l dog with a little piece of meat on a big, wide bridge.
Houses, trees, sedges on the river bank, children playing by the side of
the path, spring, summer or autumn foliage, or even snowclad shores with
black water between--any of these we may put into our picture, for the
fable is silent on these points. We must be accurate, and the parent can
do no better service in reading than to make his child see accurately
whatever he sees at all.

The artist studies the selection he means to illustrate in just this
way, and then draws his picture. When we see his picture we may accept
it as good and true to the conditions, or call it poor and inapplicable.
We should not be hasty, but should try to get his point of view before
we criticise. If he violates any of the fixed conditions of the story
his work is bad; if he gives us his interpretation and violates no fixed
conditions, his work may be good or bad according to the standards we
set up: are we always certain that our standards are correct?

In the fable _The Fox and the Stork_ (Volume I, page 73) the artist has
given us two beautiful pictures which in themselves tell almost the
entire story, and his pictures are almost wholly from his own
imagination, for there was given him to work with very little more than
a fox, a stork, a wide dish and a vase. Such a pictorial imagination as
he possessed is what should be cultivated in children. If they can be
encouraged to draw what they see, they not only fix their own
impressions, but they learn to see more vividly and more accurately.

In long stories there are many scenes; it may be that no two incidents
happen in the same place. In the drama, which contains all the elements
of the story, the scenes are limited in number, are fixed and unchanging
and after the reader has arranged his scenery he may give his attention
exclusively to the dialogue because he knows there will be no change in
the scene. In the story the reader may need to be constantly alert, as
when his hero takes a long and perilous journey the scenes may change
with the quickness of a kaleidoscope, and yet all be important to the
narrative. The more complex the story, the greater the variety in
scene, and consequently the greater the opportunities for study. It is
interesting work for children to pick out the scenes, to count them and
then to compare them. Some of them are more vividly portrayed than
others. Why? Some are more important as descriptions, and some b