e use of a rare book.

We are also especially indebted to Prof. Henry D. Sleeper, head of the
Music Department of Smith College, for the charming airs to which he has
set some of the poems for children in the first volume.

On the literary side the editors wish to acknowledge their indebtedness
to Miss Esther M. Carver of Northampton for suggestions from her
experience as a teacher, to Miss Caroline M. Yale and Miss Frances W.
Gawith of the Clarke School for the Deaf, to Prof. Charles F.
Richardson, and Prof. Fred P. Emery of Dartmouth College, {13} Prof.
Clyde W. Votaw of Chicago University, Mr. William Orr, Principal of the
High School, Springfield, Mass. We are much indebted to President George
T. Angell for suggestions for the chapter, "Little Brothers of the Air
and Fields," in the first volume, also to a very wide circle of friends
for their interest and for valuable suggestions, many of which have been
incorporated in the work. The help of various versions of the Bible is
also acknowledged, as well as the version of the prophets by George Adam
Smith. Thanks are rendered to Messrs. Houghton, Mifflin & Co., Messrs.
Charles Scribner's Sons, E. P. Dutton & Co., J. B. Lippincott, Biglow &
Main, Mr. Theodore E. Perkins, and Charles Ray Palmer, D.D., for
permission to use copyrighted material.

Without the co-operation of these and many other friends we feel that so
large a measure of excellence as we believe the volumes possess could
not have been attained.

{14}

{15}

PREFACE

The editors have endeavored to make this volume a treasure house of all
the good things, new and old, which would serve to assist in the moral
training of little children. The volume includes a Primer, arranged on
the plan of the ordinary school primer, designed to give the elemental
religious truths in the simplest form. Any child who is learning to read
at school can learn also to read these sentences. The texts at the
bottom of the pages are to be read by the parent to the child, and may
with profit be committed to memory by the child. The short Bible stories
which follow may also be easily read by children. The hymns and poems
and most of the pictures are "classic." They should be known by every
child for their own worth, and as an antidote for the rubbish which
constitutes so large a proportion of the reading of children. Parents
will be pleased to find the fine old hymns of Watts and Jane Taylor,
some of them set to delightful mu