University of Virginia Library

PREFACE

This little book came into being at the instance of my teaching friends all over this country. Their requests for more stories of the kind which were given in "How to Tell Stories to Children," and especially their urging that the stories they liked, in my telling, should be set down in print, seemed to justify the hope that the collection would be genuinely useful to them. That it may be, is the earnest desire with which it is offered. I hope it will be found to contain some stories which are new to the teachers and friends of little children, and some which are familiar, but in an easier form for telling than is usual. And I shall indeed be content if its value to those who read it is proportionate to the pleasure and mental stimulus which has come to me in the work among pupils and teachers which accompanied its preparation.

Among the publishers and authors whose

kindness enabled me to quote material are Messrs. G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York and London, to whom I am indebted for "The Lambikin;" Messrs. Little, Brown, and Company and the Alcott heirs, who allowed me the use of Louisa Alcott's poem, "My Kingdom;" and Dr. Douglas Hyde, of Ireland, whose letter of permission to use his Irish material was in itself a literary treasure. To the charming friend who gave me the outline of "Epaminondas," as told her by her own "Mammy," I owe a deeper debt, for "Epaminondas" has carried joy since then into more schools and homes than I dare to enumerate; please take your thanks now, dear Kentucky friend!

And to all the others,—friends in whom the child heart lingers,—my thanks for the laughs we have had, the discussions we have warmed to, the helps you have given; a greeting to you, in New England villages, in Rocky Mountain towns, on the banks of the Mississippi, and "down South." May you never lack the right story at the right time, or a child to love you for telling it!
Sara Cone Bryant