane for a laudable interest in
+botany, but might add a word of caution about choosing inclined planes
+in the close neighborhood of a body of running water as a hunting
+ground for specimens and a popular, lucid explanation of the
+inexorable law of gravity.
+
+Here we have an instance of applying a moral when we have finished our
+story, but there are many stories where nothing is left to chance in
+this matter and where there is no means for the child to use ingenuity
+or imagination in making out the meaning for himself.
+
+Henry Morley has condemned the use of this method as applied to fairy
+stories.  He says: "Moralizing in a fairy story is like the snoring
+of _Bottom_ in _Titania's_ lap."
+
+But I think this applies to all stories, and most especially to those
+by which we do wish to teach something.
+
+John Burroughs says in his article, "Thou Shalt Not Preach":[19]
+
+"Didactic fiction can never rank high.  Thou shalt not preach or
+teach; thou shalt portray and create, and have ends as universal
+as nature. . . . What Art demands is that the artist's personal
+convictions and notions, his likes and dislikes, do not obtrude
+themselves at all; that good and evil stand judged in his work by the
+logic of events, as they do in nature, and not by any special pleading
+on his part.  He does non hold a brief for either side; he exemplifies
+the working of the creative energy. . . . The great artist works in and
+_through_ and _from_ moral ideas; his works are indirectly a criticism
+of life.  He is moral without having a moral.  The moment a moral
+obtrudes itself, that moment he begins to fall from grace as an
+artist. . . . The great distinction of Art is that it aims to see life
+steadily and to see it whole. . . . It affords the one point of view
+whence the world appears harmonious and complete."
+
+It would seem, then, from this passage, that it is of _moral_
+importance to put things dramatically.
+
+In Froebel's "Mother Play" he demonstrates the educational value of
+stories, emphasizing that their highest use consists in their ability
+to enable the child, through _suggestion_, to form a pure and
+noble idea of what a man may be or do.  The sensitiveness of a child's
+mind is offended if the moral is forced upon him, but if he absorbs it
+unconsciously, he has received its influence for all time.
+
+To me the idea of pointing out the moral of the story has always
+seemed as futile as tying a flower on a stalk instead of letting the
+flower grow out of the stalk, as Nature has intended.  In the first
+case, the flower, showy and bright for the moment, soon fades away.
+In the second instance, it develops slowly, coming to perfection in
+fullness of time because of the life within.
+
+Lastly, the element to avoid is that which rouses emotions which
+cannot be translated into action.
+
+Mr. Earl Barnes, to whom all teachers owe a debt of gratitude for the
+inspiration of his educational views, insists strongly on this point.
+The sole effect of such stories is to produce a form of hysteria,
+fortunately short-lived, but a waste of force which might be directed
+into a better channel.[20]  Such stories are so easy to recognize that
+it would be useless to make a formal list, but I make further allusion
+to them, in dealing with stories from the lives of the saints.
+
+These, then, are the main elements to avoid in the selection of material
+suitable for normal children.  Much might be added in the way of detail,
+and the special tendency of the day may make it necessary to avoid one
+class of story more than another, but this care belongs to another
+generation of teachers and parents.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.  ELEMENTS TO SEEK IN CHOICE OF MATERIAL.
+
+In his "Choice of Books," Frederic Harrison has said: "The most useful
+help to reading is to know what we shall _not_ read, what we shall keep
+from that small, cleared spot in the overgrown jungle of information
+which we can call our ordered patch of fruit-bearing knowledge."
+
+Now, the same statement applies to our stories, and, having busied
+myself during the last chapter with "clearing my small spot" by
+cutting away a mass of unfruitful growth, I am no going to suggest
+what would be the best kind of seed to sow in the patch which I have
+"reclaimed from the jungle."
+
+Again, I repeat, I have no wish to be dogmatic and in offering
+suggestions as to the stories to be told, I am catering only for a
+group of normal school children.  My list of subjects does not pretend
+to cover the whole ground of children's needs, and just as I exclude
+the abnormal or unusual child from the scope of my warning in subjects
+to avoid, so do I also exclude that child from the limitation in
+choice of subjects to be sought, because you can offer almost any
+subject to the unusual child, especially if you stand in close relation
+to him and know his powers of apprehension.  In this matter, age has
+very little to say; it is a question of the stage of development.
+
+Experience has taught me that for the group of normal children,
+irrespective of age, the first kind of story suitable for them will
+contain an appeal to conditions to which the child is accustomed.  The
+reason for this is obvious: the child, having limited experience, can
+only be reached by this experience, until his imagination is awakened
+and he is enabled to grasp through this faculty what he has not
+actually passed through.  Before this awakening has taken place he
+enters the realm of fiction, represented in the story, by comparison
+with his personal experience.  Every story and every point in the
+story mean more as that experience widens, and the interest varies, of
+course, with temperament, quickness of perception, power of visualizing
+and of concentration.
+
+In "The Marsh King's Daughter," Hans Christian Andersen says:
+
+"The storks have a great many stories which they tell their little
+ones, all about the bogs and marshes.  They suit them to their age and
+capacity.  The young ones are quite satisfied with _kribble,
+krabble_, or some such nonsense, and find it charming; but the
+elder ones want something with more meaning."
+
+One of the most interesting experiments to be made in connection with
+this subject is to tell the same story at intervals of a year or six
+months to an individual child.[21]  The different incidents in the
+story which appeal to him (and one must watch it closely, to be sure
+the interest is real and not artificially stimulated by any suggestion
+on one's own part) will mark his mental development and the gradual
+awakening of his imagination.  This experiment is a very delicate one
+and will not be infallible, because children are secretive and the
+appreciation is often simulated (unconsciously) or concealed through
+shyness or want of articulation.  But it is, in spite of this, a
+deeply interesting and helpful experiment.
+
+To take a concrete example: Let us suppose the story Andersen's "Tin
+Soldier" told to a child of five or six years.  At the first recital,
+the point which will interest the child most will be the setting up of
+the tin soldiers on the table, because he can understand this by means
+of his own experience, in his own nursery.  It is an appeal to
+conditions to which he is accustomed and for which no exercise of the
+imagination is needed, unless we take the effect of memory to be,
+according to Queyrat, retrospective imagination.
+
+The next incident that appeals is the unfamiliar behavior of the toys,
+but still in familiar surroundings; that is to say, the _unusual_
+activities are carried on in the safe precincts of the nursery--the
+_usual_ atmosphere of the child.
+
+I quote from the text:
+
+
+  Late in the evening the other soldiers were put in their box,
+  and the people of the house went to bed.  Now was the time for
+  the toys to play; they amused themselves with paying visits,
+  fighting battles and giving balls.  The tin soldiers rustled
+  about in their box, for they wanted to join the games, but
+  they could not get the lid off.  The nut-crackers turned
+  somersaults, and the pencil scribbled nonsense on the slate.
+
+
+Now, from this point onwards in the story, the events will be quite
+outside the personal experience of the child and there will have to be
+a real stretch of imagination to appreciate the thrilling and blood-
+curdling adventures of the tin soldier, namely, the terrible sailing
+down the gutter under the bridge, the meeting with the fierce rat who
+demands the soldier's passport, the horrible sensation in the fish's
+body, etc.  Last of all, perhaps, will come the appreciation of the
+best qualities of the hero: his modesty, his dignity, his reticence,
+his courage and his constancy.  He seems to combine all the qualities
+of the best soldier with those of the best civilian, without the more
+obvious qualities which generally attract first.  As for the love
+story, we must _expect_ any child to see its tenderness and
+beauty, though the individual child may intuitively appreciate these
+qualities, but it is not what we wish for or work for at this period
+of child life.
+
+This method could be applied to various stories.  I have chosen the
+"Tin Soldier" because of its dramatic qualities and because it is
+marked off, probably quite unconsciously on the part of Andersen, into
+periods which correspond to the child's development.
+
+In Eugene Field's exquisite little poem of "The Dinkey Bird," we find
+the objects familiar to the child in _unusual_ places, so that
+some imagination is needed to realize that "big red sugar-plums are
+clinging to the cliffs beside the sea"; but the introduction of the
+fantastic bird and the soothing sound of amfalula tree are new and
+delightful sensations, quite out of the child's personal experience.
+
+Another such instance is to be found in Mrs. W. K. Clifford's story of
+"Master Willie."  The abnormal behavior of familiar objects, such as a
+doll, leads from the ordinary routine to the paths of adventure.  This
+story is to be found in a little book called "Very Short Stories," a
+most interesting collection for teachers and children.
+
+We now come to the second element we should seek in material, namely,
+the element of the unusual, which we have already anticipated in the
+story of the "Tin Soldier."
+
+This element is necessary in response to the demand of the child who
+expressed the needs of his fellow-playmates when he said: "I want to
+go to the place where the shadows are real."  This is the true
+definition of "faerie" lands and is the first sign of real mental
+development in the child when he is no longer content with the stories
+of his own little deeds and experiences, when his ear begins to
+appreciate sounds different from the words in his own everyday
+language, and when he begins to separate his own personality from the
+action of the story.
+
+George Goschen says:
+
+"What I want for the young are books and stories which do not simply
+deal with our daily life.  I like the fancy even of little children to
+have some larger food than images of their own little lives, and I
+confess I am sorry for the children whose imaginations are not
+sometimes stimulated by beautiful fairy tales which carry them to
+worlds different from those in which their future will be passed. . . .
+I hold that what removes them more or less from their daily life is
+better than what reminds them of it at every step."[22]
+
+It is because of the great value of leading children to something
+beyond the limited circle of their own lives that I deplore the
+twaddling boarding-school stories written for girls and the
+artificially prepared public school stories for boys.  Why not give
+them the dramatic interest of a larger stage?  No account of a cricket
+match or a football triumph could present a finer appeal to boys and
+girls than the description of the Peacestead in the "Heroes of Asgaard":
+
+"This was the playground of the Aesir, where they practiced trials of
+skill one with another and held tournaments and sham fights.  These last
+were always conducted in the gentlest and most honorable manner; for the
+strongest law of the Peacestead was that no angry blow should be struck
+or spiteful word spoken upon the sacred field."
+
+For my part, I would unhesitatingly give to boys and girls an element
+of strong romance in the stories which are told them even before they
+are twelve.
+
+Miss Sewell says:
+
+"The system that keeps girls in the schoolroom reading simple stories,
+without reading Scott and Shakespeare and Spenser, and then hands them
+over to the unexplored recesses of the Circulating Library, has been
+shown to be the most frivolizing that can be devised."  She sets forth
+as the result of her experience that a good novel, especially a
+romantic one, read at twelve or fourteen, is really a beneficial thing.
+
+At present, so many of the children from the elementary schools get
+their first idea of love, if one can give it such a name from vulgar
+pictures displayed in the shop windows or jokes on marriage, culled
+from the lowest type of paper, or the proceedings of a divorce court.
+
+What an antidote to such representation might be found in the stories
+of Hector and Andromache, Siegfried and Brunnehilde, Dido and Aeneas,
+Orpheus and Eurydice, St. Francis and St. Clare!
+
+One of the strongest elements we should introduce into our stories for
+children of all ages is that which calls forth love of beauty.  And
+the beauty should stand out, not only in the delineation of noble
+qualities in our heroes and heroines, but in the beauty and strength
+of language and form.
+
+In this latter respect, the Bible stories are of such inestimable
+value; all the greater because a child is familiar with the subject
+and the stories gain fresh significance from the spoken or winged word
+as compared with the mere reading.  As to whether we should keep to
+the actual text is a matter of individual experience.  Professor R. G.
+Moulton, whose interpretations of the Bible stories are so well known
+both in England and America, does not always confine himself to the
+actual text, but draws the dramatic elements together, rejecting what
+seems to him to break the narrative, but introducing the actual
+language where it is the most effective.  Those who have heard him
+will realize the success of his method.
+
+There is one Bible story which can be told with scarcely any deviation
+from the text, if only a few hints are given beforehand, and that is
+the story of Nebuchadnezzar and the Golden Image.  Thus, I think it
+wise, if the children are to succeed in partially visualizing the
+story, that they should have some idea of the dimensions of the Golden
+Image as it would stand out in a vast plain.  It might be well to
+compare those dimension with some building with which the child is
+familiar.  In London, the matter is easy as the height will compare,
+roughly speaking, with Westminster Abbey.  The only change in text I
+should adopt is to avoid the constant enumeration of the list of
+rulers and the musical instruments.  In doing this, I am aware that I
+am sacrificing something of beauty in the rhythm, but, on the other
+hand, for narrative purpose the interest is not broken.  The first
+time the announcement is made, that is, by the Herald, it should be in
+a perfectly loud, clear and toneless voice, such as you would
+naturally use when shouting through a trumpet to a vast concourse of
+people scattered over a wide plain, reserving all the dramatic tone of
+voice for the passage where Nebuchadnezzar is making the announcement
+to the three men by themselves.  I can remember Professor Moulton
+saying that all the dramatic interest of the story is summed up in
+the words "But if not . . ."  This suggestion is a very helpful one,
+for it enables us to work up gradually to this point, and then, as
+it were, _unwind_, until we reach the words of Nebuchadnezzar's
+dramatic recantation.
+
+In this connection, it is a good plan occasionally during the story
+hour to introduce really good poetry, which delivered in a dramatic
+manner (far removed, of course, from the melodramatic), might give
+children their first love of beautiful form in verse.  And I do not
+think it necessary to wait for this.  Even the normal child of seven,
+though there is nothing arbitrary in the suggestion of this age, will
+appreciate the effect, if only on the ear, of beautiful lines well
+spoken.  Mahomet has said, in his teaching advice: "Teach your
+children poetry: it opens the mind, lends grace to wisdom and makes
+heroic virtues hereditary."
+
+To begin with the youngest children of all, here is a poem which
+contains a thread of story, just enough to give a human interest:
+
+
+                             MILKING-TIME
+
+              When the cows come home, the milk is coming;
+              Honey's made when the bees are humming.
+              Duck, drake on the rushy lake,
+              And the deer live safe in the breezy brake,
+              And timid, funny, pert little bunny
+              Winks his nose, and sits all sunny.
+                                                 CHRISTINA ROSSETTI.
+
+
+Now, in comparing this poem with some of the doggerel verse offered to
+small children, one is struck with the literary superiority in the
+choice of words.  Here, in spite of the simplicity of the poem, there
+is not the ordinary limited vocabulary, nor the forced rhyme, nor the
+application of a moral, by which the artist falls from grace.
+
+Again, Eugene Field's "Hushaby Lady," of which the language is most
+simple, yet the child is carried away by the beauty of the sound.
+
+I remember hearing some poetry repeated by the children in one of the
+elementary schools in Sheffield which made me feel that they had
+realized romantic possibilities which would prevent their lives from
+ever becoming quite prosaic again, and I wish that this practice were
+more usual. There is little difficulty with the children.  I can
+remember, in my own experience as a teacher in London, making the
+experiment of reading or repeating passages from Milton and
+Shakespeare to children from nine to eleven years of age, and the
+enthusiastic way they responded by learning those passages by heart.
+I have taken with several sets of children such passages from Milton
+as the "Echo Song," "Sabrina," "By the Rushy-fringed Bank," "Back,
+Shepherds, Back," from "Comus"; "May Morning," "Ode to Shakespeare,"
+"Samson," "On His Blindness," etc.  I even ventured on several passage
+from "Paradise Lost," and found "Now came still evening on" a
+particular favorite with the children.
+
+It seemed even easier to interest them in Shakespeare, and they
+learned quite readily and easily many passages from "As You Like It,"
+"The Merchant of Venice," "Julius Caesar," "Richard II," "Henry IV,"
+and "Henry V."
+
+The method I should recommend in the introduction of both poets
+occasionally into the story-hour would be threefold.  First, to choose
+passages which appeal for beauty of sound or beauty of mental vision
+called up by those sounds; such as "Tell me where is Fancy bred,"
+"Titania's Lullaby," "How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank."
+Secondly, passages for sheer interest of content, such as the Trial
+Scene from "The Merchant of Venice," or the Forest Scene in "As You
+Like It."  Thirdly, for dramatic and historical interest, such as,
+"Men at some time are masters of their fates," the whole of Mark
+Antony's speech, and the scene with Imogen and her foster brothers in
+the Forest.
+
+It may not be wholly out of place to add here that the children
+learned and repeated these passages themselves, and that I offered
+them the same advice as I do to all story-tellers.  I discussed quite
+openly with them the method I considered best, trying to make them see
+that simplicity of delivery was not only the most beautiful but the
+most effective means to use and, by the end of a few months, when they
+had been allowed to experiment and express themselves, they began to
+see that mere ranting was not force and that a sense of reserve power
+is infinitely more impressive and inspiring than mere external
+presentation.
+
+I encouraged them to criticize each other for the common good, and
+sometimes I read a few lines with overemphasis and too much gesture,
+which they were at liberty to point out that they might avoid the
+same error.
+
+Excellent collections of poems for this purpose of narrative are:
+Mrs. P. A. Barnett's series of "Song and Story," published by Adam
+Black, and "The Posy Ring," chosen and classified by Kate Douglas
+Wiggin and Nora Archibald Smith, published by Doubleday.  For older
+children, "The Call of the Homeland," selected and arranged by Dr. R.
+P. Scott and Katharine T. Wallas, published by Houghton, Mifflin, and
+"Golden Numbers," chosen and classified by Kate Douglas Wiggin and
+Nora Archibald Smith, published by Doubleday.
+
+I think it is well to have a goodly number of stories illustrating the
+importance of common-sense and resourcefulness.
+
+For this reason, I consider the stories treating of the ultimate
+success of the youngest son[23] very admirable for the purpose,
+because the youngest child who begins by being considered inferior
+to the older ones triumphs in the end, either from resourcefulness
+or from common-sense or from some higher quality, such as kindness
+to animals, courage in overcoming difficulties, etc.[24]
+
+Thus, we have the story of Cinderella.  The cynic might imagine that
+it was the diminutive size of her foot that insured her success.  The
+child does not realize any advantage in this, but, though the matter
+need not be pressed, the story leaves us with the impression that
+Cinderella had been patient and industrious, and forbearing with her
+sisters.  We know that she was strictly obedient to her godmother, and
+in order to be this she makes her dramatic exit from the ball which is
+the beginning of her triumph.  There are many who might say that these
+qualities do not meet with reward in life and that they end in
+establishing a habit of drudgery, but, after all, we must have poetic
+justice in a fairy story, occasionally, at any rate, even if the child
+is confused by the apparent contradiction.
+
+Such a story is "Jesper and the Hares."  Here, however, it is not at
+first resourcefulness that helps the hero, but sheer kindness of
+heart, which prompts him first to help the ants, and then to show
+civility to the old woman, without for a moment expecting any material
+benefit from such actions.  At the end, he does win on his own
+ingenuity and resourcefulness, and if we regret that his trickery has
+such wonderful results, we must remember the aim was to win the
+princess for herself, and that there was little choice left him.  I
+consider that the end of this story is one of the most remarkable I
+have found in my long years of browsing among fairy tales.  I should
+suggest stopping at the words: "The Tub is full," as any addition
+seems to destroy the subtlety of the story.[25]
+
+Another story of this kind, admirable for children from six years and
+upwards, is, "What the Old Man Does is Always Right."  Here, perhaps,
+the entire lack of common-sense on the part of the hero would serve
+rather as a warning than a stimulating example, but the conduct of
+the wife in excusing the errors of her foolish husband is a model of
+resourcefulness.
+
+In the story of "Hereafter-this,"[26] we have just the converse: a
+perfectly foolish wife shielded by a most patient and forbearing
+husband, whose tolerance and common-sense save the situation.
+
+One of the most important elements to seek in our choice of stories is
+that which tends to develop, eventually, a fine sense of humor in a
+child.  I purposely use the word, "eventually," because I realize,
+first, that humor has various stages, and that seldom, if ever, can
+one expect an appreciation of fine humor from a normal child, that is,
+from an elemental mind.  It seems as if the rough-and-tumble element
+were almost a necessary stage through which children must pass, and
+which is a normal and healthy stage; but up to now we have quite
+unnecessarily extended the period of elephantine fun, and, though we
+cannot control the manner in which children are catered to along this
+line in their homes, we can restrict the folly of appealing too
+strongly or too long to this elemental faculty in our schools.  Of
+course, the temptation is strong because the appeal is so easy, but
+there is a tacit recognition that horseplay and practical jokes are
+no longer considered as an essential part of a child's education.
+We note this in the changed attitude in the schools, taken by more
+advanced educators, towards bullying, fagging, hazing, etc.  As a
+reaction, then, from more obvious fun, there should be a certain
+number of stories which make appeal to a more subtle element, and
+in the chapter on the questions put to me by teachers on various
+occasions I speak more in detail as to the educational value of a
+finer humor in our stories.
+
+At some period there ought to be presented in our stories the
+superstitions connected with the primitive history of the race, dealing
+with the fairy proper, giants, dwarfs, gnomes, nixies, brownies and
+other elemental beings.  Andrew Lang says: "Without our savage ancestors
+we should have had no poetry.  Conceive the human race born into the
+world in its present advanced condition, weighing, analyzing, examining
+everything.  Such a race would have been destitute of poetry and
+flattened by common-sense.  Barbarians did the _dreaming_ of the world."
+
+But it is a question of much debate among educators as to what should
+be the period of the child's life in which these stories are to be
+presented.  I, myself, was formerly of the opinion that they belonged
+to the very primitive age of the individual, just as they belong to
+the primitive age of the race, but experience in telling stories has
+taught me to compromise.
+
+Some people maintain that little children, who take things with brutal
+logic, ought not to be allowed the fairy tale in its more limited form
+of the supernatural; whereas, if presented to older children, this
+material can be criticized, catalogued and (alas!) rejected as
+worthless, or retained with flippant toleration.
+
+While realizing a certain value in this point of view, I am bound to
+admit that if we regulate our stories entirely on this basis, we lose
+the real value of the fairy tale element.  It is the one element which
+causes little children to _wonder_, simply because no scientific
+analysis of the story can be presented to them.  It is somewhat
+heartrending to feel that "Jack and the Bean Stalk" and stories of
+that ilk are to be handed over to the critical youth who will condemn
+the quick growth of the tree as being contrary to the order of nature,
+and wonder why _Jack_ was not playing football on the school team
+instead of climbing trees in search of imaginary adventures.
+
+A wonderful plea for the telling of early superstitions to children is
+to be found in an old Indian allegory called, "The Blazing Mansion."
+
+
+  An old man owned a large rambling Mansion.  The pillars were
+  rotten, the galleries tumbling down, the thatch dry and combustible,
+  and there was only one door.  Suddenly, one day, there was a smell
+  of fire: the old man rushed out.  To his horror he saw that the
+  thatch was aflame, the rotten pillars were catching fire one by
+  one, and the rafters were burning like tinder.  But, inside, the
+  children went on amusing themselves quite happily.  The distracted
+  Father said: "I will run in and save my children.  I will seize
+  them in my strong arms, I will bear them harmless through the
+  falling rafters and the blazing beams."  Then the sad thought
+  came to him that the children were romping and ignorant.  "If
+  I say the house is on fire, they will not understand me.  If
+  I try to seize them, they will romp about and try to escape.
+  Alas! not a moment to be lost!"  Suddenly a bright thought
+  flashed across the old man's mind.  "My children are ignorant,"
+  he said; "they love toys and glittering playthings.  I will
+  promise them playthings of unheard-of beauty.  Then they will
+  listen."
+
+  So the old man shouted: "Children, come out of the house and see
+  these beautiful toys!  Chariots with white oxen, all gold and
+  tinsel.  See these exquisite little antelopes.  Whoever saw
+  such goats as these?  Children, children come quickly, or they
+  will all be gone!"
+
+  Forth from the blazing ruin the children came in hot haste.  The
+  word, "plaything," was almost the only word they could understand.
+
+  Then the Father, rejoiced that his offspring were freed from peril,
+  procured for them one of the most beautiful chariots ever seen.
+  The chariot had a canopy like a pagoda; it had tiny rails and
+  balustrades and rows of jingling bells.  Milk-white oxen drew
+  the chariot.  The children were astonished when they were placed
+  inside.[27]
+
+
+Perhaps, as a compromise, one might give the gentler superstitions
+to very small children, and leave such a blood-curdling story as
+"Bluebeard" to a more robust age.
+
+
+There is one modern method which has always seemed to me much to be
+condemned, and that is the habit of changing the end of a story, for
+fear of alarming the child.  This is quite indefensible.  In doing
+this we are tampering with folklore and confusing stages of development.
+
+Now, I know that there are individual children that, at a tender age,
+might be alarmed at such a story, for instance, as "Little Red Riding-
+Hood"; in which case, it is better to sacrifice the "wonder stage" and
+present the story later on.
+
+I live in dread of finding one day a bowdlerized form of "Bluebeard,"
+prepared for a junior standard, in which, to produce a satisfactory
+finale, all the wives come to life again, and "live happily ever
+after" with Bluebeard and each other!
+
+And from this point it seems an easy transition to the subject of
+legends of different kinds.  Some of the old country legends in
+connection with flowers are very charming for children, and so long as
+we do not tread on the sacred ground of the nature students, we may
+indulge in a moderate use of such stories, of which a few will be
+found in the List of Stories, given later.
+
+With regard to the introduction of legends connected with saints into
+the school curriculum, my chief plea is the element of the unusual
+which they contain and an appeal to a sense of mysticism and wonder
+which is a wise antidote to the prosaic and commercial tendencies of
+today.  Though many of the actions of the saints may be the result of
+a morbid strain of self-sacrifice, at least none of them was engaged
+in the sole occupation of becoming rich: their ideals were often lofty
+and unselfish; their courage high, and their deeds noble.  We must be
+careful, in the choice of our legends, to show up the virile qualities
+rather than to dwell on the elements of horror in details of martyrdom,
+or on the too-constantly recurring miracles, lest we should defeat our
+own ends.  For the children might think lightly of the dangers to which
+the saints were exposed if they found them too often preserved at the
+last moment from the punishment they were brave enough to undergo.  For
+one or another of these reasons, I should avoid the detailed history of
+St. Juliana, St. Vincent, St. Quintin, St. Eustace, St. Winifred, St.
+Theodore, St. James the More, St. Katharine, St. Cuthbert, St. Alphage,
+St. Peter of Milan, St. Quirine and Juliet, St. Alban and others.
+
+The danger of telling stories connected with sudden conversions is
+that they are apt to place too much emphasis on the process, rather
+than on the goal to be reached.  We should always insist on the
+splendid deeds performed after a real conversion, not the details of
+the conversion itself; as, for instance, the beautiful and poetical
+work done by St. Christopher when he realized what work he could do
+most effectively.
+
+On the other hand, there are many stories of the saints dealing with
+actions and motives which would appeal to the imagination and are not
+only worthy of imitation, but are not wholly outside the life and
+experience even of the child.[28]
+
+Having protested against the elephantine joke and the too-frequent use
+of exaggerated fun, I now endeavor to restore the balance by suggesting
+the introduction into the school curriculum of a few purely grotesque
+stories which serve as an antidote to sentimentality or utilitarianism.
+But they must be presented as nonsense, so that the children may use
+them for what they are intended as--pure relaxation.  Such a story is
+that of "The Wolf and the Kids," which I present in my own version at
+the end of the book.  I have had serious objections offered to this
+story by several educational people, because of the revenge taken by the
+goat on the wolf, but I am inclined to think that if the story is to be
+taken as anything but sheer nonsense, it is surely sentimental to extend
+our sympathy toward a caller who has devoured six of his hostess'
+children.  With regard to the wolf being cut open, there is not the
+slightest need to accentuate the physical side.  Children accept the
+deed as they accept the cutting off of a giant's head, because they do
+not associate it with pain, especially if the deed is presented half
+humorously.  The moment in the story where their sympathy is aroused is
+the swallowing of the kids, because the children do realize the
+possibility of being disposed of in the mother's absence.  (Needless to
+say, I never point out the moral of the kids' disobedience to the mother
+in opening the door.)  I have always noticed a moment of breathlessness
+even in a grown-up audience when the wolf swallows the kids, and that
+the recovery of them "all safe and sound, all huddled together" is quite
+as much appreciated by the adult audience as by the children, and is
+worth the tremor caused by the wolf's summary action.
+
+I have not always been able to impress upon the teachers the fact that
+this story _must_ be taken lightly.  A very earnest young student
+came to me once after the telling of this story and said in an awe-
+struck voice: "Do you cor-relate?"  Having recovered from the effect
+of this word, which she carefully explained, I said that, as a rule, I
+preferred to keep the story quite apart from the other lessons, just
+an undivided whole, because it had effects of its own which were best
+brought about by not being connected with other lessons.  She frowned
+her disapproval and said: "I am sorry, because I thought I would take
+the Goat for my nature study lesson and then tell your story at the
+end."  I thought of the terrible struggle in the child's mind between
+his conscientious wish to be accurate and his dramatic enjoyment of
+the abnormal habits of a goat who went out with scissors, needle and
+thread; but I have been most careful since to repudiate any connection
+with nature study in this and a few other stories in my repertoire.
+
+One might occasionally introduce one of Edward Lear's "Nonsense
+Rhymes."  For instance:
+
+
+                  There was an Old Man of Cape Horn
+                  Who wished he had never been born.
+                    So he sat in a chair
+                    Till he died of despair,
+                  That dolorous Old Man of Cape Horn.
+
+
+Now, except in case of very young children, this could not possibly
+be taken seriously.  The least observant normal boy or girl would
+recognize the hollowness of the pessimism that prevents an old man
+from at least an attempt to rise from his chair.
+
+The following I have chosen as repeated with intense appreciation and
+much dramatic vigor by a little boy just five years old:
+
+
+                There was an old man who said: "Hush!
+                I perceive a young bird in that bush."
+                  When they said: "Is it small?"
+                  He replied, "Not at all.
+                It is four times as large as the bush."[29]
+
+
+One of the most desirable of all elements to introduce into our
+stories is that which encourages kinship with animals.  With very
+young children this is easy, because during those early years when the
+mind is not clogged with knowledge, the sympathetic imagination
+enables them to enter into the feeling of animals.  Andersen has an
+illustration of this point in his "Ice Maiden":
+
+"Children who cannot talk yet can understand the language of fowls and
+ducks quite well, and cats and dogs speak to them quite as plainly as
+Father and Mother; but that is only when the children are very small,
+and then even Grandpapa's stick will become a perfect horse to them
+that can neigh and, in their eyes, is furnished with legs and a tail.
+With some children this period ends later than with others, and of
+such we are accustomed to say that they are very backward, and that
+they have remained children for a long time.  People are in the habit
+of saying strange things."
+
+Felix Adler says:
+
+"Perhaps the chief attraction of fairy tales is due to their
+representing the child as living in brotherly friendship with nature
+and all creatures.  Trees, flowers, animals, wild and tame, even the
+stars are represented as comrades of children.  That animals are only
+human beings in disguise is an axiom in the fairy tales.  Animals
+are humanized, that is, the kinship between animal and human life
+is still keenly felt, and this reminds us of those early animistic
+interpretations of nature which subsequently led to doctrines
+of metempsychosis."[30]
+
+I think that beyond question the finest animal stories are to be
+found in the Indian collections, of which I furnish a list in the
+last chapter.
+
+With regard to the development of the love of Nature through the
+telling of stories, we are confronted with a great difficulty in the
+elementary schools because so many of the children have never been out
+of the towns, have never seen a daisy, a blade of grass and scarcely a
+tree, so that in giving, in the form of a story, a beautiful
+description of scenery, you can make no appeal to the retrospective
+imagination, and only the rarely gifted child well be able to make
+pictures while listening to a style which is beyond his everyday use.
+Nevertheless, once in a while, when the children are in a quiet mood,
+not eager for action but able to give themselves up to the pure joy of
+sound, then it is possible to give them a beautiful piece of writing
+in praise of Nature, such as the following, taken from "The Divine
+Adventure," by Fiona Macleod:
+
+
+  Then he remembered the ancient wisdom of the Gael and came
+  out of the Forest Chapel and went into the woods.  He put
+  his lip to the earth, and lifted a green leaf to his brow,
+  and held a branch to his ear; and because he was no longer
+  heavy with the sweet clay of mortality, though yet of human
+  clan, he heard that which we do not hear, and saw that which
+  we do not see, and knew that which we do not know.  All the
+  green life was his.  In that new world he saw the lives of
+  trees, now pale green, now of woodsmoke blue, now of amethyst;
+  the gray lives of stone; breaths of the grass and reed,
+  creatures of the air, delicate and wild as fawns, or
+  swift and fierce and terrible tigers of that undiscovered
+  wilderness, with birds almost invisible but for their
+  luminous wings, and opalescent crests.
+
+
+The value of this particular passage is the mystery pervading the
+whole picture, which forms so beautiful an antidote to the eternal
+explaining of things.  I think it of the highest importance for the
+children to realize that the best and most beautiful things cannot be
+expressed in everyday language and that they must content themselves
+with a flash here and there of the beauty which may come later.  One
+does not enhance the beauty of the mountain by pulling to pieces some
+of the earthy clogs; one does not increase the impression of a vast
+ocean by analyzing the single drops of water.  But at a reverent
+distance one gets a clear impression of the whole, and can afford to
+leave the details in the shadow.
+
+In presenting such passages (and it must be done very sparingly),
+experience has taught me that we should take the children into our
+confidence by telling them frankly that nothing exciting is going to
+happen, so that they well be free to listen to the mere words.  A very
+interesting experiment might occasionally be made by asking the
+children some weeks afterwards to tell you in their own words what
+pictures were made on their minds.  This is a very different thing
+from allowing the children to reproduce the passage at once, the
+danger of which proceeding I speak of later in detail.[31]
+
+We now come to the question as to what proportion of _dramatic
+excitement_ we should present in the stories for a normal group of
+children.  Personally, I should like, while the child is very young,
+I mean in main, not in years, to exclude the element of dramatic
+excitement, but though this may be possible for the individual child,
+it is quite Utopian to hope that we can keep the average child free
+from what is in the atmosphere.  Children crave for excitement, and
+unless we give it to them in legitimate form, they will take it in any
+riotous form it presents itself, and if from our experience we can
+control their mental digestion by a moderate supply of what they
+demand, we may save them from devouring too eagerly the raw material
+they can so easily find for themselves.
+
+There is a humorous passage bearing on this question in the story of
+the small Scotch boy, when he asks leave of his parents to present the
+pious little book--a gift to himself from an aunt to a little sick
+friend, hoping probably that the friend's chastened condition will make
+him more lenient towards this mawkish form of literature.  The parents
+expostulate, pointing out to their son how ungrateful he is, and how
+ungracious it would be to part with his aunt's gift.  Then the boy can
+contain himself no longer.  He bursts out, unconsciously expressing the
+normal attitude of children at a certain stage of development:
+
+"It's a _daft_ book ony way: there's naebody gets kilt ent.  I like
+stories about folk gettin' their heids cut off, or there's nae wile
+beasts.  I I like stories about black men gettin' ate up, an' white
+men killin' lions and tigers an' bears an'---"
+
+
+Then, again, we have the passage from George Eliot's "Mill on
+the Floss":
+
+"Oh, dear! I wish they would not fight at your school, Tom.  Didn't
+it hurt you?"
+
+"Hurt me?  No," said Tom, putting up the hooks again, taking out a
+large pocketknife, and slowly opening the largest blade, which he
+looked at meditatively as he rubbed his finger along it.  Then he
+added:
+
+"I gave Spooner a black eye--that's what he got for wanting to leather
+me.  I wasn't going to go halves because anybody leathered me."
+
+"Oh! how brave you are, Tom.  I think you are like Samson.  If there
+came a lion roaring at men, I think you'd fight him, wouldn't you, Tom?"
+
+"How can a lion come roaring at you, you silly thing?  There's no lions
+only in the shows."
+
+"No, but if we were in the lion countries--I mean in Africa where it's
+very hot, the lions eat people there.  I can show it you in the book
+where I read it."
+
+"Well, I should get a gun and shoot him."
+
+"But if you hadn't a gun?--we might have gone out, you know, not
+thinking, just as we go out fishing, and then a great lion might come
+towards us roaring, and we could not get away from him.  What should
+you do, Tom?"
+
+Tom paused, and at last turned away contemptuously, saying: "But the
+lion _isn't_ coming.  What's the use of talking?"
+
+This passage illustrates also the difference between the highly-
+developed imagination of the one and the stodgy prosaical temperament
+of the other.  Tom could enter into the elementary question of giving
+his schoolfellow a black eye, but could not possibly enter into the
+drama of the imaginary arrival of a lion.  He was sorely in need of
+fairy stories.
+
+It is to this element we have to cater, and we cannot shirk our
+responsibilities.
+
+William James says:
+
+"Living things, moving things or things that savor of danger or blood,
+that have a dramatic quality, these are the things natively interesting
+to childhood, to the exclusion of almost everything else, and the
+teacher of young children, until more artificial interests have grown
+up, will keep in touch with his pupils by constant appeal to such
+matters as these."[32]
+
+Of course the savor of danger and blood is only _one_ of the things to
+which we should appeal, but I give the whole passage to make the point
+clearer.
+
+This is one of the most difficult parts of our selection, namely, how
+to present enough excitement for the child and yet include enough
+constructive element which will satisfy him when the thirst for
+"blugginess" is slaked.
+
+And here I should like to say that, while wishing to encourage in
+children great admiration and reverence for the courage and other fine
+qualities which have been displayed in times of war and which have
+mitigated its horrors, I think we should show that some of the finest
+moments in these heroes' lives had nothing to do with their profession
+as soldiers.  Thus, we have the well-known story of Sir Philip Sydney
+and the soldier; the wonderful scene where Roland drags the bodies of
+his dead friends to receive the blessing of the Archbishop after the
+battle of Roncesvall;[33] and of Napoleon sending the sailor back to
+England. There is a moment in the story of Gunnar when he pauses in
+the midst of the slaughter of his enemies, and says, "I wonder if I am
+less base than others, because I kill men less willingly than they."
+
+And in the "Burning of Njal,"[34] we have the words of the boy, Thord,
+when his grandmother, Bergthora, urges him to go out of the burning
+house.
+
+"'You promised me when I was little, grandmother, that I should never
+go from you till I wished it of myself.  And I would rather die with
+you than live after you.'"
+
+Here the moral courage is so splendidly shown: none of these heroes
+feared to die in battle or in open single fight; but to face death by
+fire for higher considerations is a point of view worth presenting to
+the child.
+
+In spite of all the dramatic excitement roused by the conduct of our
+soldiers and sailors, should we not try to offer also in our stories
+the romance and excitement of saving as well as taking life?
+
+I would have quite a collection dealing with the thrilling adventures
+of the Lifeboat and the Fire Brigade, of which I shall present
+examples in the final story list.
+
+Finally, we ought to include a certain number of stories dealing with
+death, especially with children who are of an age to realize that it
+must come to all, and that this is not a calamity but a perfectly
+natural and simple thing.  At present the child in the street
+invariably connects death with sordid accidents.  I think they should
+have stories of death coming in heroic form, as when a man or woman
+dies for a great cause, in which he has opportunity of admiring
+courage, devotion and unselfishness; or of death coming as a result of
+treachery, such as we find in the death of Baldur, the death of
+Siegfried, and others, so that children may learn to abhor such deeds;
+but also a fair proportion of stories dealing with death that comes
+naturally, when our work is done, and our strength gone, which has no
+more tragedy than the falling of a leaf from the tree.  In this way,
+we can give children the first idea that the individual is so much
+less than the whole.
+
+Little children often take death very naturally.  A boy of five met
+two of his older companions at the school door.  They said sadly and
+solemnly: "We have just seen a dead man!"  "Well," said the little
+philosopher, "that's all right.  We've _all_ got to die when our
+work is done."
+
+
+In one of the Buddha stories which I reproduce at the end of this
+book, the little Hare (who is, I think, a symbol of nervous
+individualism) constantly says: "Suppose the Earth were to fall
+in, what would become of me?"
+
+As an antidote to the ordinary attitude towards death, I commend an
+episode from a German folklore story which is called "Unlucky John,"
+and which is included in the list of stories recommended at the end
+of this book.
+
+The following sums up in poetic form some of the material necessary
+for the wants of a child.
+
+
+                              THE CHILD
+
+               The little new soul has come to earth,
+                 He has taken his staff for the pilgrim's way.
+               His sandals are girt on his tender feet,
+                 And he carries his scrip for what gifts he may.
+
+
+               What will you give to him, Fate Divine?
+                 What for his scrip on the winding road?
+               A crown for his head, or a laurel wreath?
+                 A sword to wield, or is gold his load?
+
+               What will you give him for weal or woe?
+                 What for the journey through day and night?
+               Give or withhold from him power and fame,
+                 But give to him love of the earth's delight.
+
+               Let him be lover of wind and sun
+                 And of falling rain; and the friend of trees;
+               With a singing heart for the pride of noon,
+                 And a tender heart for what twilight sees.
+
+               Let him be lover of you and yours--
+                 The Child and Mary; but also Pan
+               And the sylvan gods of the woods and hills,
+                 And the god that is hid in his fellowman.
+
+               Love and a song and the joy of the earth,
+                 These be gifts for his scrip to keep
+               Till, the journey ended, he stands at last
+                 In the gathering dark, at the gate of sleep.
+
+                                                   ETHEL CLIFFORD
+
+
+And so our stories should contain all the essentials for the child's
+scrip on the road of life, providing the essentials and holding or
+withholding the non-essentials.  But, above all, let us fill the scrip
+with gifts that the child need never reject, even when he passes
+through to "the gate of sleep."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.  HOW TO OBTAIN AND MAINTAIN THE EFFECT OF THE STORY.
+
+We are now come to the most important part of the question of story-
+telling, to which all the foregoing remarks have been gradually
+leading, and that is the effect of these stories upon the child, quite
+apart from the dramatic joy he experiences in listening to them, which
+would in itself be quite enough to justify us in the telling.  But,
+since I have urged the extreme importance of giving so much time to
+the manner of telling and of bestowing so much care in the selection
+of the material, it is right that we should expect some permanent
+results or else those who are not satisfied with the mere enjoyment of
+the children will seek other methods of appeal--it is to them that I
+most specially dedicate this chapter.
+
+I think we are of the threshold of the re-discovery of an old truth,
+that _dramatic presentation_ is the quickest and the surest
+method of appeal, because it is the only one with which memory plays
+no tricks. If a thing has appeared before us in a vital form nothing
+can really destroy it; it is because things are often given in a
+blurred, faint light that they gradually fade out of our memory.  A
+very keen scientist was deploring to me, on one occasion, the fact
+that stories were told so much in the schools, to the detriment of
+science, for which he claimed the same indestructible element that I
+recognize in the best-told stories.  Being very much interested in her
+point of view, I asked her to tell me, looking back on her school
+days, what she could remember as standing out from other less clear
+information.  After thinking some little time over the matter, she
+said with some embarrassment, but with candor that did her much honor:
+
+"Well, now I come to think of it, it was the story of Cinderella."
+
+Now, I am not holding any brief for this story in particular.  I think
+the reason it was remembered was because of the dramatic form in which
+it was presented to her, which fired her imagination and kept the
+memory alight.  I quite realize that a scientific fact might also have
+been easily remembered if it had been presented in the form of a
+successful chemical experiment; but this also has something of the
+dramatic appeal and will be remembered on that account.
+
+Sully says: "We cannot understand the fascination of a story for
+children save in remembering that for their young minds, quick to
+imagine, and unversed in abstract reflection, words are not dead
+things but _winged_, as the old Greeks called them."[35]
+
+The _Red Queen_, in "Alice Through the Looking-Glass," was more
+psychological than she was aware of when she made the memorable
+statement: "When once you've _said_ a thing, that _fixes_ it, and
+you must take the consequences."
+
+In Curtin's "Introduction to Myths and Folk Tales of the Russians",
+he says:
+
+"I remember well the feeling roused in my mind at the mention or sight
+of the name _Lucifer_ during the early years of my life.  It stood for
+me as the name of a being stupendous, dreadful in moral deformity,
+lurid, hideous and mighty.  I remember the surprise with which, when I
+had grown somewhat older and began to study Latin, I came upon the name
+in Virgil where it means _light-bringer_--the herald of the Sun."
+
+Plato has said that "the end of education should be the training by
+suitable habits of the instincts of virtue in the child."
+
+About two thousand years later, Sir Philip Sydney, in his "Defence of
+Poesy," says: "The final end of learning is to draw and lead us to so
+high a perfection as our degenerate souls, made worse by their clay
+lodgings, can be capable of."
+
+And yet it is neither the Greek philosopher nor the Elizabethan poet
+that makes the everyday application of these principles; but we have
+a hint of this application from the Pueblo tribe of Indians, of whom
+Lummis tells us the following:
+
+"There is no duty to which a Pueblo child is trained in which he has
+to be content with a bare command: do this.  For each, he learns a
+fairy-tale designed to explain how children first came to know that
+it was right to 'do this,' and detailing the sad results that befall
+those who did otherwise.  Some tribes have regular story-tellers, men
+who have devoted a great deal of time to learning the myths and stories
+of their people and who possess, in addition to good memory, a vivid
+imagination.  The mother sends for one of these, and having prepared a
+feast for him, she and her little brood, who are curled up near her,
+await the fairy stories of the dreamer who after his feast and smoke
+entertains the company for hours."
+
+In modern times, the nurse, who is now receiving such complete training
+for her duties with children, should be ready to imitate the "dreamer"
+of the Indian tribe.  I rejoice to find that regular instruction in
+story-telling is being given in many of the institutions where the
+nurses are trained.
+
+Some years ago there appeared a book by Dion Calthrop called "King
+Peter," which illustrates very fully the effect of story-telling.  It
+is the account of the education of a young prince which is carried on
+at first by means of stories, and later he is taken out into the arena
+of life to show what is happening there--the dramatic appeal being
+always the means used to awaken his imagination.  The fact that only
+_one_ story a year is told him prevents our seeing the effect from day
+to day, but the time matters little.  We only need faith to believe
+that the growth, though slow, was sure.
+
+There is something of the same idea in the "Adventures of Telemachus,"
+written by Fenelon for his royal pupil, the young Duke of Burgundy, but
+whereas Calthrop trusts to the results of indirect teaching by means of
+dramatic stories, Fenelon, on the contrary, makes use of the somewhat
+heavy, didactic method, so that one would think the attention of the
+young prince must have wandered at times; and I imagine Telemachus was
+in the same condition when he was addressed at such length by Mentor,
+who, being Minerva, though in disguise, should occasionally have
+displayed that sense of humor which must always temper true wisdom.
+
+Take, for instance the heavy reproof conveyed in the following passage:
+
+"Death and shipwreck are less dreadful than the pleasures that attack
+Virtue. . . . Youth is full of presumption and arrogance, though
+nothing in the world is so frail: it fears nothing, and vainly relies
+utmost levity and without any precaution."
+
+And on another occasion, when Calypso hospitably provides clothes for
+the shipwrecked men, and Telemachus is handling a tunic of the finest
+wool and white as snow, with a vest of purple embroidered with gold,
+and displaying much pleasure in the magnificence of the clothes,
+Mentor addresses him in a severe voice, saying: "Are these, O
+Telemachus, the thoughts that ought to occupy the heart of the son
+of Ulysses?  A young man who loves to dress vainly, as a woman does,
+is unworthy of wisdom or glory."
+
+I remember, as a school girl of thirteen, having to commit to memory
+several books of these adventures, so as to become familiar with the
+style.  Far from being impressed by the wisdom of Mentor, I was simply
+bored, and wondered why Telemachus did not escape from him.  The only
+part in the book that really interested me was Calypso's unrequited
+love for Telemachus, but this was always the point where we ceased to
+learn by heart, which surprised me greatly, for it was here that the
+real human interest seemed to begin.
+
+Of all the effects which I hope for from the telling of stories in the
+schools, I, personally, place first the dramatic joy we bring to the
+children and to ourselves.  But there are many who would consider this
+result as fantastic, if not frivolous, and not to be classed among the
+educational values connected with the introduction of stories into the
+school curriculum.  I, therefore, propose to speak of other effects of
+story-telling which may seem of more practical value.
+
+The first, which is of a purely negative character, is that through
+means of a dramatic story we may counteract some of the sights and
+sounds of the street which appeal to the melodramatic instinct in
+children.  I am sure that all teachers whose work lies in crowded
+cities must have realized the effect produced on children by what they
+see and hear on their way to and from school.  If we merely consider
+the bill boards with their realistic representations, quite apart from
+the actual dramatic happenings in the street, we at once perceive that
+the ordinary school interests pale before such lurid appeals as these.
+How can we expect the child who has stood openmouthed before a poster
+representing a woman chloroformed by a burglar (while that hero
+escapes in safety with jewels) to display any interest in the arid
+monotony of the multiplication table?  The illegitimate excitement
+created by the sight of the depraved burglar can only be counteracted
+by something equally exciting along the realistic but legitimate side
+of appeal; and this is where the story of the right kind becomes so
+valuable, and why the teacher who is artistic enough to undertake the
+task can find the short path to results which theorists seek for so
+long in vain.  It is not even necessary to have an exceedingly
+exciting story; sometimes one which will bring about pure reaction may
+be just as suitable.
+
+I remember in my personal experience an instance of this kind.  I had
+been reading with some children of about ten years old the story from
+"Cymbeline" of _Imogen_ in the forest scene, when the brothers strew
+flowers upon her, and sing the funeral dirge,
+
+
+                   Fear no more the heat of the sun.
+
+
+Just as we had all taken on this tender, gentle mood, the door opened
+and one of the prefects announced in a loud voice the news of the
+relief of Mafeking.  The children were on their feet at once, cheering
+lustily, and for the moment the joy over the relief of the brave
+garrison was the predominant feeling.  Then, I took advantage of a
+momentary reaction and said: "Now, children, don't you think we can
+pay England the tribute of going back to England's greatest poet?"  In
+a few minutes we were back in the heart of the forest, and I can still
+hear the delightful intonation of those subdued voices repeating,
+
+
+                 Golden lads and girls all must
+                 Like chimney-sweepers come to dust.
+
+
+It is interesting to note that the same problem that is exercising us
+today was a source of difficulty to people in remote times.  The
+following is taken from an old Chinese document, and has particular
+interest for us at this time:
+
+"The philosopher, Mentius (born 371 B. C.), was left fatherless at a
+very tender age and brought up by his mother, Changsi.  The care of
+this prudent and attentive mother has been cited as a model for all
+virtuous parents.  The house she occupied was near that of a butcher;
+she observed at the first cry of the animals that were being
+slaughtered, the little Mentius ran to be present at the sight, and
+that, on his return, he sought to imitate what he had seen.  Fearful
+lest his heart might become hardened, and accustomed to the sights of
+blood, she removed to another house which was in the neighborhood of a
+cemetery.  The relations of those who were buried there came often to
+weep upon their graves, and make their customary libations.  The lad
+soon took pleasure in their ceremonies and amused himself by imitating
+them.  This was a new subject of uneasiness to his mother: she feared
+her son might come to consider as a jest what is of all things the
+most serious, and that he might acquire a habit of performing with
+levity, and as a matter of routine merely, ceremonies which demand the
+most exact attention and respect.  Again, therefore, she anxiously
+changed the dwelling, and went to live in the city, opposite a school,
+where her son found examples the most worthy of imitation, and began
+to profit by them.  This anecdote has become incorporated by the
+Chinese into a proverb, which they constantly quote: The mother of
+Mentius seeks a neighborhood."
+
+Another influence we have to counteract is that of newspaper headings
+and placards which catch the eye of children in the streets and appeal
+so powerfully to their imagination.
+
+Shakespeare has said:
+
+
+                  Tell me where is Fancy bred,
+                  Or in the heart, or in the head?
+                  How begot, how nourished?
+                  It is engendered in the eyes
+                  With gazing fed,
+                  And Fancy dies in the cradle where it lies.
+                  Let us all ring Fancy's knell.
+                  I'll begin it--ding, dong, bell.
+                                           "Merchant of Venice."
+
+
+If this be true, it is of importance to decide what our children shall
+look upon as far as we can control the vision, so that we can form
+some idea of the effect upon their imagination.
+
+Having alluded to the dangerous influence of the street, I should
+hasten to say that this influence is very far from being altogether
+bad.  There are possibilities of romance in street life which may have
+just the same kind of effect on children as the telling of exciting
+stories.  I am indebted to Mrs. Arnold Glover, Honorary Secretary of
+the National Organization of Girls' Clubs,[36] one of the most widely
+informed people on this subject, for the two following experiences
+gathered from the streets and which bear indirectly on the subject of
+story-telling:
+
+Mrs. Glover was visiting a sick woman in a very poor neighborhood, and
+found, sitting on the door-step of the house, two little children,
+holding something tightly grasped in their little hands, and gazing
+with much expectancy towards the top of the street.  She longed to
+know what they were doing, but not being one of those unimaginative
+and tactless folk who rush headlong into the mysteries of children's
+doings, she passed them at first in silence.  It was only when she
+found them still in the same silent and expectant posture half an hour
+later that she said tentatively: "I wonder whether you would tell me
+what you are doing here?"  After some hesitation, one of them said, in
+a shy voice: "We're waitin' for the  barrer."  It then transpired
+that, once a week, a vegetable-and-flower-cart was driven through this
+particular street, on its way to a more prosperous neighborhood, and
+on a few red-letter days, a flower, or a sprig, or even a root
+sometimes fell out of the back of the cart; and these two little
+children were sitting there in hope, with their hands full of soil,
+ready to plant anything which might by some golden chance fall that
+way, in their secret garden of oyster shells.
+
+This seems to me as charming a fairy tale as any that our books
+can supply.
+
+On another occasion, Mrs. Glover was collecting the pennies for the
+Holiday Fund Savings Bank from the children who came weekly to her
+house.  She noticed on three consecutive Mondays that one little lad
+deliberately helped himself to a new envelope from her table.  Not
+wishing to frighten or startle him, she allowed this to continue for
+some weeks, and then one day, having dismissed the other children, she
+asked him quite quietly why he was taking the envelopes.  At first he
+was very sulky, and said: "I need them more than you do."  She quite
+agreed this might be, but reminded him that, after all, they belonged
+to her.  She promised, however, that if he would tell her for what
+purpose he wanted the envelopes, she would endeavor to help him in the
+matter.  Then came the astonishing announcement: "I am building a
+navy."  After a little more gradual questioning, Mrs. Glover drew from
+the boy the information that the Borough water carts passed through
+the side street once a week, flushing the gutter; that then the
+envelope ships were made to sail on the water and pass under the
+covered ways which formed bridges for wayfarers and tunnels for the
+"navy."  Great was the excitement when the ships passed out of sight
+and were recognized as they arrived safely at the other end.  Of
+course, the expenses in raw material were greatly diminished by the
+illicit acquisition of Mrs. Glover's property, and in this way she had
+unconsciously provided the neighborhood with a navy and a commander.
+Her first instinct, after becoming acquainted with the whole story,
+was to present the boy with a real boat, but on second thought she
+collected and gave him a number of old envelopes with names and
+addresses upon them, which added greatly to the excitement of the
+sailing, because they could be more easily identified as they came out
+of the other end of the tunnel, and had their respective reputations
+as to speed.
+
+Here is indeed food for romance, and I give both instances to prove
+that the advantages of street life are to be taken into consideration
+as well as the disadvantages, though I think we are bound to admit
+that the latter outweigh the former.
+
+One of the immediate results of dramatic stories is the escape from the
+commonplace, to which I have already alluded in quoting Mr. Goschen's
+words.  The desire for this escape is a healthy one, common to adults
+and children.  When we wish to get away from our own surroundings and
+interests, we do for ourselves what I maintain we ought to do for
+children: we step into the land of fiction.  It has always been a source
+of astonishment to me that, in trying to escape from our own everyday
+surroundings, we do not step more boldly into the land of pure romance,
+which would form a real contrast to our everyday life, but, in nine
+cases out of ten, the fiction which is sought after deals with the
+subjects of our ordinary existence, namely, frenzied finance, sordid
+poverty, political corruption, fast society, and religious doubts.
+
+There is the same danger in the selection of fiction for children:
+namely, a tendency to choose very utilitarian stories, both in form
+and substance, so that we do not lift the children out of the
+commonplace.  I remember once seeing the titles of two little books,
+the contents of which were being read or told to children; one was
+called, "Tom the Bootblack"; the other, "Dan the Newsboy."  My chief
+objection to these stories was the fact that neither of the heroes
+rejoiced in his work for the work's sake.  Had _Tom_ even invented a
+new kind of blacking, or if _Dan_ had started a newspaper, it might
+have been encouraging for those among the listeners who were thinking
+of engaging in similar professions.  It is true, both gentlemen amassed
+large fortunes, but surely the school age is not to be limited to such
+dreams and aspirations as these!  One wearies of the tales of boys who
+arrive in a town with one cent in their pocket and leave it as
+millionaires, with the added importance of a mayoralty.  It is
+undoubtedly true that the romantic prototype of these worthy youths is
+_Dick Whittingon_, for whom we unconsciously cherish the affection which
+we often bestow on a far-off personage.  Perhaps--who can say?--it is
+the picturesque adjunct of the cat, lacking to modern millionaires.
+
+I do not think it Utopian to present to children a fair share of
+stories which deal with the importance of things "untouched by hand."
+They, too, can learn at an early age that "the things which are seen
+are temporal, but the things which are unseen are spiritual."  To
+those who wish to try the effect of such stories on children, I
+present for their encouragement the following lines from James
+Whitcomb Riley:
+
+
+                  THE TREASURE OF THE WISE MAN[37]
+
+            Oh, the night was dark and the night was late,
+            When the robbers came to rob him;
+            And they picked the lock of his palace-gate,
+            The robbers who came to rob him--;
+            They picked the lock of the palace-gate,
+            Seized his jewels and gems of State,
+            His coffers of gold and his priceless plate,--
+            The robbers that came to rob him.
+
+            But loud laughed he in the morning red!--
+            For of what had the robbers robbed him?
+            Ho! hidden safe, as he slept in bed,
+            When the robbers came to rob him,--
+            They robbed him not of a golden shred
+            Of the childish dreams in his wise old head-
+
+            "And they're welcome to all things else," he said,
+            When the robbers came to rob him.
+
+
+There is a great deal of this romantic spirit, combined with a
+delightful sense of irresponsibility, which I claim above all things
+for small children, to be found in our old nursery rhymes.  I quote
+from the following article written by the Rev. R. L. Gales for the
+_Nation_.
+
+After speaking on the subject of fairy stories being eliminated from
+the school curriculum, the writer adds:
+
+"This would be lessening the joy of the world and taking from
+generations yet unborn the capacity for wonder, the power to take a
+large unselfish interest in the spectacle of things, and putting them
+forever at the mercy of small private cares.
+
+"A nursery rhyme is the most sane, the most unselfish thing in the
+world. It calls up some delightful image--a little nut-tree with a
+silver walnut and a golden pear; some romantic adventure only for the
+child's delight and liberation from the bondage of unseeing dullness:
+it brings before the mind the quintessence of some good thing:
+
+"'The little dog laughed to see such sport'--there is the soul of
+good humor, of sanity, of health in the laughter of that innocently
+wicked little dog.  It is the laughter of pure frolic without
+unkindness.  To have laughed with the little dog as a child is the
+best preservative against mirthless laughter in later years--the
+horse laughter of brutality, the ugly laughter of spite, the acrid
+laughter of fanaticism.  The world of nursery rhymes, the old world of
+Mrs. Slipper-Slopper, is the world of natural things, of quick,
+healthy motion, of the joy of living.
+
+"In nursery rhymes the child is entertained with all the pageant of
+the world.  It walks in fairy gardens, and for it the singing birds
+pass.  All the King's horses and all the King's men pass before it in
+their glorious array.  Craftsmen of all sorts, bakers, confectioners,
+silversmiths, blacksmiths are busy for it with all their arts and
+mysteries, as at the court of an eastern King."
+
+In insisting upon the value of this escape from the commonplace, I
+cannot prove the importance of it more clearly than by showing what
+may happen to a child who is deprived of his birthright by having none
+of the fairy tale element presented to him.  In "Father and Son," Mr.
+Edmund Gosse says:
+
+"Meanwhile, capable as I was of reading, I found my greatest pleasure
+in the pages of books.  The range of these was limited, for storybooks
+of every description were sternly excluded.  No fiction of any kind,
+religious or secular, was admitted into the house.  In this it was to
+my Mother, not to my Father, that the prohibition was due.  She had a
+remarkable, I confess, to me somewhat unaccountable impression that to
+'tell a story,' that is, to compose fictitious narrative of any king,
+was a sin. . . . Nor would she read the chivalrous tales in the verse
+of Sir Walter Scott, obstinately alleging that they were not true. She
+would nothing but lyrical and subjective poetry.  As a child, however,
+she had possessed a passion for making up stories, and so considerable
+a skill in it, that she was constantly being begged to indulge others
+with its exercise. . . . 'When I was a very little child,' she says,
+'I used to amuse myself and my brothers with inventing stories such as
+I had read.  Having, I suppose, a naturally restless mind and busy
+imagination, this soon became the chief pleasure of my life.
+Unfortunately, my brothers were always fond of encouraging this
+propensity, and I found in Taylor, my maid, a still greater tempter.
+I had not known there was any harm in it, until Miss Shore, a
+Calvinistic governess, finding it out, lectured me severely and told
+me it was wicked.  From that time forth, I considered that to invent a
+story of any kind was a sin. . . . But the longing to do so grew with
+violence. . . . The simplicity of Truth was not enough for me.  I must
+needs embroider imagination upon it, and the vanity and wickedness
+which disgraced my heart are more than I am able to express.'  This
+[the author, her son, adds] is surely a very painful instance of the
+repression of an instinct."
+
+In contrast to the stifling of the imagination, it is good to recall
+the story of the great Hermite who, having listened to the discussion
+of the Monday sitting at the Academie des Sciences (Insitut de France)
+as to the best way to teach the "young idea how to shoot" in the
+direction of mathematical genius, said: "_Cultivez l'imagination,
+messieurs.  Tout est La.  Si vous voulez des mathematiciens, donnez
+a vos enfants a; lire--des Contes de Fees._"
+
+Another important effect of the story is to develop at an early age
+sympathy for children of other countries where conditions are different
+from our own.
+
+I have so constantly to deal with the question of confusion between
+truth and fiction in the minds of children that it might be useful
+to offer here an example of the way they make the distinction for
+themselves.
+
+Mrs. Ewing says on this subject:
+
+"If there are young intellects so imperfect as to be incapable of
+distinguishing between fancy and falsehood, it is most desirable to
+develop in them the power to do so, but, as a rule, in childhood, we
+appreciate the distinction with a vivacity which as elders our care-
+clogged memories fail to recall."
+
+Mr. P. A. Barnett, in his book on the "Common-sense of Education,"
+says, alluding to fairy-tales:
+
+"Children will _act_ them but not act _upon_ them, and they
+will not accept the incidents as part of their effectual belief.  They
+will imagine, to be sure, grotesque worlds, full of admirable and
+interesting personages to whom strange things might have happened.  So
+much the better: this largeness of imagination is one of the
+possessions that distinguish the better nurtured child from others
+less fortunate."
+
+The following passage from Stevenson's essay on _"Child Play"_[38]
+will furnish an instance of children's aptitude for creating their
+own dramatic atmosphere:
+
+"When my cousin and I took our porridge of a morning, we had a device
+to enliven the course of a meal.  He ate his with sugar, and explained
+it to be a country continually buried under snow.  I took mine with
+milk, and explained it to be country suffering gradual inundation.
+You can imagine us exchanging bulletins; how here was an island still
+unsubmerged, here a valley not yet covered with snow; what inventions
+were made; how his population lived in cabins on perches and traveled
+on stilts, and how mine was always in boats; how the interest grew
+furious as the last corner of safe ground was cut off on all sides and
+grew smaller every moment; and how, in fine, the food was of
+altogether secondary importance, and might even have been nauseous, so
+long as we seasoned it with these dreams.  But perhaps the most
+exciting moments I ever had over a meal were in the case of calf's
+foot jelly.  It was hardly possible not to believe--and you may
+be quite sure, so far from trying, I did all I could to favor the
+illusion--that some part of it was hollow and that sooner or
+later my spoon would lay open the secret tabernacle of the golden
+rock.  There, might some _Red-Beard_ await his hour; there might
+one find the treasures of the Forty Thieves.  And so I quarried on
+slowly, with bated breath, savoring the interest.  Believe me, I had
+little palate left for the jelly; and though I preferred the taste
+when I tool cream with it, I used often to go without because the
+cream dimmed the transparent fractures."
+
+In his work on "Imagination," Ribot says: "The free initiative of
+children is always superior to the imitations we pretend to make
+for them."
+
+The passage from Robert Louis Stevenson becomes more clear from a
+scientific point of view when taken in connection with one from Karl
+Groos' book on the "Psychology of Animal Play":
+
+"The child is wholly absorbed in his play, and yet under the ebb and
+flow of thought and feeling like still water under wind-swept waves,
+he has the knowledge that it is pretense after all.  Behind the sham
+'I' that takes part in the game, stands the unchanged 'I' which
+regards the sham 'I' with quiet superiority."
+
+Queyrat speaks of play as one of the distinct phases of a child's
+imagination; it is "essentially a metamorphosis of reality, a
+transformation of places and things."
+
+Now to return to the point which Mrs. Ewing makes, namely, that we
+should develop in normal children the power of distinguishing between
+truth and falsehood.
+
+I should suggest including two or three stories which would test that
+power in children, and if they fail to realize the difference between
+romancing and telling lies, then it is evident that they need special
+attention and help along this line.  I give the titles of two stories
+of this kind in the collection at the end of the book.[39]
+
+Thus far we have dealt only with the negative results of stories, but
+there are more important effects, and I am persuaded that if we are
+careful in our choice of stories, and artistic in our presentation,
+so that the truth is framed, so to speak, in the memory, we can
+unconsciously correct evil tendencies in children which they recognize
+in themselves only when they have already criticized them in the
+characters of the story.  I have sometimes been misunderstood on this
+point, and, therefore, I should like to make it quite clear.  I do
+_not_ mean that stories should take the place entirely of moral or
+direct teaching, but that on many occasions they could supplement
+and strengthen moral teaching, because the dramatic appeal to the
+imagination is quicker than the moral appeal to the conscience.  A
+child will often resist the latter lest it should make him uncomfortable
+or appeal to his personal sense of responsibility: it is often not in
+his power to resist the former, because it has taken possession of him
+before he is aware of it.
+
+As a concrete example, I offer three verses from a poem entitled, "A
+Ballad for a Boy," written some twelve years ago by W. Cory, an Eton
+master.  The whole poem is to be found in a book of poems known as
+"Ionica."[40]
+
+The poem describes a fight between two ships, the French ship,
+_Temeraire_, and the English ship, _Quebec_.  The English ship was
+destroyed by fire; Farmer, the captain, was killed, and the officers
+take prisoners:
+
+
+  They dealt with us as brethren, they mourned for Farmer dead,
+  And as the wounded captives passed each Breton bowed the head.
+  Then spoke the French lieutenant:
+  "'Twas the fire that won, not we.
+  You never struck your flag to _us_; You'll go to England free."[41]
+
+  'Twas the sixth day of October, seventeen hundred seventy-nine,
+  A year when nations ventured against us to combine,
+  _Quebec_ was burned and Farmer slain, by us remembered not;
+  But thanks be to the French book wherein they're not forgot.
+
+  And you, if you've got to fight the French, my youngster, bear in
+    mind
+  Those seamen of King Louis so chivalrous and kind;
+  Think of the Breton gentlemen who took our lads to Brest,
+  And treat some rescued Breton as a comrade and a guest.
+
+
+But in all our stories, in order to produce desired effects we must
+refrain from holding, as Burroughs says, "a brief for either side,"
+and we must let the people in the story be judged by their deeds and
+leave the decision of the children free in this matter.[42]
+
+In a review of Ladd's "Psychology" in the _Academy_, we find a
+passage which refers as much to the story as to the novel:
+
+"The psychological novelist girds up his loins and sets himself to
+write little essays on each of his characters.  If he have the gift of
+the thing he may analyze motives with a subtlety which is more than
+their desert, and exhibit simple folk passing through the most
+dazzling rotations.  If he be a novice, he is reduced to mere crude
+invention--the result in both cases is quite beyond the true purpose
+of Art.  Art--when all is said and done--a suggestion, and it
+refuses to be explained.  Make it obvious, unfold it in detail, and
+you reduce it to a dead letter."
+
+Again, there is a sentence by Schopenhauer applied to novels which
+would apply equally well to stories:
+
+"Skill consists in setting the inner life in motion with the smallest
+possible array of circumstances, for it is this inner life that
+excites our interest."
+
+In order to produce an encouraging and lasting effect by means of our
+stories, we should be careful to introduce a certain number from
+fiction where virtue is rewarded and vice punished, because to
+appreciate the fact that "virtue is its own reward" it takes a
+developed and philosophic mind, or a born saint, of whom there will
+not, I think, be many among normal children: a comforting fact, on the
+whole, as the normal teacher is apt to confuse them with prigs.
+
+A grande dame visiting an elementary school listened to the telling of
+an exciting story from fiction, and was impressed by the thrill of
+delight which passed through the children.  But when the story was
+finished, she said: "But _oh!_ what a pity the story was not
+taken from actual history!"
+
+Now, not only was this comment quite beside the mark, but the lady in
+question did not realize that pure fiction has one quality which
+history cannot have.  The historian, bound by fact and accuracy, must
+often let his hero come to grief.  The poet (or, in this case we may
+call him, in the Greek sense, the "maker" of stories) strives to show
+_ideal_ justice.
+
+What encouragement to virtue, except for the abnormal child, can be
+offered by the stories of good men coming to grief, such as we find
+Miltiades, Phocion, Socrates, Severus, Cicero, Cato and Caesar?
+
+Sir Philip Sydney says in his "Defence of Poesy":
+
+"Only the poet declining to be held by the limitations of the lawyer,
+the _historian_, the grammarian, the rhetorician, the logician,
+the physician, the metaphysician is lifted up with the vigor of his
+own imagination; doth grow in effect into another nature in making
+things either better than Nature bringeth forth or quite anew, as the
+Heroes, Demi-gods, Cyclops, Furies and such like so as he goeth hand-
+in-hand with Nature, not inclosed in the narrow range of her gifts but
+freely ranging within the Zodiac of his own art--_her_ world is brazen;
+the poet only delivers a golden one."
+
+The effect of the story need not stop at the negative task of correcting
+evil tendencies.  There is the positive effect of translating the
+abstract ideal of the story into concrete action.
+
+I was told by Lady Henry Somerset that when the first set of children
+came down from London for a fortnight's holiday in the country, she
+was much startled and shocked by the obscenity of the games they
+played amongst themselves.  Being a sound psychologist, Lady Henry
+wisely refrained from appearing surprised or from attempting any
+direct method of reproof.  "I saw," she said, "that the 'goody'
+element would have no effect, so I changed the whole atmosphere by
+reading to them or telling them the most thrilling medieval tales
+without any commentary.  By the end of the fortnight the activities
+had all changed.  The boys were performing astonishing deeds of
+prowess, and the girls were allowing themselves to be rescued from
+burning towers and fetid dungeons."  Now, if these deeds of chivalry
+appear somewhat stilted to us, we can at least realize that, having
+changed the whole atmosphere of the filthy games, it is easier to
+translate the deeds into something a little more in accordance with
+the spirit of the age, and boys will more readily wish later on to
+save their sisters from dangers more sordid and commonplace than fiery
+towers and dark dungeons, if they have once performed the deeds in
+which they had to court danger and self-sacrifice for themselves.
+
+And now we come to the question as to how these effects are to be
+maintained.  In what has already been stated as to the danger of
+introducing the dogmatic and direct appeal into the story, it is
+evident that the avoidance of this element is the first means of
+preserving the story in all its artistic force in the memory of the
+child.  We must be careful, as I point out in the chapter on Questions,
+not to interfere by comment or question with the atmosphere we have
+made round the story, or else, in the future, that story will become
+blurred and overlaid with the remembrance, not of the artistic whole,
+as presented by the teller of the story, but by some unimportant small
+side issue raised by an irrelevant question or a superfluous comment.
+
+Many people think that the dramatization of the story by the children
+themselves helps to maintain the effect produced.  Personally, I fear
+there is the same danger as in the immediate reproduction of the story,
+but by some unimportant small side issue raised by an irrelevant
+question or a superfluous comment.
+
+Many people think that the dramatization of the story by the children
+themselves helps to maintain the effect produced.  Personally, I fear
+there is the same danger as in the immediate reproduction of the story,
+namely, that the general dramatic effect may be weakened.
+
+If, however, there is to be dramatization (and I do not wish to
+dogmatize on the subject), I think it should be confined to facts
+and not fancies, and this is why I realize the futility of the
+dramatization of fairy tales.
+
+Horace E. Scudder says on this subject:
+
+"Nothing has done more to vulgarize the fairy than its introduction
+on the stage.  The charm of the fairy tale is its divorce from human
+experience: the charm of the stage is its realization in miniature of
+human life.  If a frog is heard to speak, if a dog is changed before
+our eyes into a prince by having cold water dashed over it, the charm
+of the fairy tale has fled, and, in its place, we have the perplexing
+pleasure of _legerdemain_.   Since the real life of a fairy is in
+the imagination, a wrong is committed when it is dragged from its
+shadowy hiding-place and made to turn into ashes under the calcium
+light of the understanding."[43]
+
+I am bound to admit that the teachers have a case when they plead for
+this reproducing of the story, and there are three arguments they use
+the validity of which I admit, but which have nevertheless not
+converted me, because the loss, to my mind, would exceed the gain.
+
+The first argument they put forward is that the reproduction of the
+story enables the child to enlarge and improve his vocabulary.  Now I
+greatly sympathize with this point of view, but, as I regard the story
+hour as a very precious and special one, which I think may have a
+lasting effect on the character of a child, I do not think it important
+that, during this hour, a child should be called upon to improve his
+vocabulary at the expense of the dramatic whole, and at the expense
+of the literary form in which the story has been presented.  It would
+be like using the Bible for parsing or paraphrase or pronunciation.
+So far, I believe, the line has been drawn here, though there are
+blasphemers who have laid impious hands on Milton or Shakespeare
+for this purpose.
+
+There are surely other lessons, as I have already said in dealing
+with the reproduction of the story quite apart from the dramatization,
+lessons more utilitarian in character, which can be used for this
+purpose: the facts of history (I mean the mere facts as compared with
+the deep truths), and those of geography.  Above all, the grammar
+lessons are those in which the vocabulary can be enlarged and improved.
+But I am anxious to keep the story hour apart as dedicated to something
+higher than these excellent but utilitarian considerations.
+
+The second argument used by the teachers is the joy felt by the
+children in being allowed to dramatize the stories.  This, too,
+appeals very strongly to me, but there is a means of satisfying their
+desire and yet protecting the dramatic whole, and that is occasionally
+to allow children to act out their own dramatic inventions; this, to
+my mind, has great educational significance: it is original and
+creative work and, apart from the joy of the immediate performance,
+there is the interesting process of comparison which can be presented
+to the children, showing them the difference between their elementary
+attempts and the finished product of the experienced artist.  This
+difference they can be led to recognize by their own powers of
+observation if the teachers are not in too great a hurry to point it
+out themselves.
+
+Here is a short original story, quoted by the French psychologist,
+Queyrat, in his "Jeux de l'Enfance," written by a child of five:
+
+"One day I went to sea in a life-boat--all at once I saw an enormous
+whale, and I jumped out of the boat to catch him, but he was so big
+that I climbed on his back and rode astride, and all the little
+fishes laughed to see."
+
+Here is a complete and exciting drama, making a wonderful picture and
+teeming with adventure.  We could scarcely offer anything to so small
+a child for reproduction that would be a greater stimulus to the
+imagination.
+
+Here is another, offered by Loti, but the age of the child is not given:
+
+"Once upon a time a little girl out in the Colonies cut open a huge
+melon, and out popped a green beast and stung her, and the little
+child died."
+
+Loti adds:
+
+"The phrases 'out in the Colonies' and 'a huge melon' were enough to
+plunge me suddenly into a dream.  As by an apparition, I beheld
+tropical trees, forests alive with marvelous birds.  Oh! the simple
+magic of the words 'the Colonies'!  In my childhood they stood for a
+multitude of distant sun-scorched countries, with their palm-trees,
+their enormous flowers, their black natives, their wild beasts, their
+endless possibilities of adventure."
+
+I quote this in full because it shows so clearly the magic force of
+words to evoke pictures, without any material representation.  It is
+just the opposite effect of the pictures presented to the bodily eye
+without the splendid educational opportunity for the child to form
+his own mental image.
+
+I am more and more convinced that the rare power of visualization is
+accounted for by the lack of mental practice afforded along these lines.
+
+The third argument used by teachers in favor of the dramatization of
+the stories is that it is a means of discovering how much the child
+has really learned from the story.  Now this argument makes absolutely
+no appeal to me.
+
+My experience, in the first place, has taught me that a child very
+seldom gives out any account of a deep impression made upon him: it
+is too sacred and personal.  But he very soon learns to know what is
+expected of him, and he keeps a set of stock sentences which he has
+found out are acceptable to the teacher.  How can we possibly gauge
+the deep effects of a story in this way, or how can a child, by acting
+out a story, describe the subtle elements which one has tried to
+introduce?  One might as well try to show with a pint measure how the
+sun and rain have affected a plant, instead of rejoicing in the beauty
+of the sure, if slow, growth.
+
+Then, again, why are we in such a hurry to find out what effects have
+been produced by our stories?  Does it matter whether we know today or
+tomorrow how much a child has understood?  For my part, so sure do I
+feel of the effect that I am willing to wait indefinitely.  Only, I
+must make sure that the first presentation is truly dramatic and
+artistic.
+
+The teachers of general subjects have a much easier and more simple
+task.  Those who teach science, mathematics, even, to a certain extent,
+history and literature, are able to gauge with a fair amount of accuracy
+by means of examination what their pupils have learned.  The teaching
+carried on by means of stories can never be gauged in the same manner.
+
+Carlyle has said:
+
+"Of this thing be certain: wouldst thou plant for Eternity, then plant
+into the deep infinite faculties of man, his Fantasy and Heart.  Wouldst
+thou plant for Year and Day, then plant into his shallow superficial
+faculties, his self-love and arithmetical understanding, what will
+grow there."[44]
+
+If we use this marvelous art of story-telling in the way I have tried
+to show, then the children who have been confided to our care will one
+day be able to bring _us_ the tribute which Bjornson brought to Hans
+Christian Andersen:
+
+
+                Wings you gave to my Imagination,
+                  Me uplifting to the strange and great;
+                Gave my heart the poet's revelation,
+                  Glorifying things of low estate.
+
+                When my child-soul hungered all-unknowing,
+                  With great truths its need you satisfied:
+                Now, a world-worn man, to you is owing
+                  That the child in me has never died.
+
+              TRANSLATED FROM THE DANISH BY EMILIE POULSON.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.  QUESTIONS ASKED BY TEACHERS.
+
+The following questions have been put to me so often by teachers, in
+my own country and in America, that I have thought it might be useful
+to give in my book some of the attempts I have made to answer them;
+and I wish to record here an expression of gratitude to the teachers
+who have asked these questions at the close of my lectures.  It has
+enabled me to formulate my views on the subject and to clear up, by
+means of research and thought, the reason for certain things which I
+had more or less taken for granted.  It has also constantly modified
+my own point of view, and has prevented me from becoming too dogmatic
+in dealing with other people's methods.
+
+QUESTION I:  _Why do I consider it necessary to spend so many years
+on the art of story-telling, which takes in, after all, such a
+restricted portion of literature?_
+
+Just in the same way that an actor thinks it worth while to go through
+so many years' training to fit him for the stage, although dramatic
+literature is also only one branch of general literature.  The region
+of storyland is the legitimate stage for children.  They crave drama
+as we do, and because there are comparatively few good story-tellers,
+children do not have their dramatic needs satisfied.  What is the
+result?  We either take them to dramatic performances for grown-up
+people, or we have children's theaters where the pieces, charming as
+they may be, are of necessity deprived of the essential elements which
+constitute a drama--or they are shriveled up to suit the capacity of
+the child.  Therefore, it would seem wiser, while the children are
+quite young, to keep them to the simple presentation of stories,
+because with their imagination keener at that period, they have the
+delight of the inner vision and they do not need, as we do, the
+artificial stimulus provided by the machinery of the stage.
+
+
+QUESTION II:  _What is to be done if a child asks you: "Is the story
+true?"_
+
+I hope I shall be considered Utopian in my ideas if a say that it is
+quite easy, even with small children, to teach them that the seeing of
+truth is a relative matter which depends on the eyes of the seer.  If
+we were not afraid to tell our children that all through life there
+are grown-up people who do not see things that others see, their own
+difficulties would be helped.
+
+In his "Imagination Creatrice," Queyrat says:
+
+"To get down into the recesses of a child's mind, one would have to
+become even as he is; we are reduced to interpreting that child in the
+terms of an adult.  The children we observe live and grow in a
+civilized community, and the result of this is that the development of
+their imagination is rarely free or complete, for as soon as it rises
+beyond the average level, the rationalistic education of parents and
+schoolmasters at once endeavors to curb it.  It is restrained in its
+flight by an antagonistic power which treats it as a kind of incipient
+madness."
+
+It is quite easy to show children that if one keeps things where they
+belong, they are true with regard to each other, but that if one drags
+these things out of the shadowy atmosphere of the "make-believe," and
+forces them into the land of actual facts, the whole thing is out
+of gear.
+
+To take a concrete example: The arrival of the coach made from a
+pumpkin and driven by mice is entirely in harmony with the _Cinderella_
+surroundings, and I have never heard one child raise any question of the
+difficulty of traveling in such a coach or of the uncertainty of mice in
+drawing it.  But, suggest to the child that this diminutive vehicle
+could be driven among the cars of Broadway, or amongst the motor
+omnibuses in the Strand, and you would bring confusion at once into
+his mind.
+
+Having once grasped this, the children will lose the idea that fairy
+stories are just for them, and not for their elders, and from this
+they will go on to see that it is the child-like mind of the poet and
+seer that continues to appreciate these things; that it is the dull,
+heavy person whose eyes so soon become dim and unable to see any more
+the visions which were once his own.
+
+In his essay on "Poetry and Life" (Glasgow, 1889), Professor Bradley
+says:
+
+"It is the effect of poetry, not only by expressing emotion but in
+other ways also, to bring life into the dead mass of our experience,
+and to make the world significant."
+
+This applies to children as well as to adults.  There may come to the
+child in the story hour, by some stirring poem or dramatic narration,
+a sudden flash of the possibilities of life which he had not hitherto
+realized in the even course of school experience.
+
+"Poetry," says Professor Bradley, "is a way of representing truth; but
+there is in it, as its detractors have always insisted, a certain
+untruth or illusion.  We need not deny this, so long as we remember
+that the illusion is conscious, that no one wishes to deceive, and
+that no one is deceived.  But it would be better to say that poetry is
+false to literal fact for the sake of obtaining a higher truth.
+First, in order to represent the connection between a more significant
+part of experience and a less significant, poetry, instead of linking
+them together by a chain which touches one by one the intermediate
+objects that connect them, leaps from one to the other.  It thus falls
+at once into conflict with common-sense."
+
+Now, the whole of this passage bears as much on the question of the
+truth embodied in a fairy tale as a poem, and it would be interesting
+to take some of these tales and try to discover where they are false
+to actual fact for the sake of a higher truth.
+
+Let us take, for instance, the Story of Cinderella: The coach and
+pumpkins to which I have alluded and all the magic part of the story,
+are false to actual facts as we meet them in our every life; but is it
+not a higher truth that _Cinderella_ could escape from her chimney
+corner by thinking of the brightness outside?  In this sense
+we all travel in pumpkin coaches.
+
+Take the Story of Psyche, in any one of the many forms it is presented
+to us in folk-story.  The magic transformation of the lover is false
+to actual fact; but is it not a higher truth that we are often
+transformed by circumstance, and that love and courage can overcome
+most difficulties?
+
+Take the Story of the Three Bears.  It is not in accordance with
+established fact that bears should extend hospitality to children
+who invade their territory.  Is it not true in a higher sense that
+fearlessness often lessens or averts danger?
+
+Take the Story of Jack and the Bean Stalk.  The rapid growth of the
+bean stalk and the encounter with the giant are false to literal fact;
+but is it not a higher truth that the spirit of courage and high
+adventure leads us straight out of the commonplace and often sordid
+facts of life?
+
+Now, all these considerations are too subtle for the child, and, if
+offered in explanation, would destroy the excitement and interest of
+the story; but they are good for those of us who are presenting such
+stories: they provide not only an argument against the objection
+raised by unimaginative people as to the futility, if not immorality,
+of presenting these primitive tales, but clear up our own doubt and
+justify us in the use of them, if we need such justification.
+
+For myself, I am perfectly satisfied that, being part of the history
+of primitive people, it would be foolish to ignore them from an
+evolutionary point of view, which constitutes their chief importance;
+and it is only from the point of view of expediency that I mention the
+potential truths they contain.
+
+QUESTION III:  _What are you to do if a child says he does not like
+fairy tales_?
+
+This is not an uncommon case.  What we have first to determine, under
+these circumstances, is whether this dislike springs from a stolid,
+prosaic nature, whether it springs from a real inability to visualize
+such pictures as the fairy or marvelous element in the story present,
+or whether (and this is often the real reason) it is from a fear of
+being asked to believe what his judgment resents as untrue, or whether
+he thinks it is "grown-up" to reject such pleasure as unworthy of his
+years.
+
+In the first case, it is wise to persevere, in hopes of developing the
+dormant imagination.  If the child resents the apparent want of truth
+we can teach him how many-sided truth is, as I suggested in my answer
+to the first question.  In the other cases, we must try to make it
+clear that the delight he may venture to take now will increase, not
+decrease, with years; that the more one brings _to_ a thing, in the way
+of experience and knowledge, the more one will draw _out_ of it.
+
+Let us take as a concrete example the question of Santa Claus.  This
+joy has almost disappeared, for we have torn away the last shred of
+mystery about the personage by allowing him to be materialized in the
+Christmas shops and bazaars.
+
+But the original myth need never have disappeared; the link could
+easily have been kept by gradually telling the child that the Santa
+Claus they worshiped as a mysterious and invisible power is nothing
+but the spirit of charity and kindness that makes us remember others,
+and that this spirit often takes the form of material gifts.  We can
+also lead them a step higher and show them that this spirit of
+kindness can do more than provide material things; so that the old
+nursery tale has laid a beautiful foundation which need never be
+pulled up: we can build upon it and add to it all through our lives.
+
+Is not _one_ of the reasons that children reject fairy tales this,
+that such very _poor_ material is offered them?  There is a dreary
+flatness about all except the very best which revolts the child of
+literary appreciation and would fail to strike a spark in the
+more prosaic.
+
+QUESTION IV:  _Do I recommend learning a story by heart, or telling
+it in one's own words_?
+
+This would largely depend on the kind of story.  If the style is
+classic or if the interest of the story is closely connected with the
+style, as in Andersen, Kipling or Stevenson, then it is better to
+commit it absolutely to memory.  But if this process should take too
+long (I mean for those who cannot afford the time to specialize), or
+if it produces a stilted effect, then it is wiser to read the story
+many times over, let it soak in, taking notes of certain passages
+which would add to the dramatic interest of the story, and not trouble
+about the word accuracy of the whole.
+
+For instance, for very young children the story of _Pandora_, as
+told in the "Wonder-Book" could be shortened so as to leave principally
+the dramatic dialogue between the two children, which could be easily
+committed to memory by the narrator and would appeal most directly to
+the children.  Or for older children: in taking a beautiful medieval
+story such as "Our Lady's Tumbler," retold by Wickstead, the original
+text could hardly be presented so as to hold an audience; but while
+giving up a great deal of the elaborate material, we should try to
+present many of the characteristic passages which seem to sum up the
+situation.  For instance, before his performance, the _Tumbler_ cries:
+"What am I doing?  For there is none here so caitiff but who vies with
+all the rest in serving God after his trade."  And after his act of
+devotion: "Lady, this is a choice performance.  I do it for no other but
+for you; so aid me God, I do not--for you and for your Son.  And this I
+dare avouch and boast, that for me it is no play-work.  But I am serving
+you, and that pays me."
+
+On the other hand, there are some very gifted narrators who can only
+tell the story in their own words.  I consider that both methods are
+necessary to the all-round story-teller.
+
+QUESTION V:  _How do I set about preparing a story_?
+
+Here again the preparation depends a great deal on the kind of story:
+whether it has to be committed to memory or rearranged to suit a
+certain age of child, or told entirely in one's own words.  But there
+is one kind of preparation which is the same for any story, that is,
+living with it for a long time, until one has really obtained the
+right atmosphere, especially in the case of inanimate objects.  This
+is where Hans Christian Andersen reigns supreme.  Horace Scudder says
+of him: "By some transmigration, souls have passed into tin soldiers,
+balls, tops, money-pigs, coins, shoes and even such attenuated things
+as darning-needles, and when, informing these apparent dead and stupid
+bodies, they begin to make manifestations, it is always in perfect
+consistency with the ordinary conditions of the bodies they occupy,
+though the several objects become, by the endowment of souls, suddenly
+expanded in their capacity."[45]
+
+Now, my test of being ready with such stories is whether I have ceased
+to look upon such objects _as_ inanimate.  Let us take some of those
+quoted from Andersen.  First, the _Tin Soldier_. To me, since I have
+lived in the story, he is a real live hero, holding his own with some
+of the bravest fighting heroes in history or fiction.  As for his being
+merely of tin, I entirely forget it, except when I realize against what
+odds he fights, or when I stop to admire the wonderful way Andersen
+carries out his simile of the old tin spoon--the stiffness of the
+musket, and the tears of tin.
+
+Take the _Top_ and the _Ball_, and, except for the delightful way they
+discuss the respective merits of cork and mahogany in their ancestors,
+you would completely forget that they are not real human beings with the
+live passions and frailties common to youth.
+
+As for the _Beetle_--who ever thinks of him as a mere entomological
+specimen?  Is he not the symbol of the self-satisfied traveler who
+learns nothing en route but the importance of his own personality?  And
+the _Darning-Needle_?  It is impossible to divorce human interest from
+the ambition of this little piece of steel.
+
+And this same method applied to the preparation of any shows that
+one can sometimes rise from the role of mere interpreter to that of
+creator--that is to say, the objects live afresh for you in response
+to the appeal you make in recognizing their possibilities of vitality.
+
+As a mere practical suggestion, I would advise that, as soon as one has
+overcome the difficulties of the text (if actually learning by heart,
+there is nothing but the drudgery of constant repetition), and as one
+begins to work the story into true dramatic form, always say the words
+aloud, and many times aloud, before trying them even on one person.
+More suggestions come to one in the way of effects from hearing the
+sounds of the words, and more complete mental pictures, in this way
+than any other--it is a sort of testing period, the results of which
+may or may not have to be modified when produced in public.  In case
+of committing to memory, I advise word perfection first, not trying
+dramatic effects before this is reached; but, on the other hand, if
+you are using your own words, you can think out the effects as you
+go along--I mean, during the preparation. Gestures, pauses, facial
+expression often help to fix the choice of words one decides to use,
+though here again the public performance will often modify the result.
+I strongly advise that all gestures be studied before the glass, because
+this most faithfully recording friend, whose sincerity we dare not
+question, will prevent glaring errors, and also help by the correction
+of these to more satisfactory results along positive lines.  If your
+gesture does not satisfy you (and practice will make one more and more
+critical), it is generally because you have not made sufficient
+allowance for the power of imagination in your audience.  Emphasis
+in gesture is just as inartistic--and therefore ineffective--as
+emphasis in tone or language.
+
+Before deciding, however, either on the facial expression or gesture,
+we must consider the chief characters in the story, and study how we
+can best--_not_ present them, but allow them to present themselves,
+which is a very different thing.  The greatest tribute which can be
+paid to a story-teller, as to an actor, is that his own personality is
+temporarily forgotten, because he has so completely identified himself
+with his role.
+
+When we have decided what the chief characters really mean to do, we
+can let ourselves go in the impersonation.
+
+I shall now take a story as a concrete example, namely, the Buddhist
+legend of the "Lion and the Hare."[46]
+
+We have here the _Lion_ and the _Hare_ as types--the other animals are
+less individual and therefore display less salient qualities.  The
+little hare's chief characteristics are nervousness, fussiness, and
+misdirected imagination.  We must bear this all in mind when she appears
+on the stage--fortunately these characteristics lend themselves easily
+to dramatic representation.  The _Lion_ is not only large-hearted but
+broad-minded.  It is good to have an opportunity of presenting to the
+children a lion who has other qualities than physical beauty or
+extraordinary strength (here again there will lurk the danger of
+alarming the nature students).  He is even more interesting than
+the magnanimous lion whom we have sometimes been privileged to meet
+in fiction.
+
+Of course we grown-up people know that the _Lion_ is the Buddha in
+disguise.  Children will not be able to realize this, nor is it the
+least necessary that they should do so; but they will grasp the idea
+that he is a very unusual lion, not to be met with in Paul Du Chaillu's
+adventures, still less in the quasi-domestic atmosphere of the
+Zoological Gardens.  If our presentation is life-like and sincere,
+we shall convey all we intend to the child.  This is part of what
+I call the atmosphere of the story, which, as in a photograph, can
+only be obtained by long exposure, that is to say, in the case of
+preparation we must bestow much reflection and sympathy.
+
+Because these two animals are the chief characters, they must be
+painted in fainter colors--they should be suggested rather than
+presented in detail.  It might be well to give a definite gesture to
+the _Elephant_--say, a characteristic movement with his trunk--a scowl
+to the _Tiger_, a supercilious and enigmatic smile to the _Camel_
+(suggested by Kipling's wonderful creation).  But if a gesture were
+given to each of the animals, the effect would become monotonous, and
+the minor characters would crowd the foreground of the picture, impeding
+the action and leaving little to the imagination of the audience.  I
+personally have found it effective to repeat the gestures of these
+animals as they are leaving the stage, but less markedly, as it is
+only a form of reminder.
+
+Now, what is the impression we wish to leave on the mind of the child,
+apart from the dramatic joy and interest we have endeavored to provide?
+Surely it is that he may realize the danger of a panic.  One method of
+doing this (alas! a favorite one still) is to say at the end of the
+story: "Now, children, what do we learn from this?"  Of this method Lord
+Morley has said: "It is a commonplace to the wise, and an everlasting
+puzzle to the foolish, that direct inculcation of morals should
+invariably prove so powerless an instrument, so futile a method."
+
+If this direct method were really effective, we might as well put the
+little drama aside, and say plainly: "It is foolish to be nervous; it
+is dangerous to make loose statements.  Large-minded people understand
+things better than those who are narrow-minded."
+
+All these abstract statements would be as true and as tiresome as the
+multiplication table.  The child might or might not fix them in his
+mind, but he would not act upon them.
+
+But, put all the artistic warmth of which you are capable into the
+presentation of the story, and, without one word of comment from you,
+the children will feel the dramatic intensity of that vast concourse
+of animals brought together by the feeble utterance of one irresponsible
+little hare.  Let them feel the dignity and calm of the _Lion_, which
+accounts for his authority; his tender but firm treatment of the foolish
+little _Hare_; and listen to the glorious finale when all the animals
+retire convinced of their folly; and you will find that you have adopted
+the same method as the _Lion_ (who must have been an unconscious
+follower of Froebel), and that there is nothing to add to the picture.
+
+QUESTION VI:  _Is it wise to talk over a story with children and to
+encourage them in the habit of asking questions about it_?
+
+At the time, no!  The effect produced is to be by dramatic means, and
+this would be destroyed any attempt at analysis by means of questions.
+
+The medium that has been used in the telling of the story is (or ought
+to be) a purely artistic one which will reach the child through the
+medium of the emotions: the appeal to the intellect or the reason is
+a different method, which must be used at a different time.  When you
+are enjoying the fragrance of a flower or the beauty of its color, it
+is not the moment to be reminded of its botanical classification, just
+as in the botany lesson it would be somewhat irrelevant to talk of the
+part that flowers play in the happiness of life.
+
+From a practical point of view, it is not wise to encourage questions
+on the part of the children, because they are apt to disturb the
+atmosphere by bringing in entirely irrelevant matter, so that in
+looking back on the telling of the story, the child often remembers
+the irrelevant conversation to the exclusion of the dramatic interest
+of the story itself.[47]
+
+I remember once making what I considered at the time a most effective
+appeal to some children who had been listening to the Story of the
+Little Tin Soldier, and, unable to refrain from the cheap method of
+questioning, of which I have now recognized the futility, I asked:
+"Don't you think it was nice of the little dancer to rush down into
+the fire to join the brave little soldier?"  "Well," said a prosaic
+little lad of six: "_I_ thought the draught carried her down."
+
+QUESTION VII:  _Is it wise to call upon children to repeat the story
+as soon as it has been told_?
+
+My answer here is decidedly in the negative.
+
+While fully appreciating the modern idea of children expressing
+themselves, I very much deprecate this so-called self-expression
+taking the form of mere reproduction.  I have dealt with this matter
+in detail in another portion of my book.  This is one of the occasions
+when children should be taking in, not giving out (even the most
+fanatic of moderns must agree that there _are_ such moments).
+
+When, after much careful preparation, an expert has told a story to
+the best of his ability, to encourage the children to reproduce this
+story with their imperfect vocabulary and with no special gift of
+speech (I am always alluding to the normal group of children) is as
+futile as if, after the performance of a musical piece by a great
+artist, some individual member of the audience were to be called upon
+to give _his_ rendering of the original rendering.  The result
+would be that the musical joy of the audience would be completely
+destroyed and the performer himself would share in the loss.[48]
+
+I have always maintained that five minutes of complete silence after
+the story would do more to fix the impression on the mind of the child
+than any amount of attempt at reproducing it.  The general statement
+made in Dr. Montessor's wonderful chapter on "Silence" would seem to
+me of special application to the moments following on the telling of
+a story.
+
+QUESTION VIII:  _Should children be encouraged to illustrate the
+stories which they have heard_?
+
+As a dramatic interest to the teachers and the children, I think it
+is a very praiseworthy experiment, if used somewhat sparingly.  But
+I seriously doubt whether these illustrations in any way indicate the
+impression made on the mind of the child.  It is the same question
+that arises when that child is called upon, or expresses a wish, to
+reproduce the story in his own words: the unfamiliar medium in both
+instances makes it almost impossible for the child to convey his
+meaning, unless he is an artist in the one case or he has real
+literary power of expression in the other.
+
+My own impression, confirmed by many teachers who have made the
+experiment, is that a certain amount of disappointment is mixed
+up with the daring joy in the attempt, simply because the children
+can get nowhere near the ideal which has presented itself to the
+"inner eye."
+
+I remember a kindergarten teacher saying that on one occasion, when
+she had told to the class a thrilling story of a knight, one of the
+children immediately asked for permission to draw a picture of him on
+the blackboard.  So spontaneous a request could not, of course, be
+refused, and, full of assurance, the would-be artist began to give his
+impression of the knight's appearance.  When the picture was finished,
+the child stood back for a moment to judge for himself of the result.
+He put down the chalk and said sadly: "And I _thought_ he was so
+handsome."
+
+Nevertheless, except for the drawback of the other children seeing a
+picture which might be inferior to their own mental vision, I should
+quite approve of such experiments, as long as they are not taken as
+literal data of what the children have really received.  It would,
+however, be better not to have the picture drawn on a blackboard but
+at the child's private desk, to be seen by the teacher and not, unless
+the picture were exceptionally good, to be shown to the other children.
+
+One of the best effects of such an experiment would be to show a child
+how difficult it is to give the impression one wishes to record, and
+which would enable him later on to appreciate the beauty of such work
+in the hands of a finished artist.
+
+I can anticipate the jeers with which such remarks would be received
+by the Futurist School, but, according to their own theory, I ought to
+be allowed to express the matter _as I see it_, however faulty the
+vision may appear to them.[49]
+
+QUESTION IX:  _In what way can the dramatic method of story-telling
+be used in ordinary class teaching_?
+
+This is too large a question to answer fully in so general a survey as
+this work, but I should like to give one or two examples as to how the
+element of story-telling could be introduced.
+
+I have always thought that the only way in which we could make either
+a history or literature lesson live, so as to take a real hold on the
+mind of the pupil at any age, would be that, instead of offering lists
+of events, crowded into the fictitious area of one reign, one should
+take a single event, say in one lesson out of five, and give it in the
+most splendid language and in the most dramatic manner.
+
+To come to a concrete example: Supposing that one is talking to the
+class of Greece, either in connection with its history, its geography
+or its literature, could any mere accumulation of facts give a clearer
+idea of the life of the people than a dramatically told story from
+Homer, Aeschylus, Sophocles or Euripides?
+
+What in the history of Iceland could give any more graphic idea of
+the whole character of the life and customs of the inhabitants than
+one of the famous sagas, such as "The Burning of Njal" or "The Death
+of Gunnar"?
+
+In teaching the history of Spain, what could make the pupils understand
+better the spirit of knight-errantry, its faults and its qualities, than
+a recital from "Don Quixote" or from the tale of "The Cid"?
+
+In a word, the stories must appeal so vividly to the imagination that
+they will light up the whole period of history which we wish them to
+illustrate and keep it alive in the memory for all time.
+
+But quite apart from the dramatic presentation of history, there are
+very great possibilities for the short story introduced into the
+portrait of some great personage, insignificant in itself, but which
+throws a sudden sidelight on his character, showing the mind behind
+the actual deeds; this is what I mean by using the dramatic method.
+
+To take a concrete example: Suppose, in giving an account of the life
+of Napoleon, after enlarging upon his campaigns, his European policy,
+his indomitable will, one were suddenly to give an idea of his many-
+sidedness by relating how he actually found time to compile a catechism
+which was used for some years in the elementary schools of France.  What
+sidelights might be thrown in this way on such characters as Nero,
+Caesar, Henry VIII, Luther, Goethe!
+
+
+To take one example from these: Instead of making the whole career of
+Henry VIII center round the fact that he was a much-married man, could
+we not present his artistic side and speak of his charming contributions
+to music?
+
+So much for the history lessons.  But could not the dramatic form and
+interest be introduced into our geography lessons?  Think of the
+romance of the Panama Canal, the position of Constantinople, as
+affecting the history of Europe, the shape of Greece, England as an
+island, the position of Thibet, the interior of Africa--to what
+wonderful story-telling would these themes lend themselves!
+
+QUESTION X:  _Which should predominate in the story--the dramatic or
+the poetic element_?
+
+This is a much debated point.  From experience I have come to the
+conclusion that, though both should be found in the whole range of
+stories, the dramatic element should prevail from the very nature of
+the presentation, and also because it reaches the larger number of
+children, at least of normal children.  Almost every child is dramatic,
+in the sense that it loves action (not necessarily an action in which
+it has to bear a part).  It is the exceptional child who is reached by
+the poetic side, and just as on the stage the action must be quicker
+and more concentrated than in a poem--than even a dramatic poem--the
+poetical side, which must be painted in more delicate colors or
+presented in less obvious form, often escapes them.  Of course, the
+very reason why we must include the poetical element is that it is
+an unexpressed need of most children.  Their need of the dramatic is
+more loudly proclaimed and more easily satisfied.
+
+QUESTION XI:  _What is the educational value of humor in the stories
+told to our children_?
+
+My answer to this is that humor means so much more than is usually
+understood by this term.  So many people seem to think that to have a
+sense of humor is merely to be tickled by a funny element in a story.
+It surely means something much more subtle than this.  It is Thackeray
+who says: "If humor only meant laughter, but the humorist profess to
+awaken and direct your love, your pity, your kindness, your scorn for
+untruth and pretension, your tenderness for the weak, the poor, the
+oppressed, the unhappy."  So that, in our stories, the introduction of
+humor should not merely depend on the doubtful amusement that follows
+on a sense of incongruity.  It should inculcate a sense of proportion
+brought about by an effort of imagination; it shows a child its real
+position in the universe and prevents hasty conclusions.  It shortens
+the period of joy in horse-play and practical jokes.  It brings about
+a clearer perception of all situations, enabling the child to get the
+point of view of another person.  It is the first instilling of
+philosophy into the mind of a child and prevents much suffering later
+on when the blows of life fall upon him; for a sense of humor teaches
+us at an early age not to expect too much: and this philosophy can be
+developed with cynicism or pessimism, without even destroying the
+_joie de vivre_.
+
+One cannot, however, sufficiently emphasize the fact that these far-
+reaching results can be brought about only by humor quite distinct
+from the broader fun and hilarity which have also their use in an
+educational scheme.
+
+From my own experience, I have learned that development of humor is
+with most children extremely slow.  It _is_ quite natural and quite
+right that at first pure fun, obvious situations and elementary jokes
+should please them, but we can very gradually appeal to something more
+subtle, and if I were asked what story would educate our children most
+thoroughly in appreciation of humor, I should say that "Alice in
+Wonderland" was the most effective.
+
+What better object lesson could be given in humorous form of taking
+somebody else's point of view than that given to _Alice_ by the
+_Mock Turtle_ in speaking of the _Whiting_--
+
+"You know what they're like?"
+
+"I believe so," said Alice.  "They have their tails in their mouths--
+and they're all over crumbs."
+
+"You're wrong about the crumbs," said the Mock Turtle.  "Crumbs would
+all wash off in the sea."
+
+Or when _Alice_ is speaking to the _Mouse_ of her cat, and says:
+
+"She is such a dear quiet thing--and a capital one for catching mice---"
+and then suddenly realizes the point of view of the _Mouse_, who was
+"trembling down to the end of its tail."
+
+Then, as an instance of how a lack of humor leads to illogical
+conclusions (a condition common to most children), we have the
+conversation between _Alice_ and the _Pigeon_:
+
+ALICE:  "But little girls eat quite as  much as serpents, you know."
+
+PIGEON:  "I don't believe it.  But if they do, why then they're a kind
+of serpent, that's all I can say."
+
+Then, as an instance of how a sense of humor would prevent too much
+self-importance:
+
+"I have a right to think," said Alice sharply.
+
+"Just about as much right," said the Duchess, "as pigs have to fly."
+
+
+
+
+PART II.  THE STORIES.
+
+
+  The following stories do not form a comprehensive selection;
+  this I have endeavored to give in the List of Stories.  The
+  stories given are chiefly taken from my own repertoire, and
+  have been so constantly asked by teachers that I am glad of
+  an opportunity of presenting them in full.
+
+  I regret that I have been unable to furnish many of the stories
+  I consider good for narration, but the difficulty of obtaining
+  permission has deterred me from further efforts  in this direction.
+
+
+
+STURLA, THE HISTORIAN.[50]
+
+Then Sturla got ready to sail away with the king, and his name was put
+on the list.  He went on board before many men had come; he had a
+sleeping bag and a travelling chest, and took his place on the foredeck.
+A little later the king came on to the quay, and a company of men with
+him.  Sturla rose and bowed, and bade the king "hail," but the king
+answered nothing, and went aft along the ship to the quarter-deck.
+They sailed that day to go south along the coast.  But in the evening
+when men unpacked their provisions Sturla sat still, and no one invited
+him to mess.  Then a servant of the king's came and asked Sturla if he
+had any meat and drink.  Sturla said "NO."  Then the king's servant went
+to the king and spoke with him, out of hearing, and then went forward to
+Sturla and said: "You shall go to mess with Thorir Mouth and Erlend
+Maw."  They took him into their mess, but rather stiffly.  When men were
+turning in to sleep, a sailor of the king's asked who should tell them
+stories.  There was little answer.  Then said he: "Sturla the Icelander,
+will you tell stories?"  "As you will," said Sturla.  So he told them
+the story of Huld, better and fuller than any one there had ever heard
+it told before.  Then many men pushed forward to the fore-deck, wanting
+to hear as clearly as might be, and there was a great crowd.  The queen
+asked: "What is that crowd on deck there?"  A man answered: "The men are
+listening to the story that the Icelander tells."  "What story is that?"
+said she.  He answers: "It is about a great troll-wife, and it is a good
+story and well told."  The king bade her pay no heed to that, and go to
+sleep.  She says: "I think this Icelander must be a good fellow, and
+less to blame than he is reported."  The King was silent.
+
+So the night passed, and the next morning there was no wind for them,
+and the king's ship lay in the same place.  Later in the day, when men
+sat at their drink, the king sent dishes from his table to Sturla.
+Sturla's messmates were pleased with this:  "You bring better luck
+than we thought, if this sort of thing goes on."  After dinner the
+queen sent for Sturla and asked him to come to her and bring the
+troll-wife story along with him.  So Sturla went aft to the quarter-
+deck, and greeted the king and queen.  The king answered little, the
+queen well and cheerfully.  She asked him to tell the same story he
+had told overnight.  He did so, for a great part of the day.  When he
+finished, the queen thanked him, and many others besides, and made him
+out in their minds to be a learned man and sensible.  But the king
+said nothing; only he smiled a little.  Sturla thought he saw that the
+king's whole frame of mind was brighter than the day before.  So he
+said to the king that he had made a poem about him, and another about
+his father: "I would gladly get a hearing for them."  The queen said:
+"Let him recite his poem; I am told that he is the best of poets, and
+his poem will be excellent."  The king bade him say on, if he would,
+and repeat the poem he professed to have made about him.  Sturla
+chanted it to the end.  The queen said: "To my mind that is a good
+poem."  The king said to her: "Can you follow the poem so clearly?"
+"I would be fain to have you think so, Sir," said the queen.  The king
+said: "I have learned that Sturla is good at verses."  Sturla took his
+leave of the king and queen and went to his place.  There was no
+sailing for the king all that day.  In the evening before he went to
+bed he sent for Sturla.  And when he came he greeted the king and
+said: "What will you have me to do, Sir?"  The king called for a
+silver goblet full of wine, and drank some and gave it to Sturla and
+said: "A health to a friend in wine!" (_Vin skal til vinar drekka_).
+Sturla said: "God be praised for it!"  "Even so," says the king, "and
+now I wish you to say the poem you have made about my father."  Sturla
+repeated it: and when it was finished men praised it much and most of
+all the queen.  The king said: "To my thinking, you are a better reciter
+than the Pope."
+                Sturlunga Saga, vol.ii, p.269.
+
+
+
+A SAGA.
+
+In the grey beginnings of the world, or ever the flower of justice
+had rooted in the heart, there lived among the daughters of men two
+children, sisters, of one house.
+
+In childhood did they leap and climb and swim with the men children of
+their race, and were nurtured on the same stories of gods and heroes.
+
+In maidenhood they could do all that a maiden might and more--delve
+could they no less than spin, hunt no less than weave, brew pottage and
+helm ships, wake the harp and tell the stars, face all danger and laugh
+at all pain.
+
+Joyous in toil-time and rest-time were they as the days and years
+of their youth came and went.  Death had spared their house, and
+unhappiness knew they  none.  Yet often as at falling day they sat
+before sleep round the hearth of red fire, listening with the
+household to the brave songs of gods and heroes, there would surely
+creep into their hearts a shadow--the thought that whatever the
+years of their lives, and whatever the generous deeds, there would
+for them, as women, be no escape at the last from the dire mists of
+Hela, the fogland beyond the grave for all such as die not in battle;
+no escape for them from Hela, and no place for ever for them or for
+their kind among the glory-crowned, sword-shriven heroes of echoing
+Valhalla.
+
+That shadow had first fallen in their lusty childhood, had slowly
+gathered darkness through the overflowing days of maidenhood, and
+now, in the strong tide of full womanhood, often lay upon their
+future as the moon Odin's wrath lies upon the sun.
+
+But stout were they to face danger and laugh at pain, and for all the
+shadow upon their hope they lived brave and songful days--the one a
+homekeeper and in her turn a mother of men: the other unhusbanded,
+but gentle to ignorance and sickness and sorrow through the width
+and length of the land.
+
+And thus, facing life fearlessly and ever with a smile, those two
+women lived even unto extreme old age, unto the one's children's
+children's children, labouring truly unto the end and keeping strong
+hearts against the dread day of Hela, and the fate-locked gates
+of Valhalla.
+
+But at the end a wonder.
+
+As these sisters looked their last upon the sun, the one in the
+ancestral homestead under the eyes of love, the other in a distant
+land among strange faces, behold the wind of Thor, and out of the deep
+of heaven the white horses of Odin, All-Father, bearing Valkyrie,
+shining messengers of Valhalla.  And those two world-worn women,
+faithful in all their lives, were caught up in death in divine arms
+and borne far from the fogs of Hela to golden thrones among the battle
+heroes, upon which the Nornir, sitting at the loom of life, had from
+all eternity graven their names.
+
+And from that hour have the gates of Valhalla been thrown wide to all
+faithful endeavour whether of man or woman.
+                                             JOHN RUSSELL
+                                  Headmaster of the King Alfred School.
+
+
+
+THE LEGEND OF ST. CHRISTOPHER.
+
+Christopher was of the lineage of the Canaaneans and he was of a right
+great stature, and had a terrible and fearful cheer and countenance.
+And he was twelve cubits of length.  And, as it is read in some
+histories, when he served and dwelled with the king of Canaaneans, it
+came in his mind that he would seek the greatest prince that was in
+the world and him he would serve and obey.
+
+And so far he went that he came to a right great king, of whom the
+renown generally was that he was the greatest of the world.  And when
+the king saw him received him into his service and made him to dwell
+in his court.
+
+Upon a time a minstrel sung tofore him a song in which he named oft
+the devil.  And the king which was a Christian man, when he heard him
+name the devil, made anon the sign of the cross in his visage.  And
+when Christopher saw that, he had great marvel what sign it was and
+wherefore the king made it.  And he demanded it of him.  And because
+the king would not say, he said, "If thou tell me not, I shall no
+longer dwell with thee."  And then the king told to him saying,
+"Alway when I hear the devil named, I fear that he should have power
+over me, and I garnish me with this sign that he grieve not nor annoy
+me."  Then Christopher said to him, "Thou doubtest the devil that he
+hurt thee not?  Then is the devil more mighty and greater than thou
+art.  I am then deceived of my hope and purpose; for I supposed that I
+had found the most mighty and the most greatest lord of the world.
+But I commend thee to God, for I will go seek him to be my lord and I
+his servant."
+
+And then he departed from this king and hasted him to seek the devil.
+And as he went by a great desert he saw a great company of knights.
+Of which a knight cruel and horrible came to him and demanded whither
+he went.  And Christopher answered to him and said, "I go to seek the
+devil for to be my master."  And he said, "I am he that thou seekest."
+And then Christopher was glad and bound himself to be his servant
+perpetual, and took him for his master and lord.
+
+And as they went together by a common way, they found there a cross
+erect and standing.  And anon as the devil saw the cross, he was
+afeard and fled, and left the right way and brought Christopher about
+by a sharp desert, and after, when they were past the cross, he
+brought him to the highway that they had left.  And when Christopher
+saw that, he marvelled and demanded whereof he doubted that he had
+left high and fair way and had gone so far about by so hard desert.
+And the devil would not tell him in no wise.  Then Christopher said to
+him, "If thou wilt not tell me I shall anon depart from thee and shall
+serve thee no more."  Therefore the devil was constrained to tell him,
+and said "There was a man called Christ which was hanged on the cross,
+and when I see his sign, I am sore afeard and flee from it
+wheresomever I find it."  To whom Christopher said, "Then he is
+greater and more mightier than thou, when thou art afraid of his sign.
+And I see well that I have laboured in vain since I have not founden
+the greatest lord of all the earth.  And I will serve thee no longer.
+Go thy way then: for I will go seek Jesus Christ."
+
+And when he had long sought and demanded where he should find Christ,
+at last he came into a great desert to an hermit that dwelled there.
+And this hermit preached to him of Jesus Christ and informed him in
+the faith diligently.  And he said to him, "This king whom thou
+desirest to serve, requireth this service that thou must oft fast."
+And Christopher said to him, "Require of me some other thing and I
+shall do it.  For that which thou requirest I may not do."  And the
+hermit said, "Thou must then wake and make many prayers."  And
+Christopher said to him, "I wot not what it is.  I may do no such
+thing."  And then the hermit said unto him, "Knowest thou such a river
+in which many be perished and lost?"  To whom Christopher said, "I
+know it well."  Then said the hermit, "Because thou art noble and high
+of stature and strong in thy members, thou shalt be resident by that
+river and shalt bear over all them that shall pass there.  Which shall
+be a thing right convenable to Our Lord Jesus Christ, whom thou
+desirest to serve, and I hope He shall shew Himself to thee."  Then
+said Christopher, "Certes, this service may I well do, and I promise
+to Him for to do it."
+
+Then went Christopher to this river, and made there his habitation for
+him.  And he bare a great pole in his hand instead of a staff, by
+which he sustained him in the water; and bare over all manner of
+people without ceasing.  And there he abode, thus doing, many days.
+
+And on a time, as he slept in his lodge, he heard the voice of a child
+which called him and said, "Christopher, come out and bear me over."
+Then he awoke and went out; but he found no man.  And when he was
+again in his house, he heard the same voice, and he ran out and found
+no body.  The third time he was called, and came thither, and found a
+child beside the rivage of the river: which prayed him goodly to bear
+him over the water.  And then Christopher lift up the child on his
+shoulders and took his staff and entered in to the river for to pass.
+And the water of the river arose and swelled more and more.  And the
+child was heavy as lead.  And always as he went further the water
+increased and grew more, and the child more and more waxed heavy: in
+so much that Christopher had great anguish and feared to be drowned.
+And when he was escaped with great pain and passed the water, and set
+the child aground, he said to the child, "Child, thou hast put me in
+great peril.  Thou weighest almost as I had had all the world upon me.
+I might bear no greater burden."  And the child answered, "Christopher,
+marvel thou no thing.  For thou hast not only borne all the world upon
+thee; but thou hast borne Him that created and made the world upon thy
+shoulders.  I am Jesus Christ, the king to whom thou servest in this
+work.  And that thou mayest know that I say to thee truth, set thy staff
+in the earth by the house, and thou shalt see to-morrow that it shall
+bear flowers and fruit."  And anon he vanished from his eyes.
+
+And then Christopher set his staff in the earth and when he arose on
+the morrow, he found his staff like a palm-tree bearing flowers,
+leaves and dates.
+                  From THE LEGENDA AUREA TEMPLE CLASSICS.
+
+
+
+ARTHUR IN THE CAVE.
+
+Once upon a time a Welshman was walking on London Bridge, staring at
+the traffic and wondering why there were so many kites hovering about.
+He had come to London, after many adventures with thieves and
+highwaymen, which need not be related here, in charge of a herd of
+black Welsh cattle.  He had sold them with much profit, and with
+jingling gold in his pocket he was going about to see the sights of
+the city.
+
+He was carrying a hazel staff in his hand, for you must know that a
+good staff is as necessary to a drover as teeth are to his dogs.  He
+stood still to gaze at some wares in a shop (for at that time London
+Bridge was shops from beginning to end), when he noticed that a man
+was looking at his stick with a long fixed look.  The man after a
+while came to him and asked him where he came from.
+
+"I come from my own country," said the Welshman, rather surlily, for
+he could not see what business the man had to ask such a question.
+
+"Do not take it amiss," said the stranger: "if you will only answer my
+questions, and take my advice, it will be of greater benefit to you
+than you imagine.  Do you remember where you cut that stick?"
+
+The Welshman was still suspicious, and said: "What does it matter where
+I cut it?"
+
+"It matters," said the questioner, "because there is a treasure hidden
+near the spot where you cut that stick.  If you can remember the place
+and conduct me to it, I will put you in possession of great riches."
+
+The Welshman now understood he had to deal with a sorcerer, and he was
+greatly perplexed as to what to do.  On the one hand, he was tempted
+by the prospect of wealth; on the other hand, he knew that the
+sorcerer must have derived his knowledge from devils, and he feared to
+have anything to do with the powers of darkness.  The cunning man
+strove hard to persuade him, and at length made him promise to shew
+the place where he cut his hazel staff.
+
+The Welshman and the magician journeyed together to Wales.  They went
+to Craig y Dinas, the Rock of the Fortress, at the head of the Neath
+valley, near Pont Nedd Fechan, and the Welshman, pointing to the stock
+or root of an old hazel, said: "This is where I cut my stick."
+
+"Let us dig," said the sorcerer.  They digged until they came to a
+broad, flat stone.  Prying this up, they found some steps leading
+downwards.  They went down the steps and along a narrow passage until
+they came to a door.  "Are you brave?" asked the sorcerer; "will you
+come in with me?"
+
+"I will," said the Welshman, his curiosity getting the better of
+his fear.
+
+They opened the door, and a great cave opened out before them.  There
+was a faint red light in the cave, and they could see everything.  The
+first thing they came to was a bell.
+
+"Do not touch that bell," said the sorcerer, "or it will be all over
+with us both."
+
+As they went further in, the Welshman saw that the place was not
+empty. There were soldiers lying down asleep, thousands of them, as
+far as ever the eye could see.  Each one was clad in bright armour,
+the steel helmet of each was on his head, the shining shield of each
+was on his arm, the sword of each was near his hand, each had his
+spear stuck in the ground near him, and each and all were asleep.
+
+In the midst of the cave was a great round table at which sat warriors
+whose noble features and richly-dight armour proclaimed that they were
+not as the roll of common men.
+
+Each of these, too, had his head bent down in sleep.  On a golden
+throne on the further side of the round table was a king of gigantic
+stature and august presence.  In his hand, held below the hilt, was a
+mighty sword with scabbard and haft of gold studded with gleaming
+gems; on his head was a crown set with precious stones which flashed
+and glinted like so many points of fire.  Sleep had set its seal on
+his eyelids also.
+
+"Are they asleep?" asked the Welshman, hardly believing his own eyes.
+
+"Yes, each and all of them," answered the sorcerer.  "But, if you
+touch yonder bell, they will all awake."
+
+"How long have they been asleep?"
+
+"For over a thousand years."
+
+"Who are they?"
+
+"Arthur's warriors, waiting for the time to come when they shall
+destroy all the enemy of the Cymry and re-possess the strand of
+Britain, establishing their own king once more at Caer Lleon."
+
+"Who are these sitting at the round table?"
+
+"These are Arthur's knights--Owain, the son of Urien; Cai, the
+son of Cynyr; Gnalchmai, the son of Gwyar; Peredir, the son of Efrawe;
+Geraint, the son of Erbin; Ciernay, the son of Celhddon; Edeyrn, the
+son of Nudd; Cymri, the son of Clydno."
+
+"And on the golden throne?" broke in the Welshman.
+
+"Is Arthur himself, with his sword Excalibur in his hand," replied
+the sorcerer.
+
+Impatient by this time at the Welshman's questions, the sorcerer
+hastened to a great heap of yellow gold on the floor of the cave.  He
+took up as much as he could carry, and bade his companion do the same.
+"It is time for us to go," he then said, and he led the way towards
+the door by which they had entered.
+
+But the Welshman was fascinated by the sight of the countless soldiers
+in their glittering arms--all asleep.
+
+"How I should like to see them all awaking!" he said to himself.  "I
+will touch the bell--I _must_ see them all arising from their sleep."
+
+When they came to the bell, he struck it until it rang through the
+whole place.  As soon as it rang, lo! the thousands of warriors leapt
+to their feet and the ground beneath them shook with the sound of the
+steel arms.  And a great voice came from their midst: "Who rang the
+bell?  Has the day come?"
+
+The sorcerer was so much frightened that he shook like an aspen leaf.
+He shouted in answer: "No, the day has not come.  Sleep on."
+
+The mighty host was all in motion, and the Welshman's eyes were dazzled
+as he looked at the bright steel arms which illumined the cave as with
+the light of myriad flames of fire.
+
+"Arthur," said the voice again, "awake; the bell has rung, the day is
+breaking.  Awake, Arthur the Great."
+
+"No," shouted the sorcerer, "it is still night.  Sleep on, Arthur
+the Great."
+
+A sound came from the throne.  Arthur was standing, and the jewels in
+his crown shone like bright stars above the countless throng.  His
+voice was strong and sweet like the sound of many waters, and he said:
+
+"My warriors, the day has not come when the Black Eagle and the Golden
+Eagle shall go to war.  It is only a seeker after gold who has rung
+the bell.  Sleep on, my warriors; the morn of Wales has not yet dawned."
+
+A peaceful sound like the distant sigh of the sea came over the cave,
+and in a trice the soldiers were all asleep again.  The sorcerer
+hurried the Welshman out of the cave, moved the stone back to its
+place and vanished.
+
+Many a time did the Welshman try to find his way into the cave again,
+but though he dug over every inch of the hill, he has never again
+found the entrance to Arthur's Cave.
+
+                     From "THE WELSH FAIRY BOOK," by W. JENKYN THOMAS.
+                                   published by FISHER UNWIN.
+
+
+
+ HAFIZ, THE STONE-CUTTER.
+
+There was once a stone-cutter whose name was Hafiz, and all day long
+he chipped, chipped, chipped at his block.  And often he grew very
+weary of his task and he would say to himself impatiently, "Why should
+I not have pleasure and amusement as other folk have?"
+
+One day, when the sun was very hot and when he felt specially weary,
+he suddenly heard the sound of many feet, and, looking up from his
+work, he saw a great procession coming his way.  It was the King,
+mounted on a splendid charger, all his soldiers to the right, in their
+shining armour, and the servants to the left, dressed in gorgeous
+clothing, ready to do his behests.
+
+And Hafiz said: "How splendid to be a King!  If only I could be a
+King, if only for ten minutes, so that I might know what it feels
+like!"  And then, even as he spoke, he seemed to be dreaming, and
+in his dream he sang this little song:
+
+
+                "Ah me!  Ah me!
+                If Hafiz only the King could be!"[51]
+
+
+And then a voice from the air around seemed to answer him and to say:
+
+
+                "Be thou the King."
+
+
+And Hafiz became the King, and he it was that sat on the splendid
+charger, and they were his soldiers to the right and his servants to
+the left.  And Hafiz said: "I am King, and there is no one stronger
+in the whole world than I."
+
+But soon, in spite of the golden canopy over his head, Hafiz began to
+feel the terrible heat of the rays of the sun, and soon he noticed
+that the soldiers and servants were weary, that his horse drooped, and
+that he, Hafiz, was overcome, and he said angrily: "What!  Is there
+something stronger in the world than a King?"  And, almost without
+knowing it, he again sang his song more boldly than the first time:
+
+
+                "Ah me!  Ah me!
+                If Hafiz only the Sun could be!"
+
+
+And the Voice answered:
+
+
+                "Be thou the Sun."
+
+
+And Hafiz became the Sun, and shone down upon the Earth, but, because
+he did not know how to shine very wisely, he shone very fiercely, so
+that the crops dried up, and folk grew sick and died.  And then there
+arose from the East a little cloud which slipped between Hafiz and the
+Earth, so that he could no longer shine down upon it, and he said:
+"Is there something stronger in the world than the Sun?"
+
+
+                "Ah me!  Ah me!
+                If Hafiz only the Cloud could be!"
+
+
+                "Be thou the Cloud.
+
+
+And Hafiz became the Cloud, and rained down water upon the Earth, but,
+because he did not know how to do so wisely, there fell so much rain
+that all the little rivulets became great rivers, and all the great
+rivers overflowed their banks, and carried everything before them in
+swift torrent--all except one great rock which stood unmoved.  And Hafiz
+said: "Is there something stronger than the Cloud?"
+
+
+                "Ah me!  Ah me!
+                If Hafiz only the Rock could be!"
+
+
+And the Voice said:
+
+
+                "Be thou the Rock."
+
+
+And Hafiz became the Rock, and the Cloud disappeared and the waters
+went down.
+
+And Hafiz the Rock, saw coming towards him a man--he could not see the
+face.  As the man approached he suddenly raised a hammer and struck
+Hafiz, so that he felt it through all his stony body.  And Hafiz said:
+"Is there something stronger in the world than the Rock?
+
+
+                "Ah me!  Ah me!
+                If Hafiz only that Man might be!"
+
+
+And the Voice said:
+
+
+                "Be thou---Thyself."
+
+
+And Hafiz seized the hammer and said:
+
+"The Sun was stronger than the King, the Cloud was stronger than the
+sun, the Rock was stronger then the Cloud, but I, Hafiz, was stronger
+than all."
+             Adapted and arranged by the Author.
+
+
+
+TO YOUR GOOD HEALTH. (From the Russian)
+
+Long long ago there lived a King who was such a mighty monarch that
+whenever he sneezed everyone in the whole country had to say, "To your
+good health!"  Everyone said it except the Shepherd with the bright
+blue eyes, and he would not say it.
+
+The King heard of this and was very angry, and sent for the Shepherd
+to appear before him.
+
+The Shepherd came and stood before the throne, where the King sat
+looking very grand and powerful.  But however grand or powerful he
+might be, the Shepherd did not feel a bit afraid of him.
+
+"Say at once 'To my good health'!" cried the King.
+
+"To my good health," replied the Shepherd.
+
+"To mine--to _mine_, you rascal, you vagabond!" stormed the King.
+
+"To mine, to mine, Your Majesty," was the answer.
+
+"But to _mine_--to my own!" roared the King, and beat on his
+breast in a rage.
+
+"Well, yes; to mine, of course, to my own," cried the Shepherd, and
+gently tapped his breast.
+
+The King was beside himself with fury and did not know what to do,
+when the Lord chamberlain interfered:
+
+"Say at once--say this very moment, 'To your health, Your Majesty,'
+for if you don't say it you will lose your life," he whispered.
+
+"No, I won't say it tell I get the Princess for my wife," was the
+Shepherd's answer.
+
+Now the Princess was sitting on a little throne beside the King, her
+father, and she look as sweet and lovely as a little golden dove.
+When she heard what the Shepherd said, she could not help laughing,
+for there is no denying the fact that this young shepherd with the
+blue eyes pleased her very much; indeed, he pleased her better than
+any king's son she had yet seen.
+
+But the King was not as pleasant as his daughter, and gave orders to
+throw the Shepherd into the white bear's pit.
+
+The guards led him away and thrust him into the pit with the white
+bear, who had had nothing to eat for two days and was very hungry.
+The door of the pit was hardly closed when the bear rushed at the
+shepherd; but when it saw his eyes it was so frightened that it was
+ready to eat itself.  It shrank away into a corner and gazed at him
+from there, and in spite of being so famished, did not dare to touch
+him, but sucked its own paws from sheer hunger.  The Shepherd felt
+that if he once removed his eyes off the beast he was a dead man, and
+in order to keep himself awake he made songs and sang them, and so the
+night went by.
+
+Next morning the Lord Chamberlain came to see the Shepherd's bones,
+and was amazed to find him alive and well.  He led him to the King,
+who fell into a furious passion, and said:
+
+"Well, you have learned what it is to be very near death, and now will
+you say, 'To my very good health'?"
+
+But the Shepherd answered:
+
+"I am not afraid of ten deaths!  I will only say it if I may have the
+Princess for my wife."
+
+"Then go to your death," cried the King, and ordered him to be thrown
+into the den with the wild boars.
+
+The wild boars had not been fed for a week, and when the Shepherd
+was thrust into their den they rushed at him to tear him to pieces.
+But the Shepherd took a little flute out of the sleeve of his jacket,
+and began to play a merry tune, on which the wild boars first of all
+shrank shyly away, and then got up on their hind legs and danced
+gaily.  The Shepherd would have given anything to be able to laugh,
+they looked so funny; but he dared not stop playing, for he knew well
+enough that the moment he stopped they would fall upon him and tear
+him to pieces.  His eyes were of no use to him here, for he could not
+have stared ten wild boars in the face at once; so he kept playing,
+and the wild boars danced very slowly, as if in a minuet; then by
+degrees he played faster and faster, till they could hardly twist and
+turn quickly enough, and ended by all falling over each other in a
+heap, quite exhausted and out of breath.
+
+Then the Shepherd ventured to laugh at last; and he laughed so long
+and so loud that when the Lord Chamberlain came early in the morning,
+expecting to find only his bones, the tears were still running down
+his cheeks from laughter.
+
+As soon as the King was dressed the Shepherd was again brought before
+him; but he was more angry than ever to think the wild boars had not
+torn the man to bits, and he said:
+
+"Well, you have learned what it feels to be near ten deaths, _now_ say
+'To my good health'!"
+
+But the shepherd broke in with:
+
+"I do not fear a hundred deaths; and I will only say it if I may have
+the Princess for my wife."
+
+"Then go to a hundred deaths!" roared the King, and ordered the
+Shepherd to be thrown down the deep vault of scythes.
+
+The guards dragged him away to a dark dungeon, in the middle of which
+was a deep well with sharp scythes all round it.  At the bottom of the
+well was a little light by which one could see, if anyone was thrown
+in, whether he had fallen to the bottom.
+
+When the Shepherd was dragged to the dungeon he begged the guards to
+leave him alone a little while that he might look down into the pit of
+scythes; perhaps he might after all make up his mind to say, "To your
+good health" to the King.
+
+So the guards left him alone, and he stuck up his long stick near the
+wall, hung his cloak round the stick and put his hat on the top.  He
+also hung his knapsack up beside the cloak, so that it might seem to
+have some body within it.  When this was done, he called out to the
+guards and said that he had considered the matter, but after all he
+could not make up his mind to say what the King wished.
+
+The guards came in, threw the hat and cloak, knapsack and stick all
+down in the well together, watched to see how they put out the light
+at the bottom, and came away, thinking that now there was really an
+end to the Shepherd.  But he had hidden in a dark corner, and was now
+laughing to himself all the time.
+
+Quite early next morning came the Lord Chamberlain with a lamp, and he
+nearly fell backwards with surprise when he saw the Shepherd alive and
+well.  He brought him to the King, whose fury was greater than ever,
+but who cried:
+
+"Well, now you have been near a hundred deaths; will you say, 'To your
+good health'?"
+
+But the Shepherd only gave the answer:
+
+"I won't say it till the Princess is my wife."
+
+"Perhaps, after all, you may do it for less," said the King, who saw
+that there was no chance of making away with the shepherd; and he
+ordered the state coach to be got ready; then he made the Shepherd get
+in with him and sit beside him, and ordered the coachman to drive to
+the silver wood.
+
+When they reached it, he said:
+
+"Do you see this silver wood?  Well, if you will say 'To your good
+health,' I will give it to you."
+
+The shepherd turned hot and cold by turns, but he still persisted:
+
+"I will not say it till the Princess is my wife."
+
+The King was much vexed; he drove further on till they came to a
+splendid castle, all of gold, and then he said:
+
+"Do you see this golden castle?  Well, I will give you that too, the
+silver wood and the gold castle, if only you will say one thing to me:
+'To your good health.'"
+
+The Shepherd gaped and wondered, and was quite dazzled but he
+still said:
+
+"No, I will not say it till I have the Princess for my wife."
+
+This time the King was overwhelmed with grief, and gave orders to
+drive on to the diamond pond and there he tried once more:
+
+"You shall have the all--all, if you will but say 'To your good
+health.'"
+
+The Shepherd had to shut his staring eyes tight not to be dazzled with
+the brilliant pond, but still he said:
+
+"No, no; I will not say it till I have the Princess for my wife."
+
+Then the King saw that all his efforts were useless, and that he might
+as well give in; so he said:
+
+"Well, well, it is all the same to me--I will give you my daughter to
+wife; but then you really must say to me, 'To your good health.'"
+
+"Of course I'll say it; why should I not say it?  It stands to reason
+that I shall say it then."
+
+At this the King was more delighted than anyone could have believed.
+He made it known all through the country that there were going to be
+great rejoicings, as the Princess was going to be married.  And
+everyone rejoiced to think that the Princess who had refused so many
+royal suitors, should have ended by falling in love with the staring-
+eyed Shepherd.
+
+There was such a wedding as had never been seen.  Everyone ate and
+drank and danced.  Even the sick were feasted, and quite tiny new-born
+children had presents given them.  But the greatest merrymaking was in
+the King's palace; there the best bands played and the best food was
+cooked.  A crowd of people sat down to table, and all was fun and
+merrymaking.
+
+And when the groomsman, according to custom, brought in the great
+boar's head on a big dish and placed it before the King, so that he
+might carve it and give everyone a share, the savoury smell was so
+strong that the King began to sneeze with all his might.
+
+"To your very good health!" cried the Shepherd before anyone else, and
+the King was so delighted that he did not regret having given him his
+daughter.
+
+In time, when the old King died, the Shepherd succeeded him.  He made
+a very good king, and never expected his people to wish him well
+against their wills: but, all the same, everyone did wish him well,
+because they loved him.
+
+
+
+ THE PROUD COCK.
+
+There was once a cock who grew so dreadfully proud that he would have
+nothing to say to anybody.  He left his house, it being far beneath
+his dignity to have any trammel of that sort in his life, and as for
+his former acquaintance, he cut them all.
+
+One day, whilst walking about, he came to a few little sparks of fire
+which were nearly dead.
+
+They cried out to him: "Please fan us with your wings, and we shall
+come to the full vigour of life again."
+
+But he did not deign to answer, and as he was going away one of the
+sparks said; "Ah well! we shall die, but our big brother, the Fire
+will pay you out for this one day."
+
+On another day he was airing himself in a meadow, showing himself off
+in a very superb set of clothes.  A voice calling from somewhere said:
+"Please be so good as to drop us into the water again."
+
+He looked about and saw a few drops of water: they had got separated
+from their friends in the river, and were pining away with grief.  "Oh!
+please be so good as to drop us into the water again," they said; but,
+without any answer, he drank up the drops.  He was too proud and a great
+deal too big to talk to a poor little puddle of water; but the drops
+said: "Our big brother, the Water, will one day take you in hand, you
+proud and senseless creature."
+
+Some days afterwards, during a great storm of rain, thunder and
+lightning, the cock took shelter in a little empty cottage, and shut
+to the door; and he thought: "I am clever; I am in comfort.  What
+fools people are to top out in a storm like this!  What's that?"
+thought he. "I never heard a sound like that before."
+
+In a little while it grew much louder, and when a few minutes had
+passed, it was a perfect howl.  "Oh!" thought he, "this will never
+do.  I must stop it somehow.  But what is it I have to stop?"
+
+He soon found it was the wind, shouting through the keyhole, so he
+plugged up the keyhole with a bit of clay, and then the wind was able
+to rest.  He was very tired with whistling so long through the keyhole,
+and he said: "Now, if ever I have at any time a chance of doing a good
+turn to that princely domestic fowl, I well do it."
+
+Weeks afterwards, the cock looked in at a house door: he seldom went
+there, because the miser to whom the house belonged almost starved
+himself, and so, of course, there was nothing over for anybody else.
+
+To his amazement the cock saw the miser bending over a pot on the
+fire.  At last the old fellow turned round to get a spoon with which
+to stir his pot, and then the cock, waking up, looked in and saw that
+the miser was making oyster-soup, for he had found some oyster-shells
+in an ash-pit, and to give the mixture a colour he had put in a few
+halfpence in the pot.
+
+The miser chanced to turn quickly round, while the cock was peering
+into the saucepan, and, chuckling to himself, he said: "I shall have
+chicken broth after all."
+
+He tripped up the cock into the pot and shut the lid on.  The bird,
+feeling warm, said: "Water, water, don't boil!"  But the water only
+said: "You drank up my young brothers once: don't ask a favour of _me_."
+
+Then he called out to the Fire: "Oh! kind Fire, don't boil the water."
+But the fire replied: "You once let my young sisters die: you cannot
+expect any mercy from me."  So he flared up and boiled the water all
+the faster.
+
+At last, when the cock got unpleasantly warm, he thought of the wind,
+and called out: "Oh, Wind, come to my help!" and the Wind said: "Why,
+there is that noble domestic bird in trouble.  I will help him."  So
+he came down the chimney, blew out the fire, blew the lid off the pot,
+and blew the cock far away into the air, and at last settled him on a
+steeple, where the cock remained ever since.  And people say that the
+halfpence which were in the pot when it was boiling have given him the
+queer brown colour he still wears.
+                                     From the Spanish.
+
+
+
+SNEGOURKA.
+
+There lived once, in Russia, a peasant and his wife who would have
+been as happy as the day is long, if only God had given them a
+little child.
+
+One day, as they were watching the children playing in the snow, the
+man said to the woman:
+
+"Wife, shall we go out and help the children make a snowball?"
+
+But the wife answered, smiling:
+
+"Nay, husband, but since God has given us no little child, let us go
+and fashion one from the snow."
+
+And she put on her long blue cloak, and he put on his long brown
+coat, and they went out onto the crisp snow, and began to fashion
+the little child.
+
+First, they made the feet and the legs and the little body, and then
+they took a ball of snow for the head.  And at that moment a stranger
+in a long cloak, with his hat well drawn over his face, passed that
+way, and said: "Heaven help your undertaking!"
+
+And the peasants crossed themselves and said:
+
+"It is well to ask help from Heaven in all we do."
+
+Then they went on fashioning the little child.  And they made two
+holes for the eyes and formed the nose and the mouth.  And then--
+wonder of wonders--the little child came alive, and breath came from
+its nostrils and parted lips.
+
+And the man was feared, and said to his wife: "What have we done?"
+
+And the wife said: "This is the little girl child God has sent us."
+And she gathered it into her arms, and the loose snow fell away from
+the little creature.  Her hair became golden and her eyes were as blue
+as forget-me-nots--but there was no colour in her cheeks, because
+there was no blood in her veins.
+
+In a few days she was like a child of three or four, and in a few
+weeks she seemed to be the age of nine or ten, and ran about gaily
+and prattled with the other children, who loved her so dearly, though
+she was so different from them.
+
+Only, happy as she was, and dearly as her parents loved her, there was
+one terror in her life, and that was the sun.  And during the day she
+would run and hide herself in cool, damp places away from the sunshine,
+and this the other children could not understand.
+
+As the Spring advanced and the days grew longer and warmed, little
+Snegourka (for this was the name by which she was known) grew paler
+and thinner, and her mother would often ask her: "What ails you, my
+darling?" and Snegourka would say: "Nothing, Mother but I wish the sun
+were not so bright."
+
+One day, on St. John's Day, the children of the village came to fetch
+her for a day in the woods, and they gathered flowers for her and did
+all they to make her happy, but it was only when the great red sun
+went down that Snegourka drew a deep breath of relief and spread her
+little hands out to the cool evening air.  And the boys, glad at her
+gladness, said: "Let us do something for Snegourka.  Let us light a
+bonfire."  And Snegourka not knowing what a bonfire was, she clapped
+her hands and was as merry and eager as they.  And she helped them
+gather the sticks, and then they all stood round the pile and the boys
+set fire to the wood.
+
+Snegourka stood watching the flames and listening to the crackle of
+the wood: and then suddenly they heard a tiny sound and looking at the
+place where Snegourka had been standing, they saw nothing but a little
+snow-drift fast melting.  And they called and called, "Snegourka!
+Snegourka!" thinking she had run into the forest.  But there was no
+answer.  Snegourka had disappeared from this life as mysteriously as
+she had come into it.
+                        Adapted by the author.
+
+
+
+THE WATER NIXIE.
+
+The river was so clear because it was the home of a very beautiful
+Water Nixie who lived in it, and who sometimes could emerge from her
+home and sit in woman's form upon the bank.  She had a dark green
+smock upon her, the colour of the water-weed that waves as the water
+wills it, deep, deep down.  And in her long wet hair were the white
+flowers of the water-violet, and she held a reed mace in her hand.
+Her face was very sad because she had lived a long life, and known so
+many adventures, ever since she was a baby, which was nearly a hundred
+years ago.  For creatures of the streams and trees live a long, long
+time, and when they die they lose themselves in Nature.  That means
+that they are forever clouds, or trees, or rivers, and never have the
+form of men and women again.
+
+All water creatures would live, if they might choose it, in the sea,
+where they are born.  It is in the sea they float hand-in-hand upon
+the crested billows, and sink deep in the great troughs of the strong
+waves, that are as green as jade.  They follow the foam and lose
+themselves in the wide ocean--
+
+
+                "Where great whales come sailing by,
+                 Sail and sail with unshut eye;"
+
+
+and they store in the Sea King's palace the golden phosphor of the
+sea.  But this Water Nixie had lost her happiness through not being
+good.  She had forgotten many things that had been told her, and she
+had done many things that grieved others.  She had stolen somebody
+else's property--quite a large bundle of happiness--which belonged
+elsewhere and not to her.  Happiness is generally made to fit the
+person who owns it, just as do your shoes, or clothes; so that when
+you take someone else's it's very little good to you, for it fits
+badly, and you can never forget it isn't yours.
+
+So what with one thing and another, this Water Nixie had to be punished,
+and the Queen of the Sea had banished her from the waves.[52]
+
+"You shall live for a long time in little places where you will weary
+of yourself.  You will learn to know yourself so well that everything
+you want will seem too good for you, and you will cease to claim it.
+And so, in time, you shall get free."
+
+Then the Nixie had to rise up and go away, and be shut into the
+fastness of a very small space, according to the words of the Queen.
+And this small space was--a tear.
+
+At first she could hardly express her misery, and by thinking so
+continuously of the wideness and savour of the sea, she brought a dash
+of the brine with her, that makes the saltness of our tears.  She
+became many times smaller than her own stature; even then, by standing
+upright and spreading wide her arms, she touched with her finger-tips
+the walls of her tiny crystal home.  How she longed that this tear
+might be wept, and the walls of her prison shattered!  But the owner
+of this tear was of a very proud nature, and she was so sad that tears
+seemed to her in no wise to express her grief.
+
+She was a Princess who lived in a country that was not her home.  What
+were tears to her?  If she could have stood on the top of the very
+highest hill and with both hands caught the great winds of heaven,
+strong as they, and striven with them, perhaps she might have felt as
+if she expressed all she knew.  Or, if she could have torn down the
+stars from the heavens, or cast her mantle over the sun.  But tears!
+Would they have helped to tell her sorrow?  You cry if you soil your
+copybook, don't you? or pinch your hand?  So you may imagine the
+Nixie's home was a safe one, and she turned round and round in the
+captivity of that tear.
+
+For twenty years she dwelt in that strong heart, till she grew to be
+accustomed to her cell.  At last, in this wise came her release.
+
+An old gipsy came one morning to the Castle and begged to see the
+Princess.  She must see her, she cried.  And the Princess came down
+the steps to meet her, and the gipsy gave her a small roll of paper,
+but in the midst of the page was a picture, small as the picture
+reflected in the iris of an eye.  The picture shewed a hill, with
+one tree on the sky-line, and a long road wound round the hill.
+
+And suddenly in the Princess' memory a voice spoke to her.  Many
+sounds she heard, gathered up into one great silence, like the quiet
+there is in forest spaces, when it is Summer and the green is deep:--
+
+
+           "Blessed are they that have the home longing,
+            For they shall go home."
+
+
+Then the Princess gave the gipsy two golden pieces, and went up to
+her chamber, and long that night she sat, looking out upon the sky.
+
+She had no need to look upon the honeyed scroll, though she held it
+closely.  Clearly before her did she see that small picture: the hill,
+and the tree, and the winding road, imaged as if mirrored in the iris
+of an eye.  And in her memory she was upon that road, and the hill
+rose beside her, and the little tree was outlined, every twig of it,
+against the sky.
+
+And as she saw all this, an overwhelming love of the place arose in
+her, a love of that certain bit of country that was so sharp and
+strong, that it stung and swayed her, as she leaned on the window-sill.
+
+And because the love of a country is one of the deepest loves you may
+feel, the band of her control was loosened, and the tears came welling
+to her eyes.  Up they brimmed and over in salty rush and follow,
+dimming her eyes, magnifying everything, speared for a moment on her
+eyelashes, then shimmering to their fall.  And at last came the tear
+that held the disobedient Nixie.
+
+Splish! it fell.  And she was free.
+
+If you could have seen how pretty she looked standing there, about
+the height of a grass-blade, wringing out her long wet hair.  Every
+bit of moisture she wrung out of it, she was so glad to be quit of
+that tear.  Then she raised her two arms above her in one delicious
+stretch, and if you had been the size of a mustard-seed perhaps you
+might have heard her laughing.  Then she grew a little, and grew and
+grew, till she was about the height of a bluebell, and as slender
+to see.
+
+She stood looking at the splash on the window-sill that had been her
+prison so long, and then with three steps of her bare feet, she
+reached the jessamine that was growing by the window, and by this
+she swung herself to the ground.
+
+Away she sped over the dew-drenched meadows till she came to the running
+brook, and with all her longing in her outstretched hands, she kneeled
+down by the crooked willows among all the comfry and the loosestrife,
+and the yellow irises and the reeds.
+
+Then she slid into the wide, cool stream.
+
+                                  From "THE CHILDREN AND THE PICTURES."
+                                    PAMELA TENNANT (LADY GLENCONNER).
+
+
+
+THE BLUE ROSE.
+
+There lived once upon a time in China a wise Emperor who had one
+daughter.  His daughter was remarkable for her perfect beauty.  Her
+feet were the smallest in the world; her eyes were long and slanting
+and bright as brown onyxes, and when you heard her laugh it was like
+the listening to a tinkling stream or to the chimes of a silver bell.
+Moreover, the Emperor's daughter was as wise as she was beautiful, and
+she chanted the verse of the great poets better than anyone in the
+land.  The Emperor was old in years; his son was married and had
+begotten a son; he was, therefore, quite happy with regard to the
+succession to the throne, but he wished before he died to see his
+daughter wedded to someone who should be worthy of her.
+
+Many suitors presented themselves to the palace as soon as it became
+know that the Emperor desired a son-in-law, but when they reached the
+palace they were met by the Lord Chamberlain, who told them that the
+Emperor had decided that only the man who found and brought back the
+blue rose should marry his daughter.  The suitors were much puzzled by
+this order.  What was the blue rose and where was it to be found?  In
+all, a hundred and fifty at once put away from them all thought of
+winning the hand of the Emperor's daughter, since they considered the
+condition imposed to be absurd.
+
+The other hundred set about trying to find the blue rose.  One of them--
+his name was Ti-Fun-Ti--he was a merchant and was immensely rich, at
+once went to the largest shop in the town and said to the shopkeeper,
+"I want a blue rose, the best you have."
+
+The shopkeeper, with many apologies, explained that he did not stock
+blue roses.  He had red roses in profusion, white, pink and yellow
+roses, but no blue roses.  There had hitherto been no demand for
+the article.
+
+"Well," said Ti-Fun-Ti, "you must get one for me.  I do not mind how
+much money it costs, but I must have a blue rose."
+
+The shopkeeper said he would do his best, but he feared it would be an
+expensive article and difficult to procure.  Another of the suitors,
+whose name I have forgotten, was a warrior, and extremely brave; he
+mounted his horse, and taking with him a hundred archers and a
+thousand horsemen, he marched into the territory of the King of the
+Five Rivers, whom he knew to be the richest king in the world and the
+possessor of the rarest treasures, and demanded of him the blue rose,
+threatening him with a terrible doom should he be reluctant to give
+it up.
+
+The King of the Five Rivers, who disliked soldiers, and had a horror
+of noise, physical violence, and every kind of fuss (his bodyguard was
+armed solely with fans and sunshades), rose from the cushions on which
+he was lying when the demand was made, and, tinkling a small bell, said
+to the servant who straightway appeared, "Fetch me the blue rose."
+
+The servant retired and returned presently bearing on a silken cushion
+a large sapphire which was carved so as to imitate a full-blown rose
+with all its petals.
+
+"This," said the king of the Five Rivers, "is the blue rose.  You are
+welcome to it."
+
+The warrior took it, and after making brief, soldier-like thanks, he
+went straight back to the Emperor's palace, saying that he had lost no
+time in finding the blue rose.  He was ushered into the presence of
+the Emperor, who as soon as he heard the warrior's story and saw the
+blue rose which had been brought sent for his daughter and said to
+her: "This intrepid warrior has brought you what he claims to be the
+blue rose.  Has he accomplished the quest?"
+
+The Princess took the precious object in her hands, and after examining
+it for a moment, said: "This is not a rose at all.  It is a sapphire;
+I have no need of precious stones."  And the warrior went away in
+discomfiture.
+
+The merchant, hearing of the warrior's failure, was all the more anxious
+to win the prize.  He sought the shopkeeper and said to him: "Have you
+got me the blue rose?"  I trust you have; because, if not, I shall most
+assuredly be the means of your death.  My brother-in-law is chief
+magistrate, and I am allied by marriage to all the chief officials in
+the kingdom."
+
+The shopkeeper turned pale and said: "Sir, give me three days and I
+will procure you the rose without fail."  The merchant granted him the
+three days and went away.  Now the shopkeeper was at his wit's end as
+to what to do, for he knew well there was no such thing as a blue
+rose.  For two days he did nothing but moan and wring his hands, and
+on the third day he went to his wife and said, "Wife, we are ruined."
+
+But his wife, who was a sensible woman, said: "Nonsense.  If there
+is no such thing as a blue rose we must make one.  Go to the chemist
+and ask him for a strong dye which well change a white rose into a
+blue one."
+
+So the shopkeeper went to the chemist and asked him for a dye, and
+the chemist gave him a bottle of red liquid, telling him to pick a
+white rose and to dip its stalk into the liquid and the rose would
+turn blue.  The shopkeeper did as he was told; the rose turned into
+a beautiful blue and the shopkeeper took it to the merchant, who at
+once went with it to the palace saying that he had found the blue rose.
+
+He was ushered into the presence of the Emperor, who as soon as he saw
+the blue rose sent for his daughter and said to her: "This wealthy
+merchant has brought you what he claims to be the blue rose.  Has he
+accomplished the quest?"
+
+The Princess took the flower in her hands and after examining it for a
+moment said: "This is a white rose, its stalk has been dipped in a
+poisonous dye and it has turned blue.  Were a butterfly to settle upon
+it it would die of the potent fume.  Take it back.  I have no need of
+a dyed rose." And she returned it to the merchant with many elegantly
+expressed thanks.
+
+The other ninety-eight suitors all sought in various ways for the blue
+rose.  Some of them traveled all over the world seeking it; some of
+them sought the aid of wizards and astrologers, and one did not
+hesitate to invoke the help of the dwarfs that live underground; but
+all of them, whether they traveled in far countries or took counsel
+with wizards and demons or sat pondering in lonely places, failed to
+find the blue rose.
+
+At last they all abandoned the quest except the Lord Chief Justice,
+who was the most skillful lawyer and statesman in the country.  After
+thinking over the matter for several months he sent for the most
+famous artist in the country and said to him: "Make me a china cup.
+Let it be milk-white in colour and perfect in shape, and paint on
+it a rose, a blue rose."
+
+The artist made obeisance and withdrew, and worked for two months at the
+Lord Chief Justice's cup.  In two months' time it was finished, and the
+world has never seen such a beautiful cup, so perfect in symmetry, so
+delicate in texture, and the rose on it, the blue rose, was a living
+flower, picked in fairyland and floating on the rare milky surface of
+the porcelain.  When the Lord Chief Justice saw it he gasped with
+surprise and pleasure, for he was a great lover of porcelain, and never
+in his life had he seen such a piece.  He said to himself, "Without
+doubt the blue rose is here on this cup and nowhere else."
+
+So, after handsomely rewarding the artist, he went to the Emperor's
+palace and said that he had brought the blue rose.  He was ushered
+into the Emperor's presence, who as he saw the cup sent for his
+daughter and said to her: "This eminent lawyer has brought you what he
+claims to be the blue rose.  Has he accomplished the quest?"
+
+The Princess took the bowl in her hands, and after examining it for
+a moment said: "This bowl is the most beautiful piece of china I have
+ever seen.  If you are kind enough to let me keep it I will put it
+aside until I receive the blue rose.  For so beautiful is it that no
+other flower is worthy to be put in it except the blue rose."
+
+The Lord Chief Justice thanked the Princess for accepting the bowl
+with many elegantly turned phrases, and he went away in discomfiture.
+
+After this there was no one in the whole country who ventured on the
+quest of the blue rose.  It happened that not long after the Lord
+Chief Justice's attempt a strolling minstrel visited the kingdom of
+the Emperor.  One evening he was playing his one-stringed instrument
+outside a dark wall.  It was a summer's evening, and the sun had sunk
+in a glory of dusty gold, and in the violet twilight one or two stars
+were twinkling like spearheads.  There was an incessant noise made by
+the croaking of frogs and the chatter of grasshoppers.  The minstrel
+was singing a short song over and over again to a monotonous tune.
+The sense of it was something like this:
+
+
+                  I watched beside the willow trees
+                    The river, as the evening fell,
+                  The twilight came and brought no breeze,
+                    Nor dew, nor water for the well.
+
+                  When from the tangled banks of grass
+                    A bird across the water flew,
+                  And in the river's hard grey glass
+                    I saw a flash of azure blue.
+
+
+As he sang he heard a rustle on the wall, and looking up he saw a
+slight figure white against the twilight, beckoning him.  He walked
+along under the wall until he came to a gate, and there someone was
+waiting for him, and he was gently led into the shadow of a dark cedar
+tree.  In the dim twilight he saw two bright eyes looking at him, and
+he understood their message.  In the twilight a thousand meaningless
+nothings were whispered in the light of the stars, and the hours fled
+swiftly.  When the East began to grow light, the Princess (for it was
+she) said it was time to go.
+
+"But," said the minstrel, "to-morrow I shall come to the palace and
+ask for your hand."
+
+"Alas!" said the Princess, "I would that were possible, but my father
+has made a foolish condition that only he may wed me who finds the
+blue rose."
+
+"That is simple," said the minstrel.  "I will find it."  And they said
+good night to each other.
+
+The next morning the minstrel went to the palace, and on his way he
+picked a common white rose from a wayside garden.  He was ushered into
+the Emperor's presence, who sent for his daughter and said to her:
+"This penniless minstrel has brought you what he claims to be the blue
+rose.  Has he accomplished the quest?"
+
+The Princess took the rose in her hands and said: "Yes, this is without
+doubt the blue rose."
+
+But the Lord Chief Justice and all who were present respectfully
+pointed out that the rose was a common white rose and not a blue
+one, and the objection was with many forms and phrases conveyed to
+the Princess.
+
+"I think the rose is blue," said the Princess.  "Perhaps you are all
+colour blind."
+
+The Emperor, with whom the decision rested, decided that if the
+Princess thought the rose was blue it was blue, for it was well
+known that her perception was more acute than that of any one
+else in the kingdom.
+
+So the minstrel married the Princess, and they settled on the sea
+coast in a little seen house with a garden full of white roses, and
+they lived happily ever afterwards.  And the Emperor, knowing that
+his daughter had made a good match, died in peace.
+                                                    MAURICE BARING.
+
+
+
+THE TWO FROGS.
+
+Once upon a time in the country of Japan there lived two frogs, one
+of whom made his home in a ditch near the town of Osaka, on the sea
+coast, while the other dwelt in a clear little stream which ran
+through the city of Kioto.  At such a great distance apart, they had
+never even heard of each other; but, funnily enough, the idea came
+into both their heads at once that they should like to see a little
+of the world, and the frog who lived at Kioto wanted to visit Osaka,
+and the frog who lived at Osaka wished to go to Kioto, where the great
+Mikado had his palace.
+
+So one fine morning in the spring, they both set out along the road
+that led from Kioto to Osaka, one from one end and the other from
+the other.
+
+The journey was more tiring than they expected, for they did not know
+much about travelling, and half-way between the two towns there rose
+a mountain which had to be climbed.  It took them a long time and a
+great many hops to reach the top, but there they were at last, and
+what was the surprise of each to see another frog before him!  They
+looked at each other for a moment without speaking, and then fell
+into conversation, and explained the cause of their meeting so far
+from their homes.  It was delightful to find that they both felt the
+same wish--to learn a little more of their native country--and as
+there was no sort of hurry they stretched themselves out in a cool,
+damp place, and agreed that they would have a good rest before they
+parted to go their ways.
+
+"What a pity we are not bigger," said the Osaka frog, "and then we
+could see both towns from here and tell if it worth our while going
+on."
+
+"Oh, that is easily manage," returned the Kioto frog.  "We have only
+got to stand up on our hind legs, and hold on to each other, and then
+we can each look at the town he is travelling to."
+
+This idea pleased the Osaka frog so much that he at once jumped up and
+put his front paws on the shoulder of his friend, who had risen also.
+There they both stood, stretching themselves as high as they could,
+and holding each other tightly, so that they might not fall down.  The
+Kioto frog turned his nose towards Osaka, and the Osaka frog turned
+his nose toward Kioto; but the foolish thing forgot that when the
+stood up their great eyes lay in the backs of their heads, and that
+though their noses might point to the places to which they wanted to
+go, their eyes beheld the places from which they had come.
+
+"Dear me!" cried the Osaka frog; "Kioto is exactly like Osaka.  It is
+certainly not worth such a long journey.  I shall go home."
+
+"If I had had any idea that Osaka was only a copy of Kioto I should
+never have travelled all this way," exclaimed the frog from Kioto, and
+as he spoke, he took his hands from his friend's shoulders and they
+both fell down to the grass.
+
+Then they took a polite farewell of each other, and set off for home,
+again, and to the end of their lives they believed that Osaka and
+Kioto, which are as different to look at as two towns can be, were
+as like as two peas.
+                        THE VIOLET LOVING BOOK.
+
+
+
+THE WISE OLD SHEPHERD.
+
+Once upon a time a Snake went out of his hole to take an airing.  He
+crawled about, greatly enjoying the scenery and the fresh whiff of the
+breeze, until, seeing an open door, he went in.  Now this door was the
+door of the palace of the King, and inside was the King himself, with
+all his courtiers.
+
+Imagine their horror at seeing a huge Snake crawling in at the
+door.  They all ran away except the king, who felt that his rank
+forbade him to be a coward, and the King's son.  The King called out
+for somebody to come and kill the Snake; but this horrified them still
+more, because in that country the people believed it to be wicked to
+kill any living thing, even snakes and scorpion and wasps.  So the
+courtiers did nothing, but the young Prince obeyed his father, and
+killed the Snake with his stick.
+
+After a while the Snake's wife became anxious and set out in search of
+her husband.  She too saw the open door of the palace, and in she
+went. O horror! there on the floor lay the body of her husband all
+covered with blood and quite dead.  No one saw the Snake's wife crawl
+in; she inquired of a white ant what had happened, and when she found
+that the young prince had killed her husband, she made a vow that, as
+he had made her a widow, so she would make his wife a widow.
+
+That night, when all the world was asleep, the Snake crept into the
+Prince's bedroom, and coiled round his neck.  The Prince slept on,
+and when he awoke in the morning, he was surprised to find his neck
+encircled with the coils of a snake.  He was afraid to stir, so there
+he remained, until the Prince's mother became anxious and went to see
+what was the matter.  When she entered his room, and saw him in this
+plight, she gave a loud shriek, and ran off to tell the king.
+
+"Call the archers," said the King.
+
+The archers came in a row, fitted the arrows to the bows, the bows
+were raised and ready to shoot, when, on a sudden, from the Snake
+there issued a voice which spoke as follows:
+
+"O archers, wait, wait and hear me before you shoot.  It is not fair
+to carry out the sentence before you have heard the case.  Is not this
+a good law: an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth?  Is it not so,
+O King?"
+
+"Yes," replied the King, "that is our law."
+
+"Then," said the snake, "I plead the law.  Your son has made me a
+widow, so it is fair and right that I should make his wife a widow."
+
+"That sounds right enough," said the King, "but right and law are not
+always the same thing.  We had better ask somebody who knows."
+
+They asked all the judges, but none of them could tell the law of the
+matter.  They shook their heads, and said they would look up all their
+law-books, and see whether anything of the sort had ever happened
+before, and if so, how it had been decided.  That is the way judges
+used to decide cases in that country, though I dare say it sounds to
+you a very funny way.  It looked as if they had not much sense in
+their own heads, and perhaps that was true.  The upshot of it all was
+that not a judge would give an opinion; so the King sent messengers
+all over the countryside, to see if they could find somebody somewhere
+who knew something.
+
+One of these messengers found a party of five shepherds, who were
+sitting upon a hill and trying to decide a quarrel of their own.  They
+gave their opinions so freely, and in language so very strong, that
+the King's messenger said to himself, "Here are the men for us.  Here
+are five men, each with an opinion of his own, and all different."
+Posthaste he scurried back to the King, and told him that he had found
+at last some one ready to judge the knotty point.
+
+So the King and the Queen, and the Prince and Princess, and all the
+courtiers, got on horseback, and away they galloped to the hill
+whereupon the five shepherds were sitting, and the Snake too went
+with them, coiled around the neck of the Prince.
+
+When they got to the shepherds' hill, the shepherds were dreadfully
+frightened.  At first they thought the strangers were a gang of robbers,
+and when they saw it was the King their next thought was that one of
+their misdeeds had been found out; and each of them began thinking
+what was the last thing he had done, and wondering, was it that?
+
+But the King and the courtiers got off their horses, and said good
+day, in the most civil way.  So the shepherds felt their minds set at
+ease again.  Then the King said:
+
+"Worthy shepherds, we have a question to put to you, which not all the
+judges in all the courts of my city have been able to solve.  Here is
+my son, and here, as you see, is a snake coiled round his neck.  Now,
+the husband of this Snake came creeping into my palace hall, and my
+son the Prince killed him; so this Snake, who is the wife of the other,
+says that, as my son has made her a widow, so she has a right to widow
+my son's wife.  What do you think about it?"
+
+The first shepherd said: "I think she is quite right, my Lord the
+King.  If anyone made my wife a widow, I would pretty soon do the
+same to him."
+
+This was brave language, and the other shepherds shook their heads and
+looked fierce.  But the King was puzzled, and could not quite understand
+it.  You see, in the first place, if the man's wife were a widow, the
+man would be dead; and then it is hard to see that he could do anything.
+So to make sure, the King asked the second shepherd whether that was his
+opinion too.
+
+"Yes," said the second shepherd; "now the Prince has killed the Snake,
+the Snake has a right to kill the Prince if he can."  But that was not
+of much use either, as the Snake was as dead as a doornail.  So the
+King passed on to the third.
+
+"I agree with my mates," said the third shepherd.  "Because, you see,
+a Prince is a Prince, but then a Snake is a Snake."  That was quite
+true, they all admitted, but it did not seem to help the matter much.
+Then the King asked the fourth shepherd to say what he thought.
+
+The fourth shepherd said: "An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth;
+so I think a widow should be a widow, if so be she don't marry again."
+
+By this time the poor King was so puzzled that he hardly knew whether
+he stood on his head or his heels.  But there was still the fifth
+shepherd left; the oldest and wisest of them all; and the fifth
+shepherd said:
+
+"King, I should like to ask two questions."
+
+"Ask twenty, if you like," said the King.  He did not promise to
+answer them, so he could afford to be generous.
+
+"First.  I ask the Princess how many sons she has."
+
+"Four," said the Princess.
+
+"And how many sons has Mistress Snake here?"
+
+Seven," said the Snake.
+
+"Then," said the old shepherd, "it will be quite fair for Mistress
+Snake to kill his Highness the Prince when her Highness the Princess
+has had three sons more."
+
+"I never thought of that," said the Snake.  "Good-bye, King, and all
+you good people.  Send a message when the Princess has had three more
+sons, and you may count upon me--I will not fail you."
+
+So saying, she uncoiled from the Prince's neck and slid away among
+the grass.
+
+The King and the Prince and everybody shook hands with the wise old
+shepherd, and went home again.  And the Princess never had any more
+sons at all.  She and the Prince lived happily for many years; and if
+they are not dead they are living still.
+                                          From "THE TALKING THRUSH."
+
+
+
+THE FOLLY OF PANIC.
+
+And it came to pass that the Buddha (to be) was born again as a Lion.
+Just as he had helped his fellow-men, he now began to help his fellow-
+animals, and there was a great deal to be done.  For instance, there
+was a little nervous Hare who was always afraid that something
+dreadful was going to happen to her.  She was always saying: "Suppose
+the Earth were to fall in, what would happen to me?"  And she said
+this so often that at last she thought it really was about to happen.
+One day, when she had been saying over and over again, "Suppose the
+Earth were to fall in, what would happen to me?" she heard a slight
+noise: it really was only a heavy fruit which had fallen upon a
+rustling leaf, but the little Hare was so nervous she was ready
+to believe anything, and she said in a frightened tone: "The Earth
+is falling in."  She ran away as fast as she could go, and presently
+she met an old brother Hare, who said: "Where are you running to
+Mistress Hare?"
+
+And the little Hare said: "I have no time to stop and tell you
+anything. The Earth is falling in, and I am running away."
+
+"The Earth is falling in, is it?" said the old brother Hare, in a tone
+of much astonishment; and he repeated this to _his_ brother hare, and
+_he_ to _his_ brother hare, and he to his brother hare, until at last
+there were a hundred thousand brother hares, all shouting: "The Earth is
+falling in."  Now presently the bigger animals began to take the cry up.
+First the deer, and then the sheep, and then the wild boar, and then the
+buffalo, and then the camel, and then the tiger, and then the elephant.
+
+Now the wise Lion heard all this noise and wondered at it.  "There are
+no signs," he said, "of the Earth falling in.  They must have heard
+something."  And then he stopped them all short and said: "What is
+this you are saying?"
+
+And the Elephant said: "I remarked that the Earth was falling in."
+
+"How do you know this?" asked the Lion.
+
+"Why, now I come to think of it, it was the Tiger that remarked it
+to me."
+
+And the Tiger said: "I had it from the Camel," and the Camel said: "I
+had it from the Buffalo."  And the buffalo from the wild boar, and the
+wild boar from the sheep, and the sheep from the deer, and the deer
+from the hares, and the Hares said: "Oh! _we_ heard it from _that_
+little Hare."
+
+And the Lion said: "Little Hare, _what_ made you say that the Earth
+was falling in?"
+
+And the little Hare said: "I _saw_ it."
+
+"You saw it?" said the Lion.  "Where?"
+
+"Yonder, by that tree."
+
+"Well," said the Lion, "come with me and I will show you how---"
+
+"No, no," said the Hare, "I would not go near that tree for anything,
+I'm _so_ nervous."
+
+"But," said the Lion, "I am going to take you on my back."  And he
+took her on his back, and begged the animals to stay where they were
+until they returned.  Then he showed the little Hare how the fruit had
+fallen upon the leaf, making the noise that had frightened her, and
+she said: "Yes, I see--the Earth is _not_ falling in." and the Lion
+said: "Shall we go back and tell the other animals?"  And they went
+back.  The little Hare stood before the animals and said: "The Earth
+is _not_ falling in."  And all the animals began to repeat this to one
+another, and they dispersed gradually, and you heard the words more and
+more softly:
+
+"The Earth is _not_ falling in," etc., etc., etc., until the sound died
+away altogether.
+                  From "EASTERN STORIES AND LEGENDS."
+
+
+  [NOTE:--This story I have told in my own words, using the language
+  I have found most effective for very young children.]
+
+
+
+THE TRUE SPIRIT OF A FESTIVAL DAY.
+
+And it came to pass that the Buddha was born a Hare and lived in a
+wood; on one side was the foot of a mountain, on another a river, on
+the third side a border village.
+
+And with him lived three friends: a Monkey, a Jackal and an Otter;
+each of these creatures got food on his own hunting ground.  In the
+evening they met together, and the Hare taught his companions many
+wise things: that the moral law should be observed, that alms should
+be given to the poor, and that holy days should be kept.
+
+One day the Buddha said: "To-morrow is a fast day.  Feed any beggars
+that come to you by giving food from your own table."  They all
+consented.
+
+The next day the Otter went down to the bank of the Ganges to seek his
+prey.  Now a fisherman had landed seven red fish and had buried them
+in the sand on the river's bank while he went down the stream catching
+more fish.  The Otter scented the buried fish, dug up the sand till he
+came upon them, and he called aloud: "Does any one own these fish?"
+And, not seeing the owner, he laid the fish in the jungle where he
+dwelt, intending to eat them at a fitting time.  Then he lay down,
+thinking how virtuous he was.
+
+The Jackal also went off in search of food, and found in the hut of a
+field watcher a lizard, two spits, and a pot of milk-curd.
+
+And, after thrice crying aloud, "To whom do these belong?" and not
+finding an owner, he put on his neck the rope for lifting the pot, and
+grasping the spits and lizard with his teeth, he laid them in his own
+lair, thinking, "In due season I will devour them," and then he lay
+down, thinking how virtuous he had been.
+
+But the Hare (who was the Buddha-to-be) in due time came out, thinking
+to lie (in contemplation) on the Kuca grass.  "It is impossible for me
+to offer _grass_ to any beggars who may chance to come by, and I have
+no oil or rice or fish.  If any beggar comes to me, I will give him (of)
+my own flesh to eat."
+
+Now when Sakka, the King of the Gods, heard this thing, he determined
+to put the Royal Hare to the test.  So he came in disguise of a Brahmin
+to the Otter and said: "Wise Sir, if I could get something to eat, I
+would perform _all_ my priestly duties."
+
+The Otter said: "I will give you food.  Seven red fish have I safely
+brought to land from the sacred river of the Ganges.  Eat thy fill, O
+Brahmin, and stay in this wood."
+
+And the Brahmin said: "Let it be until to-morrow, and I will see to
+it then."
+
+Then he went to the Jackal, who confessed that he had stolen the food,
+but he begged the Brahmin to accept it and remain in the wood: but the
+Brahmin said: "Let it be until the morrow, and then I well see to it."
+
+Then the Brahmin went to the wise Hare, and the Hare said: "Behold, I
+will give you of my flesh to eat.  But you must not take life on this
+holy day.  When you have piled up the logs I will sacrifice myself by
+falling into the midst of the flames, and when my body is roasted you
+shall eat my flesh and perform all your priestly duties."
+
+Now when Sakka heard these words he caused a heap of burning coals
+to appear, and the Wisdom Being, rising from the grass, came to the
+place, but before casting himself into the flames he shook himself,
+lest perchance there should be any insects in his coat who might
+suffer death.  Then, offering his body as a free gift, he sprang up,
+and like a royal swan, lighting on a bed of lotus in an ecstasy of
+joy, he fell on the heap of live coals.  But the flame failed even to
+heat the pores or the hair on the body of the Wisdom Being, and it was
+as if he had entered a region of frost.  Then he addressed the Brahmin
+in these words: "Brahmin, the fire that you have kindled is icy cold;
+it fails to heat the pores of the hair on my body.  What is the
+meaning of this?"
+
+"O most wise Hare!  I am Sakka, and have come to put your virtue to
+the test."
+
+And the Buddha in a sweet voice said: "No god or man could find in me
+an unwillingness to die."
+
+Then Sakka said: "O wise Hare, be thy virtue known to all the ages
+to come."
+
+And seizing the mountain he squeezed out the juice and daubed on the
+moon the signs of the young hare.
+
+Then he placed him back on the grass that he might continue his
+Sabbath meditation, and returned to Heaven.
+
+And the four creatures lived together and kept the moral law.
+
+                                     From "EASTERN STORIES AND LEGENDS."
+
+
+
+FILIAL PIETY
+
+Now it came to pass that the Buddha was reborn in the shape of a
+parrot, and he greatly excelled all other parrots in his strength and
+beauty. And when he was full grown his father, who had long been the
+leader of the flock in their flights to other climes, said to him: "My
+son, behold, thou shalt rest.  I will lead the birds."  And the
+parrots rejoiced in the strength of their new leader, and willingly
+did they follow him.  Now from that day on, the Buddha undertook to
+feed his parents, and would not consent that they should do any more
+work.  Each day he led his flock to the Himalaya Hills, and when he
+had eaten his fill of the clumps of rice that grew there, he filled
+his beak with food for the dear parents who were waiting his return.
+
+Now there was a man appointed to watch the rice-fields, and he did
+his best to drive the parrots away, but there seemed to be some secret
+power in the leader of this flock which the keeper could not overcome.
+
+He noticed that the parrots ate their fill and then flew away, but
+that the Parrot-King not only satisfied his hunger, but carried away
+rice in his beak.
+
+Now he feared there would be no rice left, and he went to his master,
+the Brahmin, to tell him what had happened; and even as the master
+listened there came to him the thought that the Parrot-King was
+something higher than he seemed, and he loved him even before he saw
+him.  But he said nothing of this, and only warned the Keeper that
+he should set a snare and catch the dangerous bird.  So the man did
+as he was bidden: he made a small cage and set the snare, and sat
+down in his hut waiting for the birds to come.  And soon he saw the
+Parrot-King amidst his flock, who, because he had no greed, sought
+no richer spot, but flew down to the same place in which he had fed
+the day before.
+
+Now, no sooner had he touched the ground than he felt his feet caught
+in the noose.  Then fear crept into his bird heart, but a stronger
+feeling was there to crush it down, for he thought: "If I cry out the
+Cry of the Captured, my Kinsfolk will be terrified, and they will fly
+away foodless.  But if I lie still, then their hunger will be satisfied,
+and may they safely come to my aid."  Thus, was the parrot both brave
+and prudent.
+
+
+But alas! he did not know that his Kinsfolk had nought of his brave
+spirit.  When _they_ had eaten their fill, though they heard the
+thrice-uttered cry of the captured, they flew away, nor heed the sad
+plight of their leader.
+
+Then was the heart of the Parrot-King sore within him, and he said:
+"All these my kith and kin, and not one to look back on me.  Alas!
+what sin have I done?"
+
+The watchman now heard the cry if the Parrot-King, and the sound of
+the other parrots flying through the air.  "What is that?" he cried,
+and leaving his hut he came to the place where he had laid the snare.
+There he found the captive parrot; he tied his feet together and
+brought him to the Brahmin, his master.  Now, when the Brahmin saw the
+Parrot-King, he felt his strong power, and his heart was full of love
+to him, but he hid his feelings, and said in a voice of anger: "Is thy
+greed greater than that of all other birds?  They eat their fill, but
+thou canst takest away each day more food than thou canst eat.  Doest
+thou this out of hatred for me, or dost thou store up the food in same
+granary for selfish greed?"
+
+And the Great Being made answer in a sweet human voice: "I hate thee
+not, O Brahmin.  Nor do I store the rice in a granary for selfish greed.
+But this thing I do.  Each day I pay a debt which is due--each day I
+grant a loan, and each day I store up a treasure."
+
+Now the Brahmin could not understand the words of the Buddha (because
+true wisdom had not entered his heart) and he said: "I pray thee, O
+Wondrous Bird, to make these words clear unto me."
+
+And then the Parrot-King made answer: "I carry food to my ancient
+parents who can no longer seek that food for themselves: thus I pay
+my daily debt.  I carry food to my callow chicks whose wings are
+yet ungrown.  When I am old they will care for me--this my loan to
+them.  And for other birds, weak and helpless of wing, who need
+the aid of the strong, for them I lay up a store; to these I give
+in charity."
+
+Then was the Brahmin much moved and showed the love that was in his
+heart.  "Eat thy fill, O Righteous Bird, and let thy Kinsfolk eat,
+too, for thy sake."  And he wished to bestow a thousand acres of land
+upon him, but the Great Being would only take a tiny portion round
+which were set boundary stores.
+
+And the parrot returned with a head of rice, and said: "Arise, dear
+parents, that I may take you to a place of plenty."  And he told them
+the story of his deliverance.
+                                From "EASTERN STORIES AND LEGENDS."
+
+
+
+THREE STORIES FROM HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN.[53]
+
+THE SWINEHERD.
+
+
+There was once a poor Prince.  He owned a Kingdom--a very small one,
+but it was big enough to allow him to marry, and he was determined
+to marry.  Now, it was really very bold on his part to say to a King's
+daughter: "Will you marry me?"  But he dared to do so, for his name
+was known far and wide, and there were hundreds of princesses who would
+willingly have said: "Yes, thank you."  But, would _she_?  We shall
+hear what happened.
+
+
+On the grave of the Prince's father, there grew a rose-tree--such
+a wonderful rose-tree!  It bloomed only once in five years, and then
+it bore only one rose--but what a rose!  Its perfume was so sweet
+that whoever smelt it forgot all his cares and sorrows.  The Prince
+had also a nightingale which could sing as if all the delicious
+melodies in the world were contained in its little throat.  The rose
+and the nightingale were both to be given to the Princess, and were
+therefore placed in two great silver caskets and sent to her.  The
+Emperor had them carried before him into the great hall where the
+Princess was playing at "visiting" with her ladies-in-waiting--they
+had nothing else to do.  When she saw the caskets with the presents in
+them, she clapped her hands with joy.
+
+"If it were only a little pussy-cat," she cried.  But out came a
+beautiful rose.
+
+"How elegantly it is made," said all the ladies of the court.
+
+"It is more than elegant," said the Emperor, "It is _neat_.
+
+"Fie, papa," she said, "it is not made at all; it is a _natural_ rose."
+
+"Let us see what the other casket contains before we lose our temper,"
+said the Emperor, and then out came the little nightingale and sang so
+sweetly that at first nobody could think of anything to say against it."
+
+"_Superbe, superbe_," cried the ladies of the court, for they all
+chattered French, one worse than the other.
+
+"How the bird reminds me of the late Empress' musical-box!" said an
+old Lord-in-Waiting.  "Ah, me! the same tone, the same execution."
+
+"The very same," said the Emperor, and he cried like a little child.
+
+"I hope it is not a real bird," said the Princess.
+
+Oh, yes! it is a real bird," said those who had brought it.
+
+"Then let the bird fly away," she said, and she would on no account
+allow the Prince to come in.
+
+But he was not to be disheartened; he smeared his face with black and
+brown, drew his cap over his forehead, and knocked at the Palace door.
+The Emperor opened it.
+
+"Good day, Emperor," he said.  "Could I get work at the Palace?"
+
+"Well, there are so many wanting places," said the Emperor; "but let
+me see!--I need a Swineherd.  I have a good many pigs to keep."
+
+So the Prince was made Imperial Swineherd.  He had a wretched little
+room near the pig-sty and here he was obliged to stay.  But the whole
+day he sat and worked, and by the evening he had made a neat little
+pipkin, and round it was a set of bells, and as soon as the pot began
+to boil, the bells fell to jingling most sweetly and played the old
+melody:
+
+
+                     "Ach du lieber Augustin,
+                      Alles is weg, weg, weg!"[54]
+
+
+But the most wonderful thing was that when you held your finger in
+the steam of the pipkin, you could immediately smell what dinner was
+cooking on every hearth in the town.  That was something very
+different from a rose.
+
+The Princess was walking out with her ladies-in-waiting, and when she
+heard the melody, she stopped short, and looked pleased, for she could
+play "Ach du lieber Augustin" herself; it was the only tune she knew,
+and that she played with one finger.  "Why, that is the tune I play,"
+she said.  "What a cultivated Swineherd he must be.  Go down and ask
+him how much his instrument costs."
+
+So one of the ladies-in-waiting was obliged to go down, but she put on
+pattens first.
+
+"How much do you want for your pipkin?" asked the Lady-in-waiting.
+
+"I will have ten kisses from the Princess," said the Swineherd.
+
+"Good gracious!" said the Lady-in-waiting.
+
+"I will not take less," said the Swineherd.
+
+"Well, what did he say?" asked the Princess.
+
+"I really cannot tell you," said the Lady-in-waiting.  "It is too
+dreadful."
+
+"Then you must whisper it," said the Princess.
+
+So she whispered it.
+
+"He is very rude," said the Princess, and she walked away.  But she
+had gone only a few steps when the bells sounded so sweetly:
+
+
+                        "Ach du lieber Augustin
+                         Alles ist weg, weg, weg!"
+
+
+"Listen," said the Princess, "ask him whether he will have his kisses
+from my Ladies-in-waiting."
+
+"No, thank you," said the Swineherd.  "I will have ten kisses from the
+Princess, or, I will keep my pipkin."
+
+"How tiresome!" said the Princess; "but you must stand round me, so
+that nobody shall see."
+
+So the ladies-in-waiting stood round her and they spread out their
+skirts.  The Swineherd got the kisses, and she got the pipkin.
+
+How delighted she was.  All the evening and the whole of the next day,
+that pot was made to boil.  And you might have known what everybody
+was cooking on every hearth in town, from the Chamberlain's to the
+shoemaker's.  The court ladies danced and clapped their hands.
+
+"We know who is to have fruit-soup and pancakes, and we know who is
+going to have porridge, and cutlets.  How very interesting it is!"
+
+"Most interesting, indeed," said the first Lady-of-Honor.
+
+"Yes, but hold your tongues, for I am the Emperor's daughter."
+
+"Of course we will," they cried in one breath.
+
+The Swineherd, or the Prince, nobody knew that he was not a real
+Swineherd, did not let the day pass without doing something, and
+he made a rattle which could play all the waltzes, and the polkas
+and the hop-dances which had been know since the creation of the
+world.
+
+"But this is _superbe_!" said the Princess, who was just passing:
+"I have never heard  more beautiful composition.  Go and as him what
+the instrument costs.  But I will give no more kisses."
+
+"He insists on a hundred kisses from the Princess," said the ladies-
+in-waiting who had been down to ask.
+
+"I think he must be quite mad," said the Princess, and she walked
+away.  But when she had taken a few steps, she stopped short, and
+said: "One must encourage the fine arts, and I am the emperor's
+daughter.  Tell him he may have ten kisses, as before, and the rest he
+can take from my ladies-in-waiting."
+
+"Yes, but we object to that," said the ladies-in-waiting.
+
+"That is nonsense," said the Princess.  "If I can kiss him, surely you
+can do the same.  Go down at once.  Don't I give you board and wages?"
+
+So the ladies-in-waiting were obliged to go down to the Swineherd again.
+
+"A hundred kisses from the Princess, or each keeps his own."
+
+"Stand round me," she said.  And all the ladies-in-waiting stood round
+her, and the Swineherd began to kiss her.
+
+"What can all the crowd be down by the pig-sty?" said the Emperor,
+stepping out onto the balcony.  He rubbed his eyes and put on his
+spectacles.  "It is the court ladies up to some of their tricks.  I
+must go down and look after them."  He pulled up his slippers, for
+they were shoes which he had trodden down at heel.
+
+Gracious goodness, how he hurried!  As soon as he came into the
+garden, he walked very softly, and the ladies-in-waiting had so
+much to do counting the kisses, so that everything could be done
+fairly, and that the Swineherd should get neither too many nor
+too few, that they never noticed the Emperor at all.  He stood
+on tip-toe.
+
+"What is this all about?" he said, when he saw the kissing that was
+going on, and he hit them on the head with his slipper, just as the
+Swineherd was getting the eighty-sixth kiss.  "Heraus!" said the
+Emperor, for he was angry, and both the Princess and the Swineherd
+were turned out of his Kingdom.
+
+The Princess wept, the Swineherd scolded, and the rain streamed down.
+
+"Oh! wretched creature that I am," said the Princess.  "If I had only
+taken the handsome Prince!  Oh, how unhappy I am!"
+
+Then the Swineherd went behind a tree, washed the black and brown off
+his face, threw of his ragged clothes, and stood forth in his royal
+apparel, looking so handsome that she was obliged to curtsey.
+
+"I have learned to despise you," he said.  "You would not have an
+honorable Prince.  You could not appreciate a rose or a nightingale,
+but for a musical toy, you kissed the Swineherd.  Now you have your
+reward."
+
+So he went into his Kingdom, shut the door and bolted it, and she had
+to stand outside singing:
+
+
+                      "Ach, du lieber Augustin,
+                       Alles is weg, weg, weg!"
+
+
+
+THE NIGHTINGALE.
+
+In China, you must know, the Emperor is a Chinaman, and all those
+around him are Chinamen, too.  It is many years since all this
+happened, and for that very reason it is worth hearing, before it
+is forgotten.
+
+The Emperor's palace was the most beautiful in the world; built all
+of fine porcelain and very costly, but so fragile that it was very
+difficult to touch, and you had to be very careful in doing so.  The
+most wonderful flowers were to be seen in the garden, and to the most
+beautiful silver bells, tinkling bells were tied, for fear people
+should pass by without noticing them.  How well everything had been
+thought out in the Emperor's garden!  This was so big, that the
+gardener himself did not know where it ended.  If you walked on and on
+you came to the most beautiful forest, with tall trees and big lakes.
+The wood stretched right down to the sea which was blue and deep;
+great ships could pass underneath the branches, and here a nightingale
+had made its home, and its singing was so entrancing that the poor
+fisherman, though he had so many other things to do, would lie still
+and listen when he was out at night drawing in his nets.
+
+"How beautiful it is!" he said; but then he was forced to think about
+his own affairs, and the Nightingale was forgotten.  The next day,
+when it sang again, the fisherman said the same thing: "How beautiful
+it is!"
+
+Travellers from all the countries of the world came to the emperor's
+town, and expressed their admiration of the palace and the garden,
+but when they heard the Nightingale, they all said: "This is the
+best of all!"
+
+Now, when these travellers came home, they told of what they had seen.
+And scholars wrote many books about the town, the palace and the garden,
+but nobody left out the Nightingale; it was always spoken of as the most
+wonderful of all they had seen.  And those who had the gift of the Poet,
+wrote the most delightful poems all about the Nightingale in the wood
+near the deep lake.
+
+The books went round the world, and in the course of time some of them
+reached the Emperor.  He sat in his golden chair, and read and read,
+nodding his head every minute; for it pleased him to read the beautiful
+descriptions of the town, the palace and the garden.
+
+"But the Nightingale is the best of all," he read.
+
+"What is this?" said the Emperor.  "The Nightingale!  I now nothing
+whatever about it.  To think of there being such a bird in my Kingdom--
+nay in my very garden--and I have never heard it. And to think one
+should learn such a thing for the first time from a book!"
+
+Then he summoned his Lord-in-Waiting, who was such a grand personage
+that if anyone inferior in rank ventured to speak to him, or ask him
+about anything, he merely answered "P," which meant nothing whatever.
+
+"There is said to be a most wonderful bird, called the Nightingale,"
+said the Emperor; "they say it is the best thing in my great Kingdom.
+Why have I  been told nothing about it?"
+
+"I have never heard it mentioned before," said the Lord-in-Waiting.
+"It has certainly never been presented at court."
+
+"It is my good pleasure that it shall appear to-night and sing before
+me!" said the Emperor.  "The whole world knows what is mine, and I
+myself do not know it."
+
+"I have never heard it mentioned before," said the Lord-in-Waiting.
+"I will seek it, and I shall find it."
+
+But where was it to be found?  The Lord-in-Waiting ran up and down all
+the stairs, through halls and passages, but not one of all those whom
+he met had ever heard a word about the Nightingale; so the Lord-in-
+Waiting ran back to the Emperor and told him that it must certainly
+be a fable invented by writers of books.
+
+"Your Majesty must not believe all that is written in books.  It is
+pure invention, something which is called the Black Art."
+
+"But," said the Emperor, "the book in which I have read this was sent
+to me by His Majesty, the Emperor of Japan, and therefore this cannot
+be a falsehood.  I will hear the Nightingale.  It must appear this
+evening!  It has my Imperial favor, and if it fails to appear the Court
+shall be trampled upon after the Court has supped."
+
+"Tsing-pe!" said the Lord-in-Waiting, and again he ran up and down all
+the stairs, through all the passages, and half the Court ran with him,
+for they had no wish to be trampled upon.  And many questions were
+asked about the wonderful Nightingale, of whom all had heard except
+those who lived at Court.
+
+At last, they met a poor little girl in the kitchen.  She said: "Oh,
+yes! The Nightingale!  I know it well.  How it can sing!  Every evening
+I have permission to take the broken pieces from the table to my poor
+sick mother who lives near the sea-shore, and on my way back, when I
+feel tired, and rest a while in the wood, then I hear the Nightingale
+sing, and my eyes are filled with tears; it is as if my mother kissed
+me."
+
+"Little kitchen-maid," said the Lord-in-Waiting, "I will get a permanent
+place for you in the Court Kitchen and permission to see the Emperor
+dine, if you can lead us to the Nightingale; for it has been commanded
+to appear at Court to-night."
+
+So they started off all together where the bird used to sing; half the
+Court went, too.  They were going along at a good pace, when suddenly
+they heard a cow lowing.
+
+"Oh," said a Court-Page.  "There it is!  What a wonderful power for so
+small a creature!  I have certainly heard it before."
+
+"No, those are the cows lowing," said the little kitchen-maid.  "We
+are a long way from the place yet."
+
+Then the frogs began to croak in the marsh.  "Glorious," said the Court-
+Preacher.  "Now, I hear it--it is just like little church-bells."
+
+"No, those are the frogs," said the little kitchen-maid.  "But now I
+think we shall soon hear it."
+
+And then the Nightingale began to sing.
+
+"There it is," said the little girl.  "Listen, listen--there it
+sits!"  And she pointed to a little gray bird in the branches.
+
+"Is it possible!" said the Lord-in-Waiting.  "I had never supposed it
+would look like that.  How very plain it looks!  It has certainly lost
+its color from seeing so many grand folk here."
+
+"Little Nightingale," called out the little kitchen-maid, "our gracious
+Emperor wishes you to sing for him."
+
+"With the greatest pleasure," said the Nightingale, and it sang, and
+it was a joy to hear it.
+
+"It sounds like little glass bells," said the Lord-in-Waiting; "and
+just look at its little throat, how it moves!  It is astonishing to
+think we have never heard it before!  It will have a real _success_
+at Court."
+
+"Shall I sing for the Emperor again?" asked the Nightingale, who
+thought that the Emperor  was there in person.
+
+"Mine excellent little Nightingale," said the Lord-in-Waiting, "I have
+the great pleasure of bidding you to a Court-Festival this night, when
+you will enchant His Imperial Majesty with your delightful warbling."
+
+"My voice sounds better among the green trees," said the Nightingale.
+But it came willingly when it knew the Emperor wished it.
+
+There was a great deal of furbishing up at the palace.  The walls and
+ceiling which were of porcelain, shone with the light of a thousand
+golden lamps.  The most beautiful flowers of the tinkling kind were
+placed in the passages.  There was a running to and fro and a great
+draught, but that is just what made the bells ring, and one could not
+hear oneself speak.  In the middle of the great hall where the Emperor
+sat, a golden rod had been set up on which the Nightingale was to
+perch.  The whole Court was present, and the little kitchen-maid
+was allowed to stand behind the door, for she had now the actual
+title of Court Kitchen-Maid.  All were there in their smartest
+clothes, and they all looked toward the little gray bird to which
+the Emperor nodded.
+
+And then the Nightingale sang, so gloriously that tears sprang into
+the Emperor's eyes and rolled down his cheeks, and the Nightingale
+sang even more sweetly.  The song went straight to the heart, and the
+Emperor was so delighted that he declared that the Nightingale should
+have his golden slipper to hang round its neck.  But the Nightingale
+declined.  It had already had its reward.
+
+"I have seen tears in the Emperor's eyes.  That is my greatest reward.
+An Emperor's tears have a wonderful power.  God knows I am sufficiently
+rewarded," and again its sweet, glorious voice was heard.
+
+"That is the most delightful coquetting I have ever known," said the
+ladies sitting round, and they took water into their mouths, in order
+to gurgle when anyone spoke to them, and they really thought they were
+like the Nightingale.  Even the footmen and the chambermaids sent word
+that they were satisfied, and that means a great deal, for they are
+always the most difficult people to please.  Yes, indeed, there was no
+doubt as to the Nightingale's success.  It was to stay at Court, and
+have its own cage, with liberty to go out twice in the daytime, and
+once at night.  Twelve footmen went out with it, and each held a silk
+ribbon which was tied to the bird's leg, and which they held very
+tightly.  There was not much pleasure in an outing of that sort.  The
+whole town was talking about the wonderful bird, and when two people
+met, one said: "Nightin--"  and the other said "gale," and they sighed
+and understood one another.  Eleven cheese-mongers' children were called
+after the bird, though none of them could sing a note.
+
+One day a large parcel came for the Emperor.  Outside was written the
+word: "Nightingale."
+
+"Here we have a new book about our wonderful bird," said the Emperor.
+But it was not a book; it was a little work of art which lay in a box--
+an artificial Nightingale, which looked exactly like the real one, but
+it was studded all over with diamonds, rubies and sapphires.  As soon
+as you wound it up, it could sing one of the songs which the real bird
+sang, and its tail moved up and down and glittered with silver and
+gold.  Round its neck was a ribbon on which was written: "The Emperor
+of Japan's Nightingale is poor indeed, compared with the Emperor
+of China's."
+
+"That is delightful," they all said, and on the messenger who had
+brought the artificial bird, they bestowed the title of "Imperial
+Nightingale-Bringer-in-Chief."
+
+"Let them sing together, and _what_ a duet that will be!"
+
+And so they had to sing, but the thing would not work, because the
+real Nightingale could only sing in its own way, and the artificial
+Nightingale went by clockwork.
+
+"That is not its fault," said the band-master.  "Time is its strong
+point and it has quite my method."
+
+Then the artificial Nightingale had to sing alone.  It had just as
+much success as the real bird, and it was so much handsomer to look
+at; it glittered like bracelets and breast-pins.  It sang the same
+tune three and thirty times, and still it was not tired; the people
+would willingly listen to the whole performance over again from the
+start, but the Emperor suggested that the real Nightingale should sing
+for a while--where was it?  Nobody had noticed it had flown out
+of the open window back to its green woods.
+
+"But what is the meaning of all this?" said the Emperor.  All the
+courtiers railed at the Nightingale and said it was a most ungrateful
+creature.
+
+"We have the better of the two," they said, and the artificial
+Nightingale had to sing again, and this was the thirty-fourth time
+they had heard the same tune.  But they did not know it properly
+event then because it was so difficult, and the band-master praised
+the wonderful bird in the highest terms and even asserted that it
+was superior to the real bird, not only as regarded the outside,
+with the many lovely diamonds, but the inside as well.
+
+"You see, ladies and gentlemen, and above all your Imperial Majesty,
+that with the real Nightingale, you can never predict what may happen,
+but with the artificial bird, everything is settled beforehand; so it
+remains and it cannot be changed.  One can account for it.  One can
+rip it open, and show the human ingenuity, explaining how the cylinders
+lie, how they work, and how one thing is the result of another."
+
+"That is just what we think," they all exclaimed, and the bandmaster
+received permission to exhibit the bird to the people on the following
+Sunday.  The Emperor said they would hear it sing.  They listened and
+were as much delighted as if they had been drunk with tea, which is
+Chinese, you know, and they all said: "Oh!" and stuck their forefingers
+in the air, and nodded their heads.  But the poor fisherman who had
+heard the real Nightingale, said: "It sounds quite well, and a little
+like it, but there is something wanting, I do not know what."
+
+The real Nightingale was banished from the Kingdom.
+
+The artificial bird had its place on a silken cushion close to the
+Emperor's bed.  All the presents it had received, the gold and
+precious stones, lay all round it, and it had been honored with the
+title of High-Imperial-Bed-Room-Singer--in the first rank, on the
+left side, for even the Emperor considered that side the grander on
+which the heart is placed, and even an Emperor has his heart on the
+left side.
+
+The band-master wrote twenty-five volumes about the wonderful artificial
+bird.  The book was very learned and very long, filled with the most
+difficult words in the Chinese language, and everybody said they had
+read and understood it, for otherwise they would have been considered
+stupid, and would have been trampled upon.
+
+And thus a whole year passed away.  The Emperor, the Court, and all
+the Chinamen knew every little gurgle in the artificial bird's song,
+and just for this reason, they were all the better pleased with it.
+They could sing it themselves--which they did.
+
+The boys in the street sang "Iodizing," and, "cluck, cluck," and even
+the Emperor sang it.  Yes, it was certainly beautiful!
+
+But one evening, while the bird was singing, and the Emperor lay in
+bed listening to it, there was a whirring sound inside the bird, and
+something whizzed; all the wheels ran round, and the music stopped.
+
+The Emperor sprang out of bed and sent for the Court Physician, but
+what could he do?  Then they sent for the watch-maker, and after much
+talk and examination, he patched the bird up, but he said it must be
+spared as much as possible, because the hammers were so worn out--and he
+could not put new ones in so that the music could be counted on.  This
+was a great grief.  The bird could only be allowed to sing once a year,
+and even that was risky, but on these occasions, the band-master would
+make a little speech, full of difficult words, saying the bird was just
+as good as ever--and that was true.
+
+Five years passed away, and a great sorrow had come to the country.
+The people all really cared for their Emperor, and now he was ill and
+it was said he could not live.  A new Emperor had been chosen, and the
+people stood about the streets, and questioned the Lord-in-Waiting
+about their Emperor's condition.
+
+"P!" he said, and shook his head.
+
+The Emperor lay pale and cold on his great, gorgeous bed; the whole
+Court believed that he was dead, and they all hastened to pay homage
+to the new Emperor.  The footmen hurried off to discuss matters, and
+the chambermaids gave a great coffee-party.  Cloth had been laid down
+in all the rooms and passages, so that not even a footstep should be
+heard and it was all so very quiet.  But the Emperor was not yet dead.
+He lay stiff and pale in the sumptuous bed, with its long velvet
+curtains and heavy gold tassels; high above was an open window, and
+the moon shone in upon the Emperor and the artificial bird.  The poor
+Emperor could hardly breathe; he felt as if someone were sitting on
+his chest; he opened his eyes and saw that it was Death sitting on his
+chest, wearing his golden crown, holding in one hand his golden sword,
+and in the other his splendid banner.  And from the folds of the
+velvet curtains strange faces peered forth; some terrible to look on,
+others mild and friendly--these were the Emperor's good and bad deeds,
+which gazed upon him now that Death sat upon his heart.
+
+"Do you remember this?" whispered one after the other.  "Do you remember
+that?"  They told him so much that the sweat poured down his face.
+
+"I never knew that," said the Emperor.  "Music! music!  Beat the great
+Chinese drum!" he called out, "so that I may not hear what they are
+saying!"
+
+But they kept on, and Death nodded his head, like a Chinaman, at
+everything they said.
+
+"Music, music," cried the Emperor.  "You precious little golden bird!
+Sing to me, ah! sing to me!  I have given you gold and costly treasure.
+I have hung my golden slipper about your neck.  Sing to me. Sing to me!"
+
+But the bird was silent; there was no one to wind him up, and therefore
+he could not sing.  Death went on, staring at the Emperor with his great
+hollow eyes, and it was terribly still.
+
+Then suddenly, close to the window, came the sound of a lovely song.
+It was the little live Nightingale perched on a branch outside.  It had
+heard of its Emperor's need, and had therefore flown hither to bring him
+comfort and hope, and as he sang, the faces became paler and the blood
+coursed more freely through the Emperor's veins.  Even Death himself
+listened and said: "Go on, little Nightingale.  Go on."
+
+"Yes, if you will give me the splendid sword.  Yes, if you will give
+me the Imperial banner!  Yes, if you will give me the Emperor's crown!"
+
+And Death gave back all these treasures for a song.  And still the
+Nightingale sang on.  He sang of the quiet churchyard, where the white
+roses grow, where the elder flowers bloom, and where the grass is kept
+moist by the tears of those left behind, and there came to Death such
+a longing to see his garden, that he floated out of the window, like a
+could white mist.
+
+"Thank you, thank you," said the Emperor.  "You heavenly little bird,
+I know you well!  I banished you from the land, and you have charmed
+away the evil spirits from my bed and you have driven Death from my
+heart.  How shall I reward you?"
+
+"You have rewarded me," said the Nightingale.  "I brought tears to your
+eyes the first time I sang, and I shall never forget that.  Those are
+the jewels which touched the heart of the singer; but sleep now, that
+you may wake fresh and strong.  I will sing to you."  Then it sang
+again, and the Emperor fell into a sweet sleep.
+
+The sun shone in upon him through the window, when he woke the next
+morning feeling strong and well.  None of his servants had come back,
+because they thought he was dead, but the Nightingale was still singing.
+
+You will always stay with me," said the Emperor.  "You shall only sing
+when it pleases you, and I will break the artificial Nightingale into
+a thousand pieces."
+
+"Do not do that," said the Nightingale.  "It has done the best it
+could.  Keep it with you.  I cannot build my nest in a palace, but let
+me come just as I please.  I well sit on the branch near the window,
+and sing to you that you may both joyful and thoughtful.  I will sing
+to you of the happy folk, and of those that suffer; I will sing of
+the evil and of the good, which is being hidden from you.  The little
+singing bird flies hither and thither, to the poor fisherman, to the
+peasant's hut, to many who live far from your Court.  Your heart is
+dearer to me than your crown, and yet the crown has a breath of
+sanctity, too.  I will come, I will sing to you!  But one thing
+you must promise me!"
+
+"All that you ask," said the Emperor, and stood there in his imperial
+robes which he had put on himself, and held the heavy golden sword on
+his heart.
+
+"I beg you, let no one know that you have a little bird who tells you
+everything.  It will be far better so!"
+
+Then the Nightingale flew away.
+
+The servants came to look upon their dead Emperor.  Yes, there they
+stood; and the Emperor said: "Good morning!"
+
+
+
+THE PRINCESS AND THE PEA.
+
+There was once a Prince who wished to marry a Princess, but she must
+be a _real_ Princess.  He travelled all over the world to find
+one, but there was always something wrong.  There were plenty of
+Princesses, but whether they were _real_ or not he could not be
+sure.  There was always something that was not quite right.  So he
+came home again, feeling very sad, for he was so anxious to have a
+real Princess.
+
+One evening there was a terrible storm; it lightened and thundered, and
+the rain came down in torrents; it was a fearful night.  In the midst
+of the storm there came a knocking at the town-gate, and the old King
+himself went down to open it.  There, outside stood a princess.  But
+what a state she was in from the rain and the storm!  The water was
+running out of her hair on to her clothes, into he shoes and out at
+the heels; and yet she said she was a _real_ Princess.
+
+"We shall soon find out about that," thought the old Queen.  But she
+said never a word.  She went into the bedroom, took off all the
+bedclothes and put a pea on the bedstead.  Then she took twenty
+mattresses and laid them on the pea and twenty eider-down quilts on
+the mattresses.  And the Princess was to sleep on the top of all.
+
+In the morning they came to her and asked her how she had slept.
+
+"Oh! wretchedly," said the Princess.  "I scarcely closed my eyes the
+whole night long.  Heaven knows what could have been in the bed!  I
+have lain upon something hard, so that my whole body is black and
+blue.  It is quite dreadful."
+
+They could see now that she was a _real_ Princess, because she
+had felt the pea through twenty mattresses and twenty eider-down
+quilts.  Nobody but a real Princess could be so sensitive.
+
+So the Prince married her, for now he knew that he had found a _real_
+Princess, and the pea was sent to an Art Museum, where it can still be
+seen, if nobody has taken it away.
+
+Now, mark you: This is a true story.
+
+
+
+
+PART III.  LIST OF STORIES.  BOOKS SUGGESTED TO THE STORY-TELLER
+               AND BOOKS REFERRED TO IN THE LIST OF STORIES.
+
+
+AUTHOR'S NOTE:--
+
+  I had intended, in this section, to offer an appendix of titles of
+  stories and books which should cover all the ground of possible
+  narrative in schools; but I have found so many lists containing
+  standard books and stories, that I have decided that this original
+  plan would be a work of supererogation.  What is really needed is
+  a supplementary list to those already published--a specialized list
+  which is the result of private research and personal experience.
+  I have for many years spent considerable time in the British Museum
+  and some of the principal libraries in America.  I now offer the
+  fruit of my labor.
+
+
+
+LIST OF STORIES.
+
+CLASSICAL STORIES.
+
+  THE STORY OF THESEUS.  From Kingsley's "Heroes."
+    How Theseus lifted the stone.
+    How Theseus slew the Corynetes.
+    How Theseus slew Sinis.
+    How Theseus slew Kerkyon and Procrustes.
+    How Theseus slew the Medea and was acknowledged the
+      son of Aegeus.
+    How Theseus slew the Minotaur. To be told in six parts
+      as a series.
+
+  THE STORY OF CROESUS.
+
+  THE CONSPIRACY OF THE MAGI.
+
+  ARION AND THE DOLPHIN.
+    From "Wonder Tales from Herodotus," by N. Barrington D'Almeida.
+    These stories are intended for reading, but could be shortened
+    for effective narration.
+
+  CORIOLANUS.
+
+  JULIUS CAESAR.
+
+  ARISTIDES.
+
+  ALEXANDER.
+    From "Plutarch's Lives for Boys and Girls," by W. H. Weston.
+    These stories must be shortened and adapted for narration.
+
+  THE GOD OF THE SPEARS: THE STORY OF ROMULUS.
+
+  HIS FATHER'S CROWN: THE STORY OF ALCIBIADES.
+    From "Tales from Plutarch," by F. J. Rowbotham.  These stories
+    may be shortened and told in sections.
+
+
+
+EAST INDIAN STORIES.
+
+  THE WISE OLD SHEPHERD.
+
+  THE RELIGIOUS CAMEL.
+    From "The Talking Thrush," by W. H. D. Rouse.
+
+  LESS INEQUALITY THAN MEN DEEM.
+    From "Old Deccan Days," by Mary Frere.
+
+  THE BRAHMAN, THE TIGER AND THE SIX JUDGES.
+    This story may be found in "The Fairy Ring," edited by Kate
+    Douglas Wiggin and Nora Archibald Smith; also in "Tales of
+    the Punjab," by F. A. Steel, under the title of "The Tiger,
+    the Brahman and the Jackal."
+
+  TIT FOR TAT.
+    From "Old Deccan Days," by Mary Frere.  This story  may be
+    found in "The Fairy Ring," edited by Kate Douglas Wiggin
+    and Nora Archibald Smith.
+
+  "PRIDE GOETH BEFORE A FALL."
+
+  HARISARMAN.
+    From "Indian Fairy Tales," by Joseph Jacobs.
+
+  THE BEAR'S BAD BARGAIN.
+
+  LITTLE ANKLEBONE.
+
+  PEASIE AND BEANSIE.
+    From "Tales of the Punjab," by F. A. Steel.
+
+  THE WEAVER AND THE WATERMELON.
+
+  THE TIGER AND THE HARE.
+    From "Indian Nights Entertainment," by Synnerton.
+
+  THE VIRTUOUS ANIMALS.
+    This story should be abridged for narration.
+
+  THE ASS AS SINGER.
+
+  THE WOLF AND THE SHEEP.
+    From "Tibetan Tales," by F. A. Schiefner.
+
+  A STORY ABOUT ROBBERS.
+    From "Out of the East," by Lafcadio Hearn.
+
+  DRIPPING.
+    From "Indian Fairy Tales," by Mark Thornhill.
+
+  THE BUDDHA AS TREE-SPIRIT.
+
+  THE BUDDHA AS PARROT.
+
+  THE BUDDHA AS KING.
+    From "A Collection of Eastern Stories and Legends,"
+    by M. L. Shedlock.
+
+  RAKSHAS AND BAKSHAS.
+    This story may be found in "Tales of Laughter," edited by
+    Kate Douglas Wiggin and Nora Archibald Smith, under the
+    title of "The Blind Man, the Deaf Man and the Donkey."
+
+  THE BREAD OF DISCONTENT.
+    From "Legendary Lore of all Nations."
+
+  A GERM DESTROYER.
+
+  NAMGARY DOOLA.
+    A good story for boys, to be given in shortened form.
+    From "The Kipling Reader," by Rudyard Kipling.
+
+  A STUPID BOY.
+
+  THE CLEVER JACKAL.
+    One of the few stories wherein the Jackal shows skill
+    combined with gratitude.  From "Folk Tales of Kashmir,"
+    by J. H. Knowles.
+
+  WHY THE FISH LAUGHED.
+    From "Folk Tales of Kashmir," by J. H. Knowles.
+
+
+
+MYTHS, LEGENDS, AND FAIRY TALES.
+
+  HOW THE HERRING BECAME KING.
+
+  JOE MOORE'S STORY.
+
+  THE MERMAID OF GOB NY OOYL.
+
+  KING MAGNUS BAREFOOT.
+    From "Manx Tales," by Sophia Morrison.
+
+  THE GREEDY MAN.
+    From "Contes Populaires Malgaches," by Gariel Ferrand.
+
+  ARBUTUS.
+
+  BASIL.
+
+  BRIONY.
+
+  DANDELION.
+    From "Myths and Legends of Flowers, Trees, Fruits, and Plants,"
+    by C. M. Skinner.
+
+  THE MAGIC PICTURE.
+
+  THE STONE MONKEY.
+
+  STEALING PEACHES.
+
+  THE COUNTRY OF GENTLEMEN.
+
+  FOOTBALL ON A LAKE.
+    From "Chinese Fairy Tales", by H. A. Giles.
+
+  THE LIME TREE.
+
+  INTELLIGENCE AND LUCK.
+
+  THE FROST, THE SUN AND WIND.
+    From "Sixty Folk Tales from Slavonic Sources,"
+    by O. H. Wratislaw.
+
+  THE BOY WHO SLEPT.
+
+  THE GODS KNOW.
+    From "Chinese Fairy Stories," by N. A. Pitnam.  This
+    story must be shortened and adapted for narration.
+
+  THE IMP TREE.
+
+  THE PIXY FLOWER.
+
+  TOM TIT TOT.
+
+  THE PRINCESS OF COLCHESTER.
+    From "Fairy Gold," by Ernest Rhys.
+
+  THE ORIGIN OF THE MOLE.
+    From "Cossack Fairy Tales," by R. N. Bain.
+
+  DOLLS AND BUTTERFLIES.
+    From "Myths and Legends of Japan," by F. H. Davis.
+
+  THE CHILD OF THE FOREST.
+
+  THE SPARROW'S WEDDING.
+
+  THE MOON MAIDEN.
+    From "Old World Japan," by Frank Rinder.
+
+  THE STORY OF MERLIN.
+    From "Stories of Early British Heroes," by C. G. Hartley.
+
+  THE ISLE OF THE MYSTIC LAKE.
+    From "The Voyage of Maildun," in "Old Celtic Romances,"
+    by P. W. Joyce.
+
+  THE STORY OF BALDUR.
+    From "Heroes of Asgard," by M. R. Earle.
+    In three parts for young children.
+
+  ADALHERO.
+    From "Evenings with the Old Story Tellers."
+
+  MARTIN THE PEASANT'S SON.
+    From "Russian Wonder Tales," by Post Wheeler.  This is
+    more suitable for reading.
+
+  THE LEGEND OF RIP VAN WINKLE.
+    From "Rip Van Winkle," by Washington Irving.
+
+  URASHIMA.
+    From "Myths and Legends of Japan," by F. H. Davis.
+
+  THE MONK AND THE BIRD.
+    From "The Book of Legends Told Over Again,"
+    by H. E. Scudder.
+
+  CAROB.
+    From "Myths and Legends of Flowers, Trees, Fruit
+    and Plants," by C. M. Skinner.  A Talmud legend.
+
+  THE LAND OF ETERNAL YOUTH.
+    From "Child-Lore."
+
+  CATSKIN.
+
+  GUY OF GISBORNE.
+
+  KING HENRY AND THE MILLER.
+    From "A Book of Ballad Stories," by Mary Macleod.
+
+  THE LEGEND OF THE BLACK PRINCE.
+
+  WHY THE WOLVES NO LONGER DEVOUR THE LAMBS OF CHRISTMAS NIGHT.
+    From "Au Pays des Legendes," by Eugene Herepin.
+
+  THE COYOTE AND THE LOCUST.
+
+  THE COYOTE AND THE RAVENS WHO RACED THEIR EYES.
+    From "Zuni Folk Tales," by F. H. Cushing.
+
+  THE PEACEMAKER.
+    From "Legends of the Iroquois," by W. V. Canfield.
+
+  THE STORY OF THE GREAT CHIEF OF THE ANIMALS.
+
+  THE STORY OF LION AND LITTLE JACKAL.
+    From "Kaffir Folk Tales," by G. M. Theal.
+
+  THE LEGEND OF THE GREAT ST. NICHOLAS.
+
+  THE THREE COUNSELS.
+    From "Bulletin De Folk Lore, Liege."
+
+  THE TALE OF THE PEASANT DEMYAR.
+
+  THE MONKEY AND THE POMEGRANATE TREE.
+
+  THE ANT AND THE SNOW.
+
+  THE VALUE OF AN EGG.
+
+  THE PADRE AND THE NEGRO.
+
+  PAPRANKA.
+    From "Tales of Old Lusitania," by Coelho.
+
+  KOJATA.
+
+  THE LOST SPEAR.  (To be shortened.)
+
+  THE HERMIT.  (By Voltaire.)
+
+  THE BLUE CAT.  (From the French.)
+
+  THE SILVER PENNY.
+
+  THE THREE SISTERS.
+
+  THE SLIPPERS OF ABOU-KAREM.
+    From "The Golden Fairy Book."
+
+  THE FAIRY BABY.
+    From "Uncle Remus in Hansaland," by Mary and Newman Tremearne.
+
+  WHY THE SOLE OF A MAN'S FOOT IS UNEVEN.
+
+  THE WONDERFUL HAIR.
+
+  THE EMPEROR TROJAN'S GOAT EARS.
+
+  THE LANGUAGE OF ANIMALS.
+
+  HANDICRAFT ABOVE EVERYTHING.
+
+  JUST EARNINGS ARE NEVER LOST.
+
+  THE MAIDEN WHO WAS SWIFTER THAN A HORSE.
+    From "Servian Stories and Legends."
+
+  THE COUPLE SILENCIEUX.
+
+  LE MORT PARLANT.
+
+  LA SOTTE FIANCEE.
+
+  LE CORNACON.
+
+  PERSIN AU POT.
+    From "Contes Populaires du Pays Wallon," by August Gittee.
+
+  THE RAT AND THE CAT.
+
+  THE TWO THIEVES.
+
+  THE TWO RATS.
+
+  THE DOG AND THE RAT.
+    From "Contes Populaires Malgaches," by Gabriel Ferrand.
+
+  RUA AND TOKA.
+    From "The Maori Tales," by Baroness Orczy and Montagu
+    Marstow.  This story is given for the same purpose as
+    "A Long Bow Story" from Andrew Lang's "Olive Fairy Book."
+
+  LADY CLARE.
+
+  THE WOLF-CHILD.
+    From "Tales from the Land of Grapes and Nuts,"
+    by Charles Sellers.
+
+  THE UNGRATEFUL MAN.
+
+  THE FAITHFUL SERVANT.  (In part.)
+
+  JOVINIAN, THE PROUD EMPEROR.
+
+  THE KNIGHT AND THE KING OF HUNGARY.
+
+  THE WICKED PRIEST.
+
+  THE EMPEROR AND CONRAD AND THE COUNT'S SON.
+    From the "Gesta Romanorum."
+
+  VIRGIL, THE EMPEROR AND THE TRUFFLES.
+    From "Unpublished Legends of  Virgil,"
+    collected by C. G. Leland.
+
+  SEEING THAT ALL WAS RIGHT.  (A good story for boys.)
+
+  LA FORTUNA.
+
+  THE LANTERNS OF THE STOZZI PALACE.
+    From "Legends of Florence," by C. G. Leland.
+
+  THE THREE KINGDOMS.
+
+  YELENA THE WISE.
+
+  SEVEN SIMEONS.
+
+  IVAN, THE BIRD AND THE WOLF.
+
+  THE PIG, THE DEER AND THE STEED.
+
+  WATERS OF YOUTH.
+
+  THE USELESS WAGONER.
+    From "Myths and Folk Tales of the Russians, Western
+    Slavs and Magyars," by Jeremiah Curtin.  These stories
+    need shortening and adapting.
+
+  THE COMICAL HISTORY OF THE KING AND THE COBBLER.
+    This story should  be shortened to add to the dramatic power.
+    [From a Chap Book.]
+
+  THE FISHERMAN AND HIS WIFE.
+    From "Fairy Tales," by Hans Christian Andersen.
+
+  HEREAFTER THIS.
+    From "More English Fairy Tales," by Joseph Jacobs.  This story
+    and "The Fisherman and his Wife" are great favorites and could
+    be told one after the other, one to illustrate the patient life,
+    and the other the patient husband.
+
+  HOW A MAN FOUND HIS WIFE IN THE LAND OF THE DEAD.
+    This is a very dramatic and pagan story, to be used with discretion.
+
+  THE MAN WITHOUT HANDS AND FEET.
+
+  THE COCKEREL.
+    From "Papuan Fairy Tales." by Annie Ker.
+
+  THE STORY OF SIR TRISTRAM AND LA BELLE ISEULT.
+    From "Cornwall's  Wonderland," by Mabel Quiller-Couch.
+    To be told in shortened form.
+
+  THE CAT THAT WENT TO THE DOCTOR.
+
+  THE WOOD ANEMONE.
+
+  SWEETER THAN SUGAR.
+
+  THE RASPBERRY CATERPILLAR.
+    From "Fairy Tales from Finland," by Zachris Topelius.
+
+  DINEVAN, THE EMU.
+
+  GOOMBLE GUBBON, THE BUSTARD.
+    From "Australian Legendary Tales," by Mrs. K. L. Parker.
+
+  THE TULIP BED.
+    From "The English Fairy Book," by Ernest Rhys. I have been
+    asked so often for this particular story I am glad to be
+    able to provide it in very poetical language.
+
+
+
+STORIES FROM GRIMM AND ANDERSEN.
+
+  THE FISHERMAN AND HIS WIFE.
+
+  THE WOLF AND THE KIDS.
+
+  THE ADVENTURES OF CHANTICLEER AND PARTLET.
+
+  THE OLD MAN AND HIS GRANDSON.
+
+  RUMPELSTILTSKIN.
+
+  THE QUEEN BEE.
+
+  THE WOLF AND THE MAN.
+
+  THE GOLDEN GOOSE.
+    From Grimm's Fairy Tales, edited by Mrs. Edgar Lucas.
+
+  OLE-LUK-OIE.  Series of seven stories.
+
+  WHAT THE OLD MAN DOES IS ALWAYS RIGHT.
+
+  THE PRINCESS AND THE PEA.
+
+  THUMBELINA.
+    For younger children.  From Andersen's Fairy Tales.
+
+  IT'S QUITE TRUE.
+
+  FIVE OUT OF ONE POD.
+
+  GREAT CLAUS AND LITTLE CLAUS.
+
+  JACK THE DULLARD.
+
+  THE BUCKWHEAT.
+
+  THE FIR-TREE.
+
+  THE LITTLE TIN SOLDIER.
+
+  THE NIGHTINGALE.
+
+  THE UGLY DUCKLING.
+
+  THE SWINEHERD.
+
+  THE SEA SERPENT.
+
+  THE LITTLE MATCH GIRL.
+
+  THE GARDENER AND HIS FAMILY.
+    For older children.  From Andersen's Fairy Tales.  The two
+    best editions of Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tales are
+    the translation by Mrs. Edgar Lucas and the only complete
+    English edition by W. A. and J. K. Craigie.
+
+
+
+STORIES FROM THE FAIRY BOOK SERIES.
+    EDITED BY ANDREW LANG.
+
+  THE SERPENT'S GIFTS.
+
+  UNLUCKY JOHN.
+    From "All Sorts of Stories Book," by Mrs. L. B. Lang.
+
+  MAKOMA.
+    From "The Orange Fairy Book."  A story for boys.
+
+  THE LADY OF SOLACE.
+
+  HOW THE ASS BECAME A MAN AGAIN.
+
+  AMYS AND AMILE.
+
+  THE BURNING OF NJAL.
+
+  OGIER THE DANE.
+    From "The Red Romance Book."
+
+  THE HEART OF A DONKEY.
+
+  THE WONDERFUL TUNE.
+
+  A FRENCH PUCK.
+
+  A FISH STORY.
+    From "The Lilac Fairy Book."
+
+  EAST OF THE SUN AND WEST OF THE MOON.
+    As a preparation for Cupid and Psyche.
+    From "The Blue Fairy Book."
+
+  THE HALF CHICK.
+
+  THE STORY OF HOK LEE AND THE DWARFS.
+    From "The Green Fairy Book".
+
+  HOW TO FIND A TRUE FRIEND.
+    From "The Crimson Fairy Book."  To be given in shorter form.
+
+  A LONG-BOW STORY.
+    From "The Olive Fairy Book."  This story makes children learn
+    to distinguish between falsehood and romance.
+
+  KANNY, THE KANGAROO.
+
+  THE STORY OF TOM THE BEAR.
+    From "The Animal Story Book."
+
+  THE STORY OF THE FISHERMAN.
+
+  ALADDIN AND THE LAMP.
+    This story should be divided and told in two sections.
+
+  THE STORY OF ALI COGIA.
+    From "The Arabian Nights Entertainment," edited by Andrew Lang.
+
+
+
+STORIES ILLUSTRATING COMMON-SENSE RESOURCEFULNESS AND HUMOR.
+
+  THE THIEF AND THE COCOANUT TREE.
+
+  THE WOMAN AND THE LIZARD.
+
+  SADA SADA.
+
+  THE SHOP-KEEPER AND THE ROBBER.
+
+  THE RECITER.
+
+  RICH MAN'S POTSHERD.
+
+  THE SINGER AND THE DONKEY.
+
+  CHILD AND MILK.
+
+  RICH MAN GIVING A FEAST.
+
+  KING SOLOMON AND THE MOSQUITOES.
+
+  THE KING WHO PROMISED TO LOOK AFTER TENNAL RANAN'S FAMILY.
+
+  VIKADAKAVI.
+
+  HORSE AND COMPLAINANT.
+
+  THE WOMAN AND THE STOLEN FRUIT.
+    From "An Indian Tale or Two," by William Swinton.
+
+
+
+STORIES DEALING WITH THE SUCCESS OF THE YOUNGER CHILD.
+
+   [This is sometimes due to a kind action shown to some
+   humble person or to an animal.]
+
+  THE THREE SONS.
+    From "The Kiltartan Wonder Book," by Lady Gregory.
+
+  THE FLYING SHIP.
+    From "Russian Fairy Tales," by F. B. Bain.
+
+  HOW JESPER HERDED THE HARES.
+    From "The Violet Fairy Book," by Andrew Lang.
+
+  YOUTH, LIFE AND DEATH.
+    From "Myths and Folk Tales of the Russians, Western Slavs
+    and Magyars," by Jeremiah Curtin.
+
+  JACK THE DULLARD.
+    From "Fairy Tales," by Hans Christian Andersen.
+
+  THE ENCHANTED WHISTLE.
+    From "The Golden Fairy Book."
+
+  THE KING'S THREE SONS.
+
+  HUNCHBACK AND BROTHERS.
+    From "Legends of the French Provinces."
+
+  THE LITTLE HUMPBACKED HORSE.
+    From "Russian Wonder Tales," by Post Wheeler. This story is
+    more suitable for reading than telling.
+
+  THE QUEEN BEE.
+    From Grimm's Fairy Tales, edited by Mrs. Edgar Lucas.
+
+  THE WONDERFUL BIRD.
+    From "Roumanian Fairy Tales," by J. M. Percival.
+
+
+
+STORIES FROM THE LIVES OF THE SAINTS.
+
+  THE STORY OF SAINT BRANDONS.  Vol. 7, page 52.
+
+  THE STORY OF SAINT FRANCIS.  Vol. 5, page 125.
+
+  THE STORY OF SANTA CLARA AND THE ROSES.
+
+  SAINT ELIZABETH OF HUNGARY. Vol. 6, page 213.
+
+  SAINT MARTIN AND THE CLOAK. Vol. 6, page 142.
+    From the "Legenda Aurea."
+
+  THE LEGEND OF SAINT MARJORY.
+    From "Tales Facetiae."
+
+  MELANGELL'S LAMBS.
+    From "The Welsh Fairy Book," by W. J. Thomas.
+
+  OUR LADY'S TUMBLER.
+    Twelfth Century Legend Done Out of Old French into English,
+    by J. H. Wickstead.  This story may be shortened and adapted
+    without sacrificing too much of the beauty of the style.
+
+  THE SONG OF THE MINISTER.
+    From "A Child's Book of Saints," by William Canton.  This
+    should be shortened and somewhat simplified for narration,
+    especially in the technical, ecclesiastical terms.
+
+  THE STORY OF SAINT KENELM, THE LITTLE KING.
+
+  THE STORY OF KING ALFRED AND SAINT CUTHBERT.
+
+  THE STORY IF AEDBURG, THE DAUGHTER OF EDWARD.
+
+  THE STORY OF KING HAROLD'S SICKNESS AND RECOVERY.
+    From "Old  English History for Children," by E. A. Freeman.
+    I commend all those who tell these stories to read the
+    comments made on them by E. A. Freeman himself.
+
+
+
+MODERN STORIES.
+
+  THE SUMMER PRINCESS.
+    From "The Enchanted Garden," by Mrs. M. L. Molesworth.  This
+    may be shortened and arranged for narration.
+
+  THOMAS AND THE PRINCESS.
+  From "Twenty-six Ideal Stories for Girls," by Helena M. Conrad.
+  A fairy tale for grown-ups, for  pure relaxation.
+
+  THE TRUCE OF GOD.
+    From "All-Fellows Seven Legends of Lower Redemption,"
+    by Laurence Housman.
+
+  THE SELFISH GIANT.
+  From "Fairy Tales," by Oscar Wilde.
+
+  THE LIGEND OF THE TORTOISE.
+    From "Windlestraw, Legends in Rhyme of Plants and Animals,"
+    by Pamela Glenconner.  From the Provencal.
+
+  FAIRY GRUMBLESNOOKS.
+
+  A BIT OF LAUGHTER'S SMILE.
+    From "Tales for Little People,"  Nos. 323 and 318,
+    by Maud Symonds.
+
+  THE FAIRY WHO JUDGED HER NEIGHBORS.
+    From "The Little Wonder Box," in "Stories Told to a Child,"
+    by Jean Ingelow.
+
+  LE COURAGE.
+
+  LE'ECOLE.
+
+  LE JOUR DE CATHERINE.
+
+  JACQUELINE ET MIRANT.
+    From "Nos Enfants," by Anatole France.
+
+  THE GIANT AND THE JACKSTRAW.
+    From "The Book of Knight and Barbara," by David Starr Jordan.
+    For very small children.
+
+  THE MUSICIAN.
+
+  THE LEGEND OF THE CHRISTMAS ROSE.
+    From "The Girl from the  Marshcroft," by Selma Lagerlof.
+    Both stories should be shortened and adapted for narration.
+
+
+    I trust that the grouping of my stories in this section
+    may not be misleading. Under "Myths, Legends and Fairy Tales"
+    I have included many stories which contain valuable ethical
+    teaching, deep philosophy and stimulating examples for conduct
+    in life.  I regret that I have been unable to find a good
+    collection of stories from history for narrative purposes.
+    I have made a careful and lengthy search, but the stories
+    are all written from the _reading_ point of view rather
+    than the _telling_.
+
+
+
+
+BOOKS SUGGESTED TO THE STORY-TELLER AND BOOKS REFERRED TO
+  IN THE LIST OF STORIES.
+
+
+  ANDERSEN, HANS CHRISTIAN
+    Fairy Tales; translated by Mrs. Edgar Lucas.  Dutton.
+    Fairy Tales; edited by W. A. and J. K. Craigie.  Oxford
+      University Press.
+
+  BABBITT, E. C.
+    Jataka Tales.  Century.
+
+  BAIN, R. N.
+    Cossack Fairy Tales.  Burt.
+    Russian Fairy Tales.  Burt.
+
+  BRIANT, EGBERT
+    History of English Balladry.  Badger.
+
+  BUDDHA
+    The Jataka; or Stories of the Buddha's Former Births;
+    translated from the Pali by Various Hands. In Six Volumes.
+    University Press.
+
+  BUCKLEY, E. F.
+    Children of the Dawn.  Stokes.
+
+  BULLETIN, OF FOLK LORE.  Liege.
+
+  CALTHORPE, DION C.
+    King Peter.  Duckworth.
+
+  CANFIELD, W. W.
+    The Legends of the Iroquois.  Wessels.
+
+  CANTON, WILLIAM
+    A Child's Book of Saints.  Dutton.
+    A Child's Book of Warriors.  Dutton.
+
+  CHILD LORE.  Nimmo.
+
+  CHODZKO, A. E. B.
+    Slav Fairy Tales; translated by E. J. Harding.  Burt.
+
+  CLARK, K. M.
+    Maori Tales. Nutt.
+
+  COELHO,
+    Tales of Old Lusitania.   Swan Sonnenschein.
+
+  CONRAD, JOSEPH
+    Twenty-six Ideal Stories for Girls.  Hutchinson.
+
+  COUCH, MABEL QUILLER-
+    Cornwall's Wonderland.  Dutton.
+
+  CURTIN, JEREMIAH
+    Myths and Folk Tales of the Russians, Western Slavs
+    and Magyars.  Little.
+
+  CUSHING, F. H.
+    Zuni Folk Tales.  Putnam.
+
+  DARTON, E. J. H.
+    Pilgrim Tales; from Tales of the Canterbury Pilgrims.  Dodge.
+    Wonder Book of Old Romance.  Stokes.
+
+  DASENT, SIR, G. W.
+    Norse Fairy Tales.  Putnam.
+
+  DAVIDS, T. W. RHYS
+    Buddhist Birth Stories.  Trubner.
+
+  DAVIS, F. H.
+    Myths and Legends of Japan.  Crowell.
+
+  EARLE, M. R.
+    Heroes of Asgard.  Macmillan.
+    Evenings with the Old Story Tellers.  Leavitt and Allen.
+
+  EWALD, CARL
+    The Queen Bee and Other Nature Tales; translated
+    by C. C. Moore-Smith.  Nelson.
+
+  FERRAND, GABRIEL
+    Contes Populaires Malgaches.  Leroux.
+
+  FIELDE, ADELE
+    Chinese Nights' Entertainment.  Putnam
+
+  FRANCE, ANATOLE
+    Nos Enfants.  Hachette.
+
+  FREEMAN, E. A.
+    Old English History for Children.  Dutton.
+
+  FRERE, MARY
+    Old Deccan Days.  Murray.
+
+  FROISSART
+    Stories from Froissart; edited by Henry Nebolt.  Macmillan.
+
+  GESTA ROMANORUM.  Swan Sonnenschein.
+
+  GILES, H. A.
+    Chinese Fairy Tales.  Gowans.
+
+  GITTEE, AUGUST
+    Contes Populaires du Pays Wallon.  Vanderpooten.
+
+  GLENCONNER, LADY (PAMELA TENNANT)
+    Windlestraw, Legends in Rhyme of Plants and Animals.
+    Chiswick Press.
+
+  GOLDEN FAIRY BOOK.  Hutchinson.
+
+  GREGORY, LADY AUGUSTA
+    The Kiltartan Wonder Book.  Dutton.
+
+  GRIMM, J. L. K. AND W. K.
+    GRIMM Fairy Tales; translated by Mrs. Edgar Lucas.  Leppincott.
+
+  HARRIS, JOEL CHANDLER
+    Uncle Remus; His Songs and His Sayings.  Appleton.
+
+  HARTLEY, C. G.
+    Stories of Early British Heroes.  Dent.
+
+  HEARN, LAFCADIO
+    Out of the East.  Houghton.
+
+  HERODOTUS
+    Wonder Storied from Herodotus; edited by N. Barrington D'Almeida.
+    Harper.
+
+  HERPIN, EUGENE
+    Au Pays Du Legendes.  Calliere.
+
+  HIGGINS, M. M.
+    Stories from the History of Ceylon for Children.  Capper.
+
+  HOUSMAN, LAURENCE
+    All-Fellows Seven Legends of Lower Redemption.  Kegan Paul.
+
+  INGELOW, JEAN
+    The Little Wonder Box.  Griffeths, Farren and Company.
+    Stories Told to a Child.  Little.
+
+  IRVING, WASHINGTON
+    Rip Van Winkle.  Macmillan.
+
+  JACOBS, JOSEPH
+    Indian Fairy Tales.  Putnam.
+    More English Fairy Tales.  Putnam.
+
+  JORDAN, DAVID STARR
+    The Book of Knight and Barbara.  Appleton.
+
+  JOYCE, P. W.
+    Old Celtic Romances.  Longmans.
+
+  KEARY, ANNIE AND ELIZA
+    Heroes of Asgard.  Macmillan.
+
+  KER, ANNIE
+    Papuan Fairy Tales.  Macmillan.
+
+  KINGSLEY, CHARLES
+    Heroes.  Macmillan.
+
+  KIPLING, RUDYARD
+    The Jungle Book.  Macmillan.
+    The Kipling Reader.  Appleton.
+    The Second Jungle Book.  Macmillan.
+
+  KNOWLES, J. H.
+    Folk Tales of Kashmir.  Trubner.
+
+  LAGERLOF, SELMA
+   The Girl from Marshcroft.  Little.
+
+  LANG, ANDREW
+    Arabian Nights' Entertainment.  Longmans.
+    The Blue Fairy Book.  Longmans.
+    The Crimson Fairy Book  Longmans.
+    The Green Fairy Book.  Longmans.
+    The Lilac Fairy Book.  Longmans.
+    The Olive Fairy Book.  Longmans.
+    The Orange Fairy Book.  Longmans.
+    The Red Fairy Book.  Longmans.
+    The Violet Fairy Book.  Longmans.
+
+  LANG. L. B.
+    All Sorts of Stories Book.  Longmans.
+
+  LEGENDA AUREA.
+
+  LELAND, C. G.
+    Legends of Florence.  Macmillan
+    Unpublished Legends of Virgil.  Stock.
+
+  MACKENZIE
+    Indian Myths and Legends.  Gresham Publishing House.
+
+  MACLEOD, MARY
+    A Book of Ballad Stories.  Stokes.
+
+  MOLESWORTH, MRS. M. L.
+    The Enchanted Garden.  Unwin.
+
+  MONCRIEFF, A. H. HOPE
+    Classic Myths and Legends.  Gresham Publishing House.
+
+  MORRISON, SOPHIA
+    Manx Fairy Tales.  Nutt.
+
+  NAAKE, J. T.
+    Slavonic Fairy Tales.  King.
+
+  NOBLE, M. E. AND K. COOMARASWAMY
+    Myths of the Hindus and Buddhists.  Holt.
+
+  ORCZY, BARONESS AND MONTAGU BARSTOW
+    Old Hungarian Fairy Tales.  Dean.
+
+  PARKER, MRS. K. L.
+    Australian Legendary Tales.  Nutt.
+
+  PEARSE, W. G.
+    The Children's Library of the Saints.  Jackson.
+
+  PERCIVAL, J. M.
+    Roumanian Fairy Tales.  Holt.
+
+  PERRAULT, CHARLES
+    Fairy Tales.  Dutton.
+
+  PITMAN, N. H.
+    Chinese Fairy Stories.  Crowell.
+
+  PLUTARCH
+    Plutarch's Lives for Boys and Girls; retold by W. H. Weston.  Stokes
+    Tales from Plutarch, by F. J. Rowbotham.  Crowell.
+
+  RAGOZIN, Z. A.
+    Tales of the Heroic Ages; Frithjof, Viking of Norway, and Roland,
+      Paladin of France.  Putnam.
+    Tales of the Heroic Ages; Siegfried, Hero of the North, and
+      Beowulf, Hero of Anglo-Saxons.  Putnam.
+
+  RATTRAY, R. S.
+    Hansa Folk Lore, Customs, Proverbs, etc.  Clarendon Press.
+
+  RHYS, ERNEST
+    The English Fairy Book.  Stokes.
+    Fairy Gold.  Dutton.
+    The Garden of Romance.  Kegan Paul.
+
+  RINDER, FRANK
+    Old World Japan.  Allen.
+
+  ROBINSON, T. H.
+    Tales and Talks from History.  Caldwell.
+
+  ROUSE, W. H. D.
+    The Talking Thrush.  Dutton.
+
+  SCHIEFNER, F. A.
+    Tibetan Tales.  Trubner.
+
+  SCUDDER, H. E.
+    The Book of Legends Told Over Again.  Houghton.
+
+  SELLERS, CHARLES
+    Tales from the Land of Grapes and Nuts.  Field and Tuer.
+
+  SERVIAN STORIES AND LEGENDS.
+
+  SHEDLOCK, M. L.
+    A Collection of Eastern Stories and Legends.  Dutton.
+
+  SKINNER, C. M.
+    Myths and Legends of Flowers, Fruits and Plants.  Lippincott.
+
+  SMITH, J. C. AND G. SOUTAR
+    Book of Ballads for Boys and Girls.  Oxford University Press.
+
+  STEEL, MRS. F. A.
+    Tales of the Punjab.  Macmillan.
+
+  STRICKLAND, W. W.
+    Northwest Slav Legends and Fairy Stories.  Erben.
+
+  SWINTON
+    An Indian Tale or Two; Reprinted from Blackheath Local Guide.
+
+  SWINTON AND CATHCART
+    Legendary Lore of all Nations.  Ivison, Taylor & Company.
+
+  SYNNERTON
+    Indian Nights' Entertainment.  Stock.
+
+  TALES FACETLAE.
+
+  TENNANT, PAMELA (LADY GLENCONNER)
+    The Children and the Pictures.  Macmillan.
+
+  THEAL, G. M.
+    Kaffir Folk Lore.  Swan Sonnenschein.
+
+  THOMAS, W. J.
+    The Welsh Fairy Book.  Stokes.
+
+  THORNHILL, MARK
+    Indian Fairy Tales.  Hatchard.
+
+  TOPELIUS, ZACHRIS
+    Fairy Tales from Finland.  Unwin.
+
+  TREMEARNE, MARY AND NEWMAN
+    Uncle Remus in Hansaland.
+
+  WHEELER, POST
+    Russian Wonder Tales.  Century.
+
+  WICKSTEAD, J. H.
+    Our Lady's Tumbler; Twelfth Century Legend Done Out of Old French
+      into English.  Mosher.
+
+  WIGGIN, KATE DOUGLAS AND NORA ARCHIBALD SMITH
+    The Fairy Ring.  Doubleday.
+    Tales of Laughter.  Doubleday.
+
+  WILDE, OSCAR
+    Fairy Tales.  Putnam.
+
+  WILSON, RICHARD
+    The Indian Story Book.  Macmillan.
+
+  WRATISLAW, A. H.
+    Sixty Folk Tales from Exclusively Slavonic Sources.  Stock.
+
+
+
+
+FOOTNOTES.
+
+1. I venture to hope (at this long distance of years) that my
+ language in telling the story was more simple than appears
+ from this account.
+
+2. This difference of spelling in the same essay will be much
+ appreciated by those who know how gladly children offer an
+ orthographical alternative, in hopes that one if not the other
+ may satisfy the exigency of the situation.
+
+3. See "List of Stories."
+
+4. At the Congressional Library in Washington.
+
+5. Letters of T. E. Brown, page 55.
+
+6. Page 55.
+
+7. In further illustration of this point see "When Burbage
+ Played," Austen Dobson, and "In the Nursery," Hans Andersen.
+
+8. "Les jeux des enfants," page 16.
+
+9. A noted Greek gymnast struck his pupil, though he was applauded
+ by the whole assembly.  "You did it clumsily, and not as you ought,
+ for these people would never have praised you for anything really
+ artistic."
+
+10. For further details on the question of preparation of the story,
+ see chapter on "Questions Asked by Teachers."
+
+11. Sully says that children love exact repetition because of the
+ intense enjoyment bound up with the process of imaginative realization.
+
+12. At the Summer School at Chautauqua, New York, and at Lincoln
+ Park, Chicago.
+
+13. There must be no more emphasis in the second manner than the first.
+
+14. From "Education of an Orator," Book II, Chapter 3.
+
+15. One child's favorite book bore the exciting title of "Birth, Life
+ and Death of Crazy Jane."
+
+16. This does not imply that the child would not appreciate in the
+ right context the thrilling and romantic story in connection with
+ the finding of the Elgin marbles.
+
+17. One is almost inclined to prefer Marjorie Fleming's little
+ innocent oaths.
+
+
+               "But she was more than usual calm,
+                She did not give a single dam."
+
+
+18. Published by John Loder, bookseller, Woodbridge, in 1829.
+
+19. From "Literary Values."
+
+20. A story is told of Confucius, who, having attended a funeral,
+ presented his horse to the chief mourner.  When asked why he
+ bestowed this gift, he replied: "I wept with the man, so I felt
+ I ought to _do_ something for him."
+
+21. This experiment cannot be made with a group of children for
+ obvious reasons.
+
+22. From an address on "The Cultivation of the Imagination."
+
+23. "The House in the Wood" (Grimm), is another instance of
+ triumph for the youngest child.
+
+24. See list of stories under this heading.
+
+25. To be found in Andrew Lang's "The Violet Fairy Book."
+
+26. To be found in Jacob's "More English Fairy Tales."
+
+27. From the "Thabagata."
+
+28. For selection of suitable stories among legends of the Saints,
+ see list of stories under the heading, "Stories from the Lives of
+ the Saints."
+
+29. These words have been set most effectively to music by Miss
+ Margaret Ruthven Lang.
+
+30. From "The Use of Fairy Tales," in "Moral Instruction of Children".
+
+31. See Chapter on Questions asked by Teachers.
+
+32. From "Talks to Teachers," page 93.
+
+33. An excellent account of this is to be found in "The Song of Roland,"
+  by Arthur Way and Frederic Spender.
+
+34. Njal's Burning, from "The Red Book of Romance," by Andrew Lang.
+
+35. From "Studies of Childhood."
+
+36. England.
+
+37. From "The Lockerbie Book," by James Whitcomb Riley, copyright, 1911.
+ Used by special permission of the publishers, The Bobbs-Merril Company.
+
+38. From "Virginibus Puerisque."
+
+39. See "Long Bow Story;" "John and the Pig."
+
+40. Published by George Allen & Co.
+
+41. This is even a higher spirit than that shown in the advice given in
+ the "Agamemnon" (speaking of the victor's attitude after the taking of
+ Troy):
+
+
+            "Yea, let no craving for forbidden gain
+             Bid conquerors yield before the darts of greed."
+
+
+42. It is curious to find that the story of Puss-in-Boots in its
+ variants is sometimes presented with a moral, sometimes without.
+ In the Valley of the Ganges it has _none_.  In Cashmere it has
+ one moral, in Zanzibar another.
+
+43. From Hans Christian Andersen, in "Childhood in Literature and Art."
+
+44. "Sartor Resartus," Book III, page 218.
+
+45. From "Childhood in Literature and Art."
+
+46. See "Eastern Stories and Fables," published by Routledge.
+
+47. See Chapter I.
+
+48. In this matter I have, in England, the support of Dr. Kimmins,
+ Chief Inspector of Education in the London County Council, who is
+ strongly opposed to the immediate reproduction of stories.
+
+49. These remarks refer only to the illustrations of stories told.
+ Whether children should be encouraged to self-expression in drawing
+ (quite apart form reproducing in one medium what has been conveyed
+ to them in another), is too large a question to deal with in this
+ special work on story-telling.
+
+50. I give the following story, quoted by Professor Ker in his Romanes
+ lecture, 1906, as an encouragement to those who develop the art of
+ story-telling.
+
+51. The melody to be crooned at first and to grow louder at each
+ incident.
+
+52. "The punishment that can most affect Merfolk is to restrict their
+ freedom.  And this is how the Queen of the Sea punished the Nixie of
+ our tale."
+
+53. The three stories from Hans Christian Andersen have for so long
+ formed part of my repertoire that I have been requested to include
+ them.  I am offering a free translation of my own from the Danish
+ version.
+
+54. Alas! dear Augustin,
+    All is lost, lost!
+
+
+
+NOTE OF ACKNOWLEDGMENT
+
+My thanks are due to:
+
+Mrs. Josephine Dodge Daskam Bacon, for permission to use an extract
+  from "The Madness of Philip," and to her publishers.
+
+To Messrs. Houghton Mifflin, for permission to use extract from "Thou
+  Shalt Not Preach," by Mr. John Burroughs.
+
+To Messrs. Macmillan and Co., for permission to use, "Milking Time,"
+  of Miss Rossetti.
+
+To Mrs. William Sharp, for permission to use passage from "The Divine
+  Adventure," by Fiona MacLeod.
+
+To Miss Ethel CLifford, for permission to use the poem of "The Child."
+
+To Mr. James Whitcomb Riley and the Bobbs Merrill Co., for permission
+  to use "The Treasure of the Wise Man."
+
+To Professor Ker, for permission to quote from "Sturla the Historian."
+
+To Mr. John Russell, for permission to print in full, "A Saga."
+
+To Messrs. Longmans, Green, and Co., for permission to use "The Two
+  Frogs," from the Violate Fairy Book, and "To Your Good Health," from
+  the Crimson Fairy Book.
+
+To Mr. Heinemann and Lady Glenconner, for permission to reprint
+  "The  Water Nixie," by Pamela Tennant, from "The Children and
+  the Pictures."
+
+To Mr. Maurice Baring and the Editor of _The Morning Post_, for
+  permission to reprint "The Blue Rose" from _The Morning Post_.
+
+To Dr. Walter Rouse and Mr. J. M. Dent, for permission to reprint from
+  "The Talking Thrush" the story of "The Wise Old Shepherd."
+
+To Rev. R. L. Gales, for permission to use the article on "Nursery
+  Rhymes" from the _Nation_.
+
+To Mr. Edmund Gosse, for permission to use extracts from "Father
+  and Son."
+
+To Messrs. Chatto & Windus, for permission to use "Essay on Child's
+  Play" (from _Virginibus Puerisque_) and other papers.
+
+To Mr. George Allen & Co., for permission to use "Ballad for a Boy,"
+  by W. Cory, from "Ionica."
+
+To Professor Bradley, for permission to quote from his essay on
+  "Poetry and Life."
+
+To Mr. P. A. Barnett, for permission to quote from "The Commonsense
+  of Education."
+
+To Mr. James Stephens, for permission to reprint "The Man and the Boy."
+
+To Mr. Harold Barnes, for permission to use version of the "The
+  Proud Cock."  To Mrs. Arnold Glover, for permission to print
+  two of her stories.
+
+To Miss Emilie Poulson, for permission to use her translation of
+  Bjornsen's Poem.
+
+To George Routledge & Son, for permission to use stories from
+  "Eastern Stories and Fables."
+
+To Mrs. W. K. Clifford, for permission to quote from "Very Short
+  Stories."
+
+To Mr. W. Jenkyn Thomas and Mr. Fisher Unwin, for permission to use
+  "Arthur in the Cave" from the Welsh Fairy Book.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Art of the Story-Teller, by Marie L. Shedlock
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ART OF THE STORY-TELLER ***
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