oped and plucked a lily that grew beside Gluck's
feet. Three drops of dew were on its white leaves. These the dwarf shook
into the flask which Gluck held in his hand.

"Cast these into the river," he said, "and go down the other side of the
mountains into the Treasure Valley." Then he disappeared.

Gluck stood on the brink of the Golden River, and cast the three drops of
dew into the stream. Where they fell, a little whirlpool opened; but the
water did not turn to gold. Indeed, the water seemed vanishing altogether.
Gluck was disappointed not to see gold, but he obeyed the King of the
Golden River, and went down the other side of the mountains.

When he came out into the Treasure Valley, a river, like the Golden River,
was springing from a new cleft in the rocks above, and flowing among the
heaps of dry sand. And then fresh grass sprang beside the river, flowers
opened along its sides, and vines began to cover the whole valley. The
Treasure Valley was becoming a garden again.

Gluck lived in the Valley, and his grapes were blue, and his apples were
red, and his corn was yellow; and the poor were never driven from his
door. For him, as the King had promised, the river was really a River of
Gold.

* * * * *

It will probably be clear to anyone who has followed these attempts, that
the first step in adaptation is analysis, careful analysis of the story
as it stands. One asks oneself, What is the story? Which events are
necessary links in the chain? How much of the text is pure description?

Having this essential body of the story in mind, one then decides which of
the steps toward the climax are needed for safe arrival there, and keeps
these. When two or more steps can be covered in a single stride, one makes
the stride. When a necessary explanation is unduly long, or is woven into
the story in too many strands, one disposes of it in an introductory
statement, or perhaps in a side remark. If there are two or more threads
of narrative, one chooses among them, and holds strictly to the one
chosen, eliminating details which concern the others.

In order to hold the simplicity of plot so attained, it is also desirable
to have but few personages in the story, and to narrate the action from
the point of view of one of them,--usually the hero. To shift the point of
view of the action is confusing to the child's mind.

When the analysis and condensation have been accomplished, the whole must