point. Such a plan
insures a mastery of one's material. The sources of the versions used in
this text are pointed out in order that teachers who wish to do so may
extend their acquaintance to other folk material by referring to the
various collections mentioned.

Such a book as this must necessarily be selective. No doubt omissions
will be noted of poems or stories that many teachers deem indispensable.
Others will find selections included that to their minds are
questionable. The editors can only plead in extenuation that they have
included what they have found by experience to offer a sound basis for
discussing with training classes the nature of this basic material and
the form in which it should be presented to children. To accomplish
these ends it has sometimes seemed well to give parallel versions, and
occasionally to give a version that will necessitate the discussion of
such subjects as the use of dialect, the inclusion of items of terror or
horror, and the soundness of the ethical appeal. These various problems
are indicated in the notes accompanying individual selections.

The editorial apparatus does not constitute a treatise on literary
criticism, or a manual of mythology or folklore, or a "pedagogy" of
children's literature as such, or anything like an exhaustive
bibliography of the fields of study touched upon. It aims at the very
modest purpose of immediate and practical utility. It hopes to fill a
place as a sort of first aid for the inexperienced teacher, and as soon
as the teacher gets some real grasp of the elements of the problem this
book must yield to the more elaborate and well-knit discussions of
specialists in the various subjects treated. The bibliographical
references throughout are intended to offer help in this forward step.
These bibliographies are, in all cases, frankly selective. As a rule
most of the books mentioned are books now in print. In the
bibliographies connected with the sections of traditional material some
of the more important works in the field of scholarship are named in
each case for the benefit of those who may be working where such books
are available in institutional or public libraries. Titles of books are
printed in italics, while titles of poems, separate stories, and
selections are printed in roman type inclosed in quotation marks.

The grouping of material is in no sense a hard and fast one. Those who
work in literary fields understand the pitfalls that beset on