facts of life, being compact of imagination and vision and ideals. Dr. Hamilton Wright Mabie convinced us of this in his cogent words. "America," he said, "has at present greater facility in producing 'smart' men than in producing able men; the alert, quick-witted money-maker abounds, but the men who live with ideas, who care for the principles of things, and who make life rich in resource and interest, are comparatively few. America needs poetry more than it needs industrial training, though the two ought never to be separated. The time to awaken the imagination, which is the creative faculty, is early childhood, and the most accessible material for this education is the literature which the race created in its childhood." The value of the fairy-tale and the wonder-tale is that they tell about the magic of living. Like the old woman in Mother Goose, they "brush the cobwebs out of the sky." They enrich, not cheapen, life. Plenty of things do cheapen life for children. Most movies do. Sunday comic supplements do. Ragtime songs do. Mere gossip does. But fairy stories enhance life. They are called "folk-tales," that is, tales of the common folk. They were largely the dreams of the poor. They consist of fancies that have illumined the hard facts of life. They find animals, trees, flowers, and the stars friendly. They speak of victory. In them the child is master even of dragons. He can live like a prince, in disguise, or, if he be uncomely, he may hope to win Beauty after he is free of his masquerade. Wonder-stories help make good children as well as happy children. In these stories witches, wolves, and evil persons are defeated or exposed. Fairy godmothers are ministers of justice. The side that the child wishes to triumph always does triumph, and so goodness always is made to seem worth-while. Almost every fairy-tale contains a test of character or shrewdness or courage. Sharp distinctions are made, that require a child of parts to discern. And the heroes of these nursery tales are much more convincing than precepts or golden texts, for they impress upon the child not merely what he ought to do, but what nobly has been done. And the small hero-worshiper will follow where his admirations lead. Fables do much the same, and by imagining that the animals have arrived at human speech and wisdom, they help the child to think shrewdly and in a friendly way, as if in comradeship with his pets and with our brothers and sisters, the beasts of the field and forest. * * * * * CONTENTS PAGE INTRODUCTION vii #THE OLD FAIRY TALES# THE ROAD TO FAIRY LAND 2 By Cecil Cavendish THE BEAUTIFUL PRINCESS GOLDENLOCKS 3 PRINCE HYACINTH AND THE DEAR LITTLE PRINCESS 7 By Madame Leprince De Beaumont CINDERELLA 10 By Charles Perrault THE SLEEPING BEAUTY 13 Adapted from the Brothers Grimm BEAUTY AND THE BEAST 15 PRINCE DARLING 20 RUMPELSTILTSKIN 26 Adapted from the Grimm Brothers RAPUNZELL, OR THE FAIR MAID WITH GOLDEN HAIR 28 By the Brothers Grimm SNOW-WHITE AND ROSE-RED 30 By the Brothers Grimm HANSEL AND GRETHEL 34 By the Brothers Grimm #STORIES BY FAVORITE AMERICAN WRITERS# THE FLAG-BEARER 39 By Carolyn Sherwin Bailey JOHNNY CHUCK FINDS THE BEST THING IN THE WORLD 40 By Thornton W. Burgess LITTLE WEE PUMPKIN'S THANKSGIVING 41 By Madge A. Bingham THE COMING OF THE KING 42 By Laura E. Richards THE LITTLE PIG 44 By Maud Lindsay THE TRAVELS OF THE LITTLE TOY SOLDIER 44 By Carolyn Sherwin Bailey WHAT HAPPENED TO DUMPS 45 By Carolyn Sherwin Bailey...