ld, from finger-play days to the
alphabet period. It helps parents who wish to enjoy their little
children and who do not wish such enjoyment to be a mere matter of
chance. Trained kindergartners with the modern viewpoint had much to do
with this collection. Not only does it delight the little folk, but it
is also the first material for child-training.

Educators are making much nowadays of fairy stories and wonder-tales.
The imaginative man, they say, is the effective man, because he has the
mental vision which sees farther than the physical eye; and they urge
that all children should be the possessors of these nursery tales that
have made children happy for so many centuries. "Folk-lore, Fables, and
Fairy Tales" is the result of careful comparative study of all the
leading anthologies, with added research into sources that have not
otherwise been thoroughly explored.

The folk-lore of many races and times has been sifted, and wherever
necessary it has been retold so as to be suitable to modern tastes and
needs of modern children. Whatever was gruesome or morally undesirable
has been omitted, but the flavor and the language of the past have been
retained. Here are "Cinderella," "Tom Thumb," and all the other
favorites of our childhood days, together with the stories that are told
to the children in the four corners of the world. While these will be
read to our boys and girls before they are able to read for themselves,
they will turn back again and again to this department as they grow
older. There is perpetual youth in the tales evolved by a race in its
infancy.

From the fairy-tale and the folk-lore period, when beasts and trees and
all that is about them speak to them in words they can understand,
children develop into a stage where they want stories, or, as we say
when we are older, fiction. Both they and we mean tales that while
untrue yet would be possible of happening. At this age, also, children
desire to learn the habits of the animals they see on the farm, in the
zoo, and in the circus. The importance of giving children an early
acquaintance with good literature is unquestioned, but even the most
earnest parent has difficulty in making the selection, finding the
source in available form, and keeping out what is unworthy.

"Famous Tales and Nature Stories" has been made with care. Many of the
world's famous stories are collected here, and wherever possible they
are in the original language. The nature stor