. And the "mantle of Andersen" has, so far, fallen on no
one.

To-day it is to be questioned if the child should be given the tale in
nurses' talk. To-day children are best cared for by mothers who feel
ignorant if they cannot tell their children stories, and who, having
an appreciation of their mother English, want their children to hear
stories, not only told by themselves rather than by their servants,
but also told in the best literary form possible. They recognize that
these earliest years, when the child is first learning his language,
are the years for a perfection of form to become indelibly impressed.
The fairy tale, like every piece of literature, is an organism and
"should be put before the youngest child with its head on, and
standing on both feet." The wholesale re-telling of every tale is to
be deplored. And stories which have proved themselves genuine
classics, which have a right to live, which have been handed down by
tradition, which have been preserved by folk-lore records, and which
have been rescued from oblivion,--in this age of books should have a
literary form, which is part of their message, settled upon them. The
Grimm tales await their literary master.

III. THE FAIRY TALE AS A SHORT-STORY

The fairy tale, then, which in an objective sense, from the standpoint
of literature, has proved itself subject-matter of real worth, must be
a classic, must have the qualities of mind and soul, must possess the
power to appeal to the emotions, a power to appeal to the imagination,
and it must have a basis of truth and a perfection of form. But in
addition to possessing these characteristics, because the fairy tale
is a special literary form,--the short-story,--as literature it must
stand the test of the short-story.

The three main characteristics of the short-story, as given by
Professor Brander Matthews in his _Philosophy of the Short-Story_, are
originality of theme, ingenuity of invention, and brevity, or
compression. A single effect must be conceived, and no more written
than contributes to that effect. The story depends for its power and
charm on (1) characters; (2) plot; and (3) setting. In _The Life and
Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson_, by Graham Balfour, Stevenson has
said, concerning the short-story:--

"There are, so far as I know, three ways, and three ways
only, of writing a story. You may take a plot and fit
characters to it, or you may take a character and choose