Publisher's Synopsis
From the PREFACE.
ANY one who has been out of touch with schools for several years, and who casually picks up a child's reader of to-day, can hardly help being impressed by the difference between the present schoolbooks and those of a generation ago. Far more attention is now paid to awakening the child's interest. Even the reading books for the smaller children are no longer a dull array of words-a necessary vocabulary that must be mastered before the learner can advance to things of genuine interest or pleasure.
Imagination is no longer shut out by the click of the schoolroom latch, but is now considered a valuable factor in leading a child on and up to those realities of life which are so much higher and more beautiful than any mere creation of the imagination can be.
It is this consideration that has induced the author of this little volume to collect in book form the following tales and verses, some of them imaginative almost to the verge of the fantastic. Not all are of this character, however. They deal as well with the little incidents of child life, or tell of the doings and fates of animals that have come under the author's notice.
But even in tales the most imaginative or fantastic there are lessons that may be instilled into a child's mind besides the knowledge of spelling or the meaning of words.
The vocabulary used in this collection is somewhat larger than that usually introduced in schoolbooks of the grade for which this volume is intended, but if there is enough interest in the stories and verses to hold the child's attention and make him wish to read on, this will hardly be esteemed a drawback.
The greater number of these tales and rhymes have already appeared in print. For the permission to republish them thanks are due to the Century Company, to Messrs. Harper & Brothers, and to the editors of" Vogue," the " Outlook," and the " Independent."