a Cinderella is
hard work, and that mice become dapple-grays, and footmen are made from
lizards behind watering pots only when she has earned the right to them
herself. Just now it is enough for her to see that fairy godmothers come
to good children only, and that good princes do not care if their wives
have worked in the cinders, provided they are beautiful in gentleness
and service to others.

Children like to understand what they read, and are never so happy as
when talking over their favorite stories with those of their elders who
have the power to enter sympathetically into the child world. By no
means do all boys and girls like to be taught; in fact there are not
many more certain ways of prejudicing a child against anything than by
making it the subject of a formal lesson. Still, every child loves to
learn, and is seeking at every moment to add to his information and to
exercise his mind. Yet he must do it in his own way and with the things
in which he is interested. If those facts are borne in mind, no parent
will have difficulty in interesting his child or in leading the juvenile
mind where it ought to go.

To apply these ideas to teaching the plot of such a story as
_Cinderella_, let the parent who loves his children, and who wishes to
be no stranger to their interests, joys and sorrows, seat himself among
them some time and begin to read to them. Pausing now and then to
explain some word whose meaning may be obscure to them, or to comment on
some phase of the story that may be of special interest, let him read
on to the end without attempting to do much more than to make the story
a vivid tale where the interest centers in the incident.

When the story has ended, the pleasure has but just begun. Children like
to ask questions, but they are no less ready to answer them if the
questions are on things of interest, are related to the things which
children know and are put in such a way that the genuine interest of the
questioner is always evident. The I-know-it-all-and-you-know-nothing
style of questioning; the I'm-the-master-and-you're-the-pupil style; the
because-I-ask-you-must-answer style are all fatal to interest, and will
soon prevent that hearty sympathy and living spirit of cooperation that
the parent wishes to secure.

If we suppose it is _Cinderella_ that has been read, we may begin our
questioning in this manner:

"That's a good story. I like it, don't you?--It is rather long, though;
I've almos