we think more as we read them of the diversion than of the
lesson. There are grown-up people now who say that the stories are not
good for children, because they are not true, because there are no
witches, nor talking beasts, and because people are killed in them,
especially wicked giants. But probably you who read the tales know very
well how much is true and how much is only make-believe, and I never yet
heard of a child who killed a very tall man merely because Jack killed
the giants, or who was unkind to his stepmother, if he had one, because,
in fairy tales, the stepmother is often disagreeable. If there are
frightful monsters in fairy tales, they do not frighten you now, because
that kind of monster is no longer going about the world, whatever he may
have done long, long ago. He has been turned into stone, and you may see
his remains in museums. Therefore, I am not afraid that you will be
afraid of the magicians and dragons; besides, you see that a really
brave boy or girl was always their master, even in the height of their
power.

Some of the tales here, like _The Half-Chick_, are for very little
children; others for older ones. The longest tales, like _Heart of Ice_,
were not invented when the others were, but were written in French, by
clever men and women, such as Madame d'Aulnoy, and the Count de Caylus,
about two hundred years ago. There are not many people now, perhaps
there are none, who can write really good fairy tales, because they do
not believe enough in their own stories, and because they want to be
wittier than it has pleased Heaven to make them.

So here we give you the last of the old stories, for the present, and
hope you will like them, and feel grateful to the Brothers Grimm, who
took them down from the telling of old women, and to M. Sebillot and M.
Charles Marelles, who have lent us some tales from their own French
people, and to Mr. Ford, who drew the pictures, and to the ladies, Miss
Blackley, Miss Alma Alleyne, Miss Eleanor Sellar, Miss May Sellar, Miss
Wright, and Mrs. Lang, who translated many of the tales out of French,
German, and other languages.

If we have a book for you next year, it shall not be a fairy book. What
it is to be is a secret, but we hope that it will not be dull. So
good-bye, and when you have read a fairy book, lend it to other children
who have none, or tell them the stories in your own way, which is a very
pleasant mode of passing the time.

_CONTENTS_