g to tell you a long
tale he has not grasped, and have observed how the units of
the tale have become confused in the mind that has not held
the central theme, you then realize how harmful it is to
give a child too long a story. Unity demands that there be
no heaping up of sensations, but neat, orderly, essential
incidents, held together by one central idea. The tale must
go to the climax directly. It must close according to Uncle
Remus's idea when he says, "De tale ain't persoon atter em
no furder don de place whar dey [the characters] make der
disappear'nce." It will say what it has to say and lose no
time in saying it; and often it will attempt to say only one
thing. It will be remarkable as well for what it omits as
for what it tells. The Norse _Doll i' the Grass_ well
illustrates this unity. Boots set out to find a wife and
found a charming little lassie who could spin and weave a
shirt in one day, though of course the shirt was tiny. He
took her home and then celebrated his wedding with the
pleasure of the king. This unity, which is violated in
Grimm's complicated _Golden Bird_, appears pleasantly in
_The Little Pine Tree that Wished for New Leaves_. Here one
feeling dominates the tale, the Pine Tree was no longer
contented. So she wished, first for gold leaves, next for
glass leaves, and then for leaves like those of the oaks and
maples. But the robber who stole her gold leaves, the storm
that shattered her glass leaves, and the goat that ate her
broad green leaves, changed her feeling of discontent, until
she wished at last to have back her slender needles, green
and fair, and awoke next morning, happy and contented.

Fairy tales for little children must avoid certain elements opposed to
the interests of the very young child. Temperaments vary and one must
be guided by the characteristics of the individual child. But while
the little girl with unusual power of visualization, who weeps on
hearing of Thumbling's travels down the cow's mouth in company with
the hay, may be the exception, she proves the rule: the little child
generally should not have the tale that creates an emotion of horror
or deep feeling of pain. This standard would determine what tales
should not be given to the child of kindergarten age:--

_The tale of the witch_. The witch is too strange and too