this is
necessarily introduced by the episode of the King of the Golden River,
which is, also, an incident sure to appeal to a child's imagination. And
the regaining of the inheritance is meaningless without the fact of its
previous loss, and the reason for the loss, as a contrast with the reason
for its recovery. We need, then, the main facts recorded in the first
three thousand words. But the West Wind episode must be avoided, not only
for brevity, but because two supernatural appearances, so similar, yet of
different personalities, would hopelessly confuse a told story.

Our oral story is now to be made out of a condensed statement of the
character of the Valley and of its owners, and the manner of its loss; the
intervention of the King of the Golden River; the three attempts to turn
the river to gold, and Gluck's success. Gluck is to be our hero, and our
underlying idea is the power of love _versus_ cruelty. Description is to
be reduced to its lowest terms, and the language made simple and concrete.

With this outline in mind, it may be useful to compare the following
adaptation with the original story. The adaptation is not intended in any
sense as a substitute for the original, but merely as that form of it
which can be _told_, while the original remains for reading.

THE GOLDEN RIVER[1]

[Footnote 1: Adapted from Ruskin's _King of the Golden River_.]

There was once a beautiful little valley, where the sun was warm, and the
rains fell softly; its apples were so red, its corn so yellow, its grapes
so blue, that it was called the Treasure Valley. Not a river ran into it,
but one great river flowed down the mountains on the other side, and
because the setting sun always tinged its high cataract with gold after
the rest of the world was dark, it was called the Golden River. The lovely
valley belonged to three brothers. The youngest, little Gluck, was
happy-hearted and kind, but he had a hard life with his brothers, for Hans
and Schwartz were so cruel and so mean that they were known everywhere
around as the "Black Brothers." They were hard to their farm hands, hard
to their customers, hard to the poor, and hardest of all to Gluck.

At last the Black Brothers became so bad that the Spirit of the West Wind
took vengeance on them; he forbade any of the gentle winds, south and
west, to bring rain to the valley. Then, since there were no rivers in it,
it dried up, and instead of a treasure valley it became a desert