with it other things which are of vastly greater importance. In such
stories the persons are living, breathing realities, and the reader
feels that he has added permanently to his list of tried and true
friends. Tom Brown and Tiny Tim, who live only in stories, are as much
our friends as Henry Thompson and Rudolph De Peyster who live in the
next block. The great writer, moreover, takes us with him into new
places, among new scenes, so that Rugby becomes for a time our own
school, and from Tim's poor hearth there enters a warm Christmas glow
into our doubting hearts. Although the plot is important, yet all
stories that enthral the mind with exciting incidents must be regarded
with suspicion until they prove their right to be considered real
literature by furnishing higher interests or greater inspiration.

To analyze the plot of a story, however, is always helpful; to arrange
the incidents in order, to determine which are necessary to the
development of the story, and which are merely contributory to the
general interest, is an interesting and stimulating thing. The plot of
short stories may quite often be told in few words, and unless very
complicated, the plot of a novel may be given in a few sentences. In
some stories, however, the plot is so loosely constructed and of so
little real importance that it is hardly more than a train of apparently
equally important incidents. Again, the plot is oftentimes so
complicated by secondary plots and incidents that even a careful reader
becomes confused and loses his interest.

Let us consider the plot in such a story as _Cinderella_ (Volume I, page
224). The main incidents of the plot arrange themselves as follows:

1. Cinderella's mother dies.

2. Her father marries a widow, who has two daughters.

3. The stepmother sends Cinderella to the kitchen to work and to the
garret to sleep.

4. The king's son gives a great ball to which he invites Cinderella's
stepsisters.

5. The stepsisters require Cinderella to assist them to dress, and abuse
her shamefully.

6. The sisters go to the ball, and Cinderella sits by the kitchen fire
wishing she might accompany them.

7. Her fairy godmother appears and sends her to the ball in fine style.

8. Cinderella, beautiful as a picture, dances with the prince, who falls
in love with her.

9. The clock strikes twelve, and Cinderella goes back to the kitchen.

10. The stepsisters again mistreat Cinderella.

11. She goes to the ball