the second day.

12. She forgets her godmother's warning, and after midnight rushes back
home, leaving a single slipper behind her.

13. The prince finds the slipper and searches for its owner.

14. The sisters fail in trying on the slipper, which is then fitted to
Cinderella's foot.

15. The fairy godmother restores to Cinderella the appearance of a
princess.

16. The prince marries Cinderella, and she forgives her stepsisters.

A summary of these main incidents may be given in a few words, which
will contain the skeleton of the plot. To say that a certain little girl
who is shamefully treated by her stepsisters is aided by her fairy
godmother to attend a ball given by a prince, who finally marries the
little drudge, is to give the plot and really to tell all that the lax
and superficial reader gets from the story he peruses.

There are in this little story, however, a large number of minor
incidents which contribute to the interest, and if sought and placed in
their relation to the main events will be found to have added materially
to the charm of the narrative.

For instance, when the fairy godmother sends Cinderella to the ball for
the first time, children are led to a vivid interest in the event by a
series of fascinating incidents, as follows:

1. The fairy sends her into the garden for a pumpkin.

2. The godmother, scooping out the inside of the pumpkin, leaves the
rind, which she taps three times, and immediately it becomes a golden
coach.

3. The fairy spies six mice alive in a trap.

4. Cinderella lets the mice out gently, and as the fairy touches them
with her wand, each becomes a fine, dapple-gray horse.

5. Cinderella brings the rats, the largest of which the fairy converts
into a handsome postilion with a fine pair of whiskers.

6. Cinderella finds the six lizards behind the watering pot, which
become the six sedate and dignified footmen clothed in livery.

7. Cinderella's rags are changed to wonderful clothing bedecked with
costly jewels.

8. The beautiful glass slippers are provided.

How real these incidents all seem! What art is shown in bringing in real
things to give food to the imagination and to stimulate the interest
that carries the little reader away from herself where she may riot in
the wonders her active mind can so readily conceive. Some time when she
has grown much older, and cares have wrinkled her smooth cheeks, she
may see that the only fairy godmother who can clothe