_denouement_.

This not only reduces the story to tellable form, but it also leaves a
suggestive interest which heightens later enjoyment of the original. I
suggest the adaptation of Kate Douglas Wiggin, in _The Story Hour_, since
in view of the existence of a satisfactory adaptation it seems
unappreciative to offer a second. The one I made for my own use some years
ago is not dissimilar to this, and I have no reason to suppose it more
desirable.

Ruskin's _King of the Golden River_ is somewhat difficult to adapt. Not
only is it long, but its style is mature, highly descriptive, and closely
allegorical. Yet the tale is too beautiful and too suggestive to be lost
to the story-teller. And it is, also, so recognised a part of the standard
literary equipment of youth that teachers need to be able to introduce
children to its charm. To make it available for telling, we must choose
the most essential events of the series leading up to the climax, and
present these so simply as to appeal to children's ears, and so briefly as
not to tire them.

The printed story is eight thousand words in length. The first three
thousand words depict the beauty and fertility of the Treasure Valley, and
the cruel habits of Hans and Schwartz, its owners, and give the
culminating incident which leads to their banishment by "West Wind." This
episode,--the West Wind's appearance in the shape of an aged traveller,
his kind reception by the younger brother, little Gluck, and the
subsequent wrath of Hans and Schwartz, with their resulting
punishment,--occupies about two thousand words. The rest of the story
deals with the three brothers after the decree of West Wind has turned
Treasure Valley into a desert. In the little house where they are plying
their trade of goldsmiths, the King of the Golden River appears to Gluck
and tells him the magic secret of turning the river's waters to gold. Hans
and Schwartz in turn attempt the miracle, and in turn incur the penalty
attached to failure. Gluck tries, and wins the treasure through
self-sacrifice. The form of the treasure is a renewal of the fertility of
Treasure Valley, and the moral of the whole story is summed up in
Ruskin's words, "So the inheritance which was lost by cruelty was regained
by love."

It is easy to see that the dramatic part of the story and that which most
pointedly illustrates the underlying idea, is the triple attempt to win
the treasure,--the two failures and the one success. But