end the infant audience with their tales,
Breathing astonishment.

The custom of Florentine mothers has been described by the poet,
Dante, when he says:--

Another, drawing tresses from her distaff.
Told o'er among her family the tales
Of Trojans, and of Fesole and Rome.

The French troubadours and the Italian counts of Boccaccio's time told
tales. It is recorded of the French Galland, the first translator of
_The Arabian Nights_, how the young men of his day would gather under
his windows at night and shout for him until he showed himself and
told them stories. The German Luther paid a high tribute to stories;
and Goethe's mother, in giving her experience in telling stories to
her children, has shown how the German mother valued the story in the
home. To-day, savage children, when the day of toil is ended with the
setting sun, gather in groups to listen to the never-dying charm of
the tale; and the most learned of men, meeting in the great centers of
civilization to work out weighty problems, find relief and pleasure
when wit and culture tell the tale.

In the home the tale is the mother's power to build in her little
children ideals of life which will tower as a fortress when there come
critical moments of decision for which no amount of reasoning will be
a sufficient guide, but for which true feeling, a kind of unconscious
higher reasoning, will be the safest guide. In the library the story
is the greatest social asset of the librarian, it is her best means of
reaching the obscure child who seeks there some food for his spirit,
it is her best opportunity to lead and direct his tastes. In the
school it is the teacher's strongest personal ally. It is her
wishing-ring, with which she may play fairy to herself in
accomplishing a great variety of aims, and incidentally be a fairy
godmother to the child.

Story-telling is an art handling an art and therefore must be pursued
in accordance with certain principles. These principles govern: (1)
the teacher's preparation; (2) the presentation of the tale; and (3)
the return from the child.

I. THE TEACHER'S PREPARATION

1. The teacher's preparation must be concerned with a variety of
subjects. The first rule to be observed is: _Select the tale for some
purpose, to meet a situation_. This purpose may be any one of the
elements of value which have been presented here under "The Worth of
Fairy Tales." The teacher must consider, not only the poss