ilt up on a
slight framework of original matter.

Thus it may be seen that the tales in this volume have not been reduced
to the necessarily limited vocabulary and uniform style of one editor,
but that they are varied in treatment and language, and are the products
of many minds.

A glance at the table of contents will show that not only have
selections been made from modern authors and from the folklore of
different races, but that some quaint old literary sources have been
drawn on. Among the men and books contributing to these pages are the
Gesta Romanorum, Il Libro d'Oro, Xenophon, Ovid, Lucian, the Venerable
Bede, William of Malmesbury. John of Hildesheim, William Caxton, and the
more modern Washington Irving, Hugh Miller, Charles Dickens, and Henry
Cabot Lodge; also those immortals, Hans Andersen, the Brothers Grimm,
Horace E. Scudder, and others.

The stories are arranged to meet the needs of story-telling in the
graded schools. Reading-lists, showing where to find additional material
for story-telling and collateral reading, are added. Grades in which the
recommended stories are useful are indicated.

The number of selections in the volume, as well as the references
to other books, is limited by the amount and character of available
material. For instance, there is little to be found for Saint
Valentine's Day, while there is an overwhelming abundance of fine
stories for the Christmas season. Stories like Dickens's "Christmas
Carol," Ouida's "Dog of Flanders," and Hawthorne's tales, which are too
long for inclusion and would lose their literary beauty if condensed,
are referred to in the lists. Volumes containing these stories may be
procured at the public library.

A subject index is appended. This indicates the ethical, historical, and
other subject-matter of interest to the teacher, thus making the volume
serviceable for other occasions besides holidays.

In learning her tale the story-teller is advised not to commit it to
memory. Such a method is apt to produce a wooden or glib manner of
presentation. It is better for her to read the story over and over again
until its plot, imagery, style, and vocabulary become her own, and then
to retell it, as Miss Bryant says, "simply, vitally, joyously."

CONTENTS

NEW YEAR'S DAY (January 1)

THE FAIRY'S NEW YEAR GIFT: Emilie Poulsson, In the Child's World

THE LITTLE MATCH GIRL: Hans Christian Andersen, Stories and Tales

THE TWELVE MONTHS: Alexa