d, or Maria Edgeworth,
or Jane Taylor would say some morning--at any rate, so it seems to
me--"I will write a story to-day to teach boys and girls to be
industrious." And so "Busy Idleness" was written. Or one of these old
authors would decide to write a story the main object of which was to
teach little girls not to be too curious, and so "The Inquisitive
Girl" was written. Both of these stories, and many others equally
good, are found in this volume.

I could really tell you many interesting things about these
old-fashioned stories but I will do something better--urge you to read
them yourself. They are quaint, delightful, and entertaining stories,
besides teaching a moral. You boys and girls should read every one of
them, and then read them again, out loud, to your mothers or to
anybody else who will listen.

Among all the old-fashioned stories in this volume I find only one
that seems to me "really funny," and that is "Uncle David's
Nonsensical Story about the Giants and Fairies." Think of a giant so
tall that "he was obliged to climb up a ladder to comb his own hair."
But this bit of humor is not so good as a very modern nonsense-story
entitled "The Giant's Shoes," which I read the other day, and from
which the Managing Editor permits me to quote this little passage:

"The Giant slept for three weeks at a time, and two days after he
woke his breakfast was brought to him, consisting of bright brown
horses sprinkled on his bread and butter. Besides his boots, the Giant
had a pair of shoes, and in one of them his wife lived when she was at
home; on other occasions she lived in the other shoe. She was a
sensible, practical kind of woman, with two wooden legs and a
clothes-horse, but in other respects not rich. The wooden legs were
kept pointed at both ends, in order that if the Giant were
dissatisfied with his breakfast, he might pick up any stray people
that were within reach, using his wife as a fork; this annoyed the
inhabitants of the district, so that they built their church in a
southwesterly direction from the castle, behind the Giant's back, that
he might not be able to pick them up as they went in. But those who
stayed outside to play pitch-and-toss were exposed to great danger and
sufferings."

G.J.B.

CLASSIC TALES

DON QUIXOTE

By MIGUEL CERVANTES

ADAPTED BY JOHN LANG

I

HOW DON QUIXOTE WAS KNIGHTED

Some three or four hundred years ago, there lived in sunny Spain an