street are not very far
away, but their outlines are a little hazy. Does this haziness help to
give the effect of distance? Do you think the door was really a
gray-green? Has the artist used this tone to show the effect of the
outdoor light on a gray, or possibly a white door? The building across
the street, at the left, has yellow and red and purple tones; do you
think these were the actual colors? If not, why has the artist selected
these particular shades? Do parts of buildings or other objects in
shadow take on different shades from parts in bright lights? What
colors appear most frequently in the picture? Has the artist succeeded
in giving the picture the atmosphere of Dickens's story?

_II. Pictures and Their Value in Literature_

Pictures are in themselves a language--the oldest as well as the most
universal tongue of the world. The primitive man of all races resorted
to a picture-writing in his first efforts to transcribe his thoughts and
emotions into a more lasting form than the oral expression. Our earliest
authentic history of the customs, beliefs and life of the ancient
Egyptians, the Babylonians, the Chinese and even our own American
Indians comes to us from the pictured records they left on stone, wood
or clay.

In the present age, what child does not yield to the magic rhythm and
the compelling lilt of the old nursery rhymes! With what added joy does
he discover that there are pictures for these treasured jingles! And
long before the printed words can be recognized he enters the alluring
world of books by "reading" the illustrations. With glowing eyes on the
picture he repeats the rhyme he had learned from its many demanded
repetitions.

By giving him simple, clear, realistic conceptions through pictures, we
influence the child to read eagerly the text, to discover the whole
story, of which such a fascinating hint is given in the portion
illustrated. These first pictures must satisfy the child's love of
action and movement, and portray only the most dramatic scenes, the big
important facts with all superfluous happenings omitted.

In fables, where the primary purpose is to convey an abstract truth, a
something bigger and broader than the mere interesting events described,
the illustrations add much to the meaning and purpose of the text. Here
the artist shows not only the physical attributes of the real animal,
but in a subtle way goes a step further and through the features or the
attitude sugge