mples of the kind of pictures that best repay study:

Volume I, page 22.
Volume I, page 30.
Volume I, page 35.
Volume I, page 67.
Volume I, page 159.
Volume I, page 203.
Volume I, page 375.
Volume I, page 391.
Volume II, page 111.
Volume II, page 228.
Volume II, page 384.
Volume III, page 141.
Volume III, page 324.
Volume IV, page 452.
Volume V, page 97.
Volume V, page 253.
Volume VI, page 145.
Volume VI, page 361.
Volume VII, page 281.
Volume VII, page 439.
Volume VIII, page 160.
Volume VIII, page 321.
Volume IX, page 118.
Volume IX, page 248.

CHAPTER IV

TELLING STORIES

Before a child can read he develops a passion for stories, and nothing
delights him more than an interesting tale from the loving lips of
father or mother. In good kindergartens and primary schools, there are
teachers who tell stories to the little ones and do it well, but parents
will not wish to delegate it entirely to teachers, for story-telling is
the best way of getting at the hearts of children and planting those
germs which later grow into refined taste in reading as well as ripen
into real character. On the other hand, the teachers may neglect to tell
stories to their pupils or are not skilled either in selection or in
manner of telling. Parents who are interested in the welfare of their
small boys and girls will wish to know what is being done and how it is
accomplished, but may have little idea of the material it is wise to use
or where to find good subjects for their tales.

Proper selection is highly important, for taste and appetite for certain
kinds of literature may be created long before the child can read for
himself. Strong-minded, courageous little boys will love to hear of
giants and ogres, and will revel in adventures that may terrify their
more delicate sisters. George hates the fierce foes that Jack the
Giant-Killer meets, and dreams of the time when he can overpower and
slay his own ogres. Alice listens tremblingly, and when she goes to her
little bed at night lies in fear and trembling, while hideous faces leer
at her from out the shadowed recesses. George never wearies of our
oldest poem, _Beowulf_, while Alice wants only _Cinderella_, or at most
_Bluebeard_. It is nothing less than cruelty to fill the imaginations of
sensitive children with deeds of violence and tales of sadness and woe.
Yet it