FINGERPOSTS 
 
 TO 
 
 CHILD RENS 
 READING 
 
 WALTER
 
 0- 
 
 t 
 
 PLE^^E DO NOT REMOVE 
 THIS BOOK CARD E 
 
 ^tLIBRARY(^ 
 
 I- 
 
 University Researcli Library
 
 3ok is DUE on the last date stamped below. 
 OCT 2 7 1928 
 
 IK^ 
 
 ;PR16<S'5 
 
 /
 
 FINGERPOSTS 
 
 TO 
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 BY 
 
 WALTER TAYLOR FIELD 
 
 CHICAGO 
 
 A. C. McCLURG & CO. 
 
 1907
 
 Copyright 
 
 A. C. McCldrq & Co. 
 
 1907 
 
 Published March 9, 1907 
 
 R.R. DONNELLEY & SONS COMPANY 
 CHICAGO
 
 i o37 
 FAsS 
 
 PREFACE 
 
 THESE essays on various phases of chil- 
 dren 's reading are addressed to parents 
 and teachers, librarians, Sunday-school work- 
 ers, — all who are concerned with the education 
 of the child and who are interested in the en- 
 largement and enrichment of his life. 
 
 No one who knows and loves children can 
 fail to appreciate the influence which noble 
 thoug hts an d high Jdeals exercise upon the 
 unfolding character, — and no one who knows 
 good literature can fail to realize the wealth 
 of joy and beauty which it holds in store for 
 the young. 
 
 The problem is to introduce the child to the 
 great writers, through their simpler works — 
 letting him approach them at the level of his 
 own intelUgence and grow with them, assimilat- 
 ing more and more as his years increase, until 
 he has reached the fulness of appreciation 
 which marks the cultured man orj»voman. 
 /To awaken a genuine love for good books is 
 to insure the development of both the aesthetic.
 
 PREFACE 
 
 and the moral natures.. If the present volume 
 shall lead indirectly to such an awakening in 
 the heart of any child, it will not have been 
 written in vain. 
 
 The substance of several of the chapters 
 has already appeared in "The Dial" and 
 in " The Congregationalist." Parts of Chap- 
 ters I and II, originally published in "The 
 Dial," were afterwards reprinted in pamphlet 
 form by Messrs. Ginn and Company under 
 the title, "Children's Books: their Selection 
 and their Influence." Acknowledgment is 
 made to the publishers of the above-named 
 journals for permission to include this material 
 in the present volume; also to Mr. George A. 
 Plimpton for data regarding the history of 
 school readers in America. Dr. R. R. Reeder 's 
 admirable paper on "The Development of 
 School Reading Books," and Mr. W. H. Whit- 
 more 's introduction to the reprint of Isaiah 
 Thomas's edition of Mother Goose, have fur- 
 nished suggestions for the historical portions 
 
 of the work. 
 
 W. T. F. 
 
 Chicago, January 1, 1907. 
 
 VI
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I. The Influence op Books ... 9 
 
 II. Reading in the Home .... 25 
 
 III. A List of Books for Home Reading 37 
 
 -''IV. Reading in the School .... 67 
 
 - V. Supplementary Reading .... 81 
 
 VI. The School Library 120 
 
 VII. The Public Library . . . . . 133 
 
 VIII. The Sunday-school Library . . 144 
 IX. The Illustrating of Children's 
 
 Books 173 
 
 X. Mother Goose 193 
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 Lists of Books for School and Sunday- 
 school Libraries 227 
 
 vii
 
 FINGERPOSTS 
 TO CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 THE INFLUENCE OF BOOKS 
 
 HAWTHORNE, in his story of "The„ 
 Great Stone Face," gives us the picture 
 of a boy growing up under the influence of a 
 high ideal. The granite profile on the moun- 
 tain side, which he sees each morning from 
 his cottage door, expresses to him what is best 
 in human character. He comes to love it, 
 and loving it, grows to be like it. Such is al- 
 ways the result of companionship with the great 
 and good; and the story with its underlying 
 allegory is an incentive not only to the young, 
 to seek that which is noble, but to those who 
 are responsible for the training of the young, 
 to see that a right environment is provided for 
 their charges. 
 
 We spend much time in the search for suit- 
 able associates for our boys and girls. None of 
 9
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 our neighbors' children seem to us quite good 
 enough. One is poUte but untruthful, another 
 good-natured but a rowdy, still another has 
 no visible virtue, but a generous allotment of 
 original sin. Perhaps the neighbors are equal- 
 ly critical regarding our children. We hope 
 not, but we know that the ideal youth does 
 not flourish on our street, and we have learned 
 with sorrow that our boys and girls acquire 
 from their playmates vices oftener than virtues. 
 Yet there is a world into which children may 
 enter and find noble companionship. It is 
 the world of books. Let your boy escape for 
 a time from the meanness of the boy across 
 the street, and let him roam the woods with 
 Hiawatha, sail the seas with Sindbad, build 
 stockades with Crusoe, fight dragons with 
 Jason, joust with Galahad; let him play at 
 quoits with Odysseus, and at football with Tom 
 Brown. These are playmates who will never 
 quarrel with him nor bully him, but from 
 whom he will learn to be brave, self-reliant, 
 manly, quick to do for others, and set with his 
 face toward the light. " Tell me what company 
 thou keepest and I will tell thee what thou art," 
 says the old Spanish proverb. The child who 
 10
 
 THE INFLUENCE OF BOOKS 
 
 lives on terms of intimacy with such heroes 
 as these cannot fail to be strong and true. 
 
 This does not mean that children should be 
 raised under glass. They must be out in the 
 world and grow up among their fellows. Free- 
 doin gives them strength and self-reliance; 
 but at the age when impressions are so quickly 
 made, — and so indelibly, — the child needs 
 an antidote for the poison of bad companion- 
 ship, and this antidote is to be found within 
 the covers of a good story-book. To the child 
 a story is a very real thing. We often forget 
 how real it is. Did you never in your child- 
 hood take in your hand your little wooden sword 
 and stride manfully out into the pasture, lay- 
 ing right and left among the mullein stalks, 
 calling yourself Richard of the Lion Heart, 
 and come back, breathless, with the blood 
 tingling in your cheeks and your brain on fire 
 with an exultation which you would give 
 worlds to feel again ? Did you never seize a 
 clothes-pole for a lance and the cover of a bar- 
 rel for a shield, and go out before breakfast 
 to rescue an imprisoned princess? And did 
 you not scorn all meanness, — for an hour at 
 least, — until you had forgotten Richard and 
 11
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 the Knight of the Red Cross and the Princess, 
 and all that, and had descended to trading a 
 jack-knife with the boy in the next house ? Ah, 
 these book heroes have done more to touch 
 the sense of honor in children than father's 
 talks or mother's entreaties. You cannot 
 afford to let your boys and girls grow up with- 
 out their friendship. 
 
 The child is a hero-worshipper, and if you 
 do not give him a triie hero, he will set up in 
 the sanctuary of his heart a tawdry imitation 
 of one. He will worship and imitate in a small 
 way the bully of his school, because the bully 
 is strong and aggressive ; but let him once know 
 King Arthur and the Chevalier Bayard, and 
 he will lose admiration for every sort soever 
 of bully from that time forth. Cl know a boy 
 who will take a whipping with resignation, 
 and a serious talk with only a passing show of 
 penitence, but if his mother takes from a wood- 
 en shield hanging in his room a httle knot of 
 blue ribbon which has been placed there for 
 some previous worthy action, he is at once 
 humbled and remorseful, — with a remorse 
 which generally lasts until he has won the right \ 
 to have the token back again. 
 12
 
 THE INFLUENCE OF BOOKS 
 
 The influence of good books is felt along 
 two lines, the aesthetic and the moral, affect- 
 ing the taste and the character, but these two 
 lines run parallel, and are not far apart. If 
 we can get our eyes open to the beautiful 
 and noble pictures which the great writers have 
 painted for us, and our ears attuned to the 
 music of their words, we shall, I think, not 
 only have broadened our appreciations, but 
 by a sort of spiritual induction have deepened 
 our sjrmpathies as well. Buffon's maxim, 
 "Le style est I'homme meme," simply means 
 that taste and character are not easily sepa- 
 rable. 
 
 Some believe that literary taste is a gift of 
 the gods which the fortunate child receives 
 at birth. This is only partly true. It is true 
 just so far as that generations of culture may 
 be expected to produce in the child an apti- 
 tude which under favorable conditions will 
 develop into taste; but the corollary is not 
 true, that the child who is born without this 
 gift is. doomed to barbarism. He simply must 
 work harder, and will be in the end stronger 
 for the effort. Dr. Holmes has somewhere 
 observed that a child 's culture begins with his 
 13
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 grandfather. Doubtless the grandfather is a 
 factor, but it may be asked whether, after all, 
 the children of cultured homes do not derive 
 their literary appreciations quite as much from 
 their early environment as from their blood, 
 f If during the first twelve years of a child's 
 life he has been made familiar with the best 
 literature that is adapted to his widening range 
 of thought, there need be no fear that he will 
 ever read unworthy books. One who has not 
 been thus trained, however, finds poison in the 
 printed page as well as healing. There are 
 the news-stands, reeking with sensational boy- 
 bandit stories and tales of the slums and of the 
 brothel. The untrained child wants some- 
 thing to read, and it must be exciting. He 
 knows no difference in books. He does not 
 appreciate the gulf that lies between a noble 
 tale and a vile one, or between the work of a 
 master and the lucubrations of a penny-a-liner. 
 All he wants is action and excitement, and 
 here it is with gaudy cover and flaring illustra- 
 tions, sold at a price so low as to be easily 
 within his reach. Bowery toughs and plever 
 cracksmen are the heroes of these tales. Care- 
 fully planned details of robberies and hold-ups 
 U
 
 THE INFLUENCE OF BOOKS 
 
 instruct the youth how to go about the nefarious 
 business, and inspire a wish to emulate the 
 robbers, because they are bold and daring and 
 always outwit the police. 
 
 Mr. L. Bodine, Superintendent of Compul- 
 sory Education in Chicago, handed me re- 
 cently a dozen or more books which had been 
 taken from some of the lawless youths under 
 his charge. The most pretentious of the lot 
 is a volume entitled, "Tracy, the Bandit," 
 which may have cost as much as twenty- 
 five cents. Most of the others, however, 
 are published in "nickel Ubraries," one is- 
 sue, with a complete story, appearing every 
 week,— ''The Wild West Weekly," "Buffalo 
 Bill Stories," "Diamond Dick Weekly," 
 "Jesse James Stories," " James Boys' Weekly," 
 and so on od nauseam. "The James Boys' 
 Weekly" consisted, the last time I saw it, of 
 ninety-six numbers, "written by the well- 
 known and popular author, D. W. Stevens." 
 At the rate of one new story each week, this 
 "well-known and popular author" has before 
 now probably produced about two hundred, — 
 and Heaven knows when he will stop. I have 
 no wish to advertise him. Perhaps among 
 15
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 his particular constituency of readers he has 
 
 quite fame enough already. 
 
 1 In Mr. Bodine's office is a drawer full of 
 
 (revolvers, dirks, bowie-knives, and sand-bags 
 
 /taken from boys who carried them to school 
 
 ■^or had them concealed upon their persons. To 
 
 one of the revolvers is attached a card, which 
 
 gives its record: "Death to Sohe Cohen, 401 
 
 W. Taylor St., shot by Abe Abrams, thirteen 
 
 years of age, while playing Jesse James in Mrs. 
 
 Cohen's kitchen, Jan. 4th, 1904." 
 
 The "car-bam murder," in which a gang 
 of young ruffians held up and shot the cashier 
 of one of the Chicago street railway companies 
 a few years ago, is directly traceable to the 
 reading of these " nickel hbrary " stories. The 
 leaders of the youthful gang have paid the 
 penalty of their crime, but others are gi^owing 
 up under the same influences, prepared to 
 contribute to the same result. 
 
 Another class of literature, even more dan- 
 gerous to our youth than " hold-up " stories, are 
 translations from French novels of the demi- 
 monde, and shady tales of New York by night, 
 dealing in the most insinuating way with a kind 
 of life which has already gained too much 
 16
 
 THE INFLUENCE OF BOOKS 
 
 publicity in the daily press. One can easily 
 appreciate the baneful influence which such 
 literature may and does exert upon irrespon- 
 sible boys during the period of adolescence. 
 
 And what shall we say of the "family'^news-^ 
 j)aper, with its daily record of murders, suicides, 
 indecencies, and crime of every sort ? Is this 
 good food for youth? Its apologists tell us 
 that it is the mirror of the world; but there is a 
 part of the world into whicE we do not care to 
 send our children, and which we do not wish 
 to have brought into our homes. Unfortu- 
 nately, it is from this part that the news with 
 the most striking headUnes is drawn. 
 
 Though newspapers differ in their moral 
 character as the men behind them differ, there 
 are some which have become active agents in 
 the propagation of crime. We may keep our 
 own children from them, but the unguarded and 
 unprincipled children of the street find in them 
 plenty to arouse their worst passions and to 
 suggest criminal possibilities for their own 
 accompUshing. The exploitation of the deeds 
 of criminals, the circumstantial accounts of 
 their acts and doings while in jail or on trial, 
 their pictures in various attitudes, and the 
 17
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 accounts of the hysterical homage paid to them 
 by a weak-minded constituency make them 
 heroes in the eyes of the unprincipled youth. 
 
 Newspapers other than those of the distinctly 
 "yellow" variety are guilty in a less degree of 
 the same practices; and as long as papers are 
 pubUshed with the idea of getting the largest 
 possible circulation, we shall do well to discour- 
 age our children from reading them. Chil- 
 dren's weekly newspapers, of which "The 
 Little Chronicle" is perhaps the best type, 
 give all the news that any decent child will 
 care to know. 
 
 The records of the Chicago police depart- 
 ment for 1905 show that of all persons arrested 
 on criminal charges during the year, twenty- 
 two per cent were under twenty years of age, 
 and that the number of these boys and girls 
 arrested, not counting "repeaters " {{. e., second 
 or subsequent arrests of the same person) was 
 14jB97 in one year! 
 
 The police records of the city of Washington, 
 D. C, for the same year (1905), while not com- 
 piled according to exactly the same classifica- 
 tion, show a proportion of juvenile arrests 
 quite as significant. On all criminal charges 
 18
 
 THE INFLUENCE OF BOOKS 
 
 the number of arrests of persons under twenty- 
 one years of age was eighteen per cent of the 
 total number; for house-breaking, forty per 
 cent; for grand larceny, thirty-eight per cent; 
 for petit larceny, twenty-eight per cent; for 
 various misdemeanors, eleven per cent. It 
 will be observed that the more serious the 
 oflFence, the larger the proportion of juvenile 
 arrests. This is explained by the fact that for 
 minor offences the police are more lenient with 
 children than with adults, and do not as often 
 arrest them, proving that the actual proportion 
 is more nearly indicated by the arrests on 
 serious charges. 
 
 / How much of this juvenile crime is due to the 
 hterature of the news-stan Jand the cigar-store ? ") 
 Those who are familiar with the work of the 
 parental and reform schools and with the police 
 couHs will tell you that no other agency, unless 
 it be association with criminals themselves, is 
 responsible for so large a part of it as are the 
 nickel library, the obscene novel, and the story 
 of successful crime. As to the yellow news- 
 paper, its share is more difficult to determine, 
 but we may feel sure that it is not a small one. 
 The cruder kind of criminal literature to 
 19
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 which reference has been made is so glaringly 
 bad that it does not often reach the better 
 class of boys and girls. It is banished from 
 respectable homes, and its influence is con- 
 fined for the most part to those unfortunate 
 children whose parents are either unspeakably 
 careless or are not themselves above the moral 
 or aesthetic standard of these pestilential tales. 
 The only hop^ for the children of such homes 
 is in the school. To the decent child a more 
 dangerous class of literature is that in which 
 sensationalism is respectably clothed. The 
 boys in such romances move in good society, 
 but they are always getting into the most impos- 
 sible situations, and having the most startUng 
 adventures: they encounter and vanquish 
 burglars; they rescue little girls from death by 
 fire or flood, and grow up to marry them; 
 they are almost killed in a dozen different 
 ways, but in the last chapter always overcome 
 their enemies, escape from their misfortunes, 
 and live in peace and prosperity. The girl 
 heroines are always precocious, fall in love at 
 an age when they ought to be playing with their 
 dolls, and are either hoydenish or mawkishly 
 sentimental. These stories appear in reputable 
 20
 
 THE INFLUENCE OF BOOKS 
 
 children's magazines, interspersed with items 
 of useful information, science, history, and 
 biography. The story is inserted to make the 
 magazine popular, and it answers its purpose. 
 In the family of an acquaintance of mine, three 
 well-known ch ildren's periodicals are taken. 
 Several days before the time for the appearance 
 of each issue, the children are in a fever of ex- 
 citement; and when the paper at last appears, 
 everything is dropped until the progress of the 
 hero of the continued story is ascertained. In 
 this family there is no library worthy of the 
 name. The periodicals supply all the reading 
 matter for which the children care, or for which 
 they have time after their school duties are ful- 
 filled. 
 
 While this sugar-coated sensationalism is 
 bad, there is still another class of children's 
 literature which is quite as objectionable. I 
 refer to the sentimental stuff which is written 
 in the name of religion, but which is effective 
 only in vitiating the taste, weakening the intel- 
 lect, and giving false views of life. It appears 
 notably in books intended for Sunday school 
 consumption, which, happily, the best Sunday 
 schools are casting out. The heroes and 
 21
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 heroines are pretematurally good, meek, and 
 spiritless. They die young, and their death- 
 bed conversations are made the occasion of har- 
 rowing the feelings of the tender-hearted little 
 readers with thoughts of the brevity of Ufe and 
 the necessity of being always prepared for the 
 hereafter. 
 
 It is one of the most significant facts of mod- 
 ern Ufe that a surfeit of periodical literature, 
 both juvenile and adult, is operating against 
 the reading of books and the forming of libra- 
 ries. The magazine has its place, but it also 
 has its limitations; and we should lead our 
 children to understand that, after all, the vital 
 and permanent literature is that preserved for 
 them in good books. Let every child have his 
 little bookcase in the nursery — or a shelf in 
 the library which he may call his own. Let 
 him be encouraged to read good books and to 
 care for them. He will then come to feel that 
 friendship with them which is the greatest joy 
 of the intellectual life. A good book presented 
 to a child on each succeeding birthday — a 
 book chosen wisely with respect to the child's 
 tastes and abilities, but of sterling worth — will 
 soon put him in possession of a library which 
 22
 
 THE INFLUENCE OF BOOKS 
 
 will be a lasting source of strength and inspira- 
 tion. It is a mistake to think that a child must 
 be continually supplied with fresh reading mat- 
 ter — that a book once read is finished. In- 
 deed, the strong intellects of history are those 
 which have been nourished in childhood upon 
 a few good books — read and re-read until the 
 thought and style became a part of the reader's 
 permanent possession. To-day we have too 
 many_books, and we dissipate the intellectual 
 force of our children as well as of ourselves by 
 trying to spread it over too wide an area. We 
 read, and we give our boys and girls to read, a 
 great many books which are neither very good 
 nor very bad. On the whole, we think them 
 quite useful and instructive, but in reading 
 them we are losing the opportunity of becoming 
 thoroughly grounded in a knowledge of the 
 world's great books. Ruskin has said the 
 final word about this kind of reading: 
 
 "Have you measured and mapped out this 
 short life and its possibilities ? Do you know, 
 if you read this that you cannot read that — 
 that what you lose to-day you cannot gain to- 
 morrow? Will you go and gossip with your 
 housemaid or your stable-boy, when you may 
 23
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 talk with queens and kings ? . . . This eternal 
 
 court is open to you with its society wide as the 
 
 i world, multitudinous as its days, the chosen 
 
 j and the mighty of every place and time. Into 
 
 I that you may enter always; in that you may 
 
 take fellowship and rank according to your 
 
 wish; from that, once entered into it, you can 
 
 never be outcast but by your own fault." 
 
 \ 
 
 24
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 READING IN THE HOME 
 
 IT is in thejiome that the child forms the 
 most permanent elements of his character. 
 Here his familiarity with books should begin, 
 and here he should get his hterary inspirations. 
 
 The baby's first book will naturally be a picj;^ 
 Jure book, for pictures appeal to him early, and 
 with great force. His interest in them is min- 
 gled with a sort of wonder as to just what they 
 are, for the picture of an object is always more 
 or less confused in his mind with the object 
 itself. The dog on the floor wags his tail and 
 barks; the dog in the book does not; otherwise 
 they are the same, — so he pats the dog in the 
 book, and lays his cheek against it, and is quite 
 content in its companionship. If we under- 
 stood children better, we should realize this 
 vitality which pictures have for them, and 
 should be more careful to give them the best. 
 
 As color appeals to the child before he has 
 much notion of form, his first picture-book 
 should be colored, and as his ideas of form 
 25
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 develop slowly, his first pictures should be in out- 
 line, and unencumbered with detail. The French 
 illustrator, Boutet de Monvel, has given us the 
 ideal pictures for young children. The best 
 and most characteristic produced in this coun- 
 try are probably thos6 of Jessie Wilcox Smith. 
 
 Most published picture-books are spoiled by 
 the doggerel which accompanies the pictures, 
 and which, as the child gets older, he insists on 
 having read to him. Generally, too, the pic- 
 tures are made violently grotesque, under the 
 impression that young children demand some- 
 thing unusual. Artists sometimes forget that to 
 a baby a normal elephant is quite as unusual an 
 object as an elephant in a hat and a pair of 
 trousers. 
 
 One of the picture-books will of course be a 
 copy of "Mother Goose," and the parent will 
 repeat to the little one the old jingles that have 
 for centuries soothed the infant world to sleep 
 and dried its tears. Following these will come 
 the classic nursery tales, Cinderella, Little Red 
 Riding Hood, The Three Bears, Tom Thumb, 
 and others of that happy fellowship, — not read 
 out of a book, but Jtold in the parent's own 
 words. 
 
 26
 
 READING IN THE HOME 
 
 Almost as soon as the child can talk, and 
 for many years thereafter, will come that oft- 
 repeated cry, "Tell me a story," — to which, 
 unfortunately many of us reply that we are too 
 busy, and suggest to the small suppliants that 
 they go away and play and don't bother mamma 
 or papa, as the case may be; for mamma has 
 a lovely new novel to read, and papa is absorbed 
 in the evening paper, and cannot attend to such 
 trijQies — or perhaps cannot think of a story, 
 as his literature is confined for the most part 
 to the stock market and politics. 
 
 It is worth while to make some sacrifice of 
 time and eflFort in order to tell your children 
 good stories. Unless one is a genius he cannot 
 launch into a story off-hand, not knowing where 
 he is coming out, and produce anything worth 
 listening to, — to say nothing of the probability 
 that he will get himself hopelessly entangled in 
 his plot, and will be called to time by a direct 
 question that will put him to shame and show 
 him to be a bungler. Or, unless one was un- 
 usually virtuous in his youth, he cannot confine 
 his range of subjects to what he did when he 
 was a little boy, or little girl, without either 
 falsifying history or giving the children hints 
 27
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 that will be more entertaining than edifying. 
 Plato regarded the stories repeated to children 
 as of such importance that he would have none 
 told except such as had been approved by cen- 
 sors. We have all known parents whose 
 stories to their little ones would never pass that 
 test. If the parent lacks material, let him read 
 again the old Greek myths, renew his acquaint- 
 ance with ancient and modem history, lose 
 himself once more in the " Arabian Nights " or 
 the legends of King Arthur, ponder what he 
 has read, and clothe the incidents with simple 
 words that will carry easily to the minds and 
 hearts of the young listeners. No one can read 
 a story to a little child and get the attention 
 that he gains by telling it. 
 
 Perhaps you think this story-telling business 
 should be done by the child's teacher. It may 
 be that she is doing it, sympathetically and with 
 appreciation of what the stories mean. If she 
 is a good teacher she certainly is, but with all 
 her telling of these famous tales, she cannot 
 exhaust them, — and then, maybe she is not 
 telling them at all. Talk with your child about 
 it. Find out what he is learning in school or 
 kindergarten, and supplement the teacher's 
 28
 
 READING IN THE HOME 
 
 work. You cannot afford to let her entirely 
 supplant you in the intellectual training of your 
 child. She needs your help as you need 
 hers. 
 
 The question is sometimes asked whether it 
 is wise to tell children stories of giants and 
 , o gres. O ne cannot think with composure of 
 banishing all giants from the nursery. Jack's 
 giant and Aladdin's genie and a few other old- 
 time favorites have become so thoroughly estab- 
 lished in the popular regard, and have sent 
 delightful thrills of terror through so many gen- 
 erations of children, that it would be a thank- 
 less if not a hopeless task to attempt to drive 
 them out. But if giants are demanded, — es- 
 pecially if they be man-eating giants, — it is 
 well not to introduce them too early, or to allow 
 the child to become too intimate with them, 
 for, at best, they are not good company. Little 
 people are not all alike. The sturdy boy who 
 is afraid of nothing exults in his fancied ability 
 to dispose of all these fabulous folk. But the 
 nervous, sensitive child — it is little short of 
 cruelty to keep him awake nights peophng the 
 walls and the shadows of the window curtains 
 with dreadful shapes which his imagination 
 29
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 has gathered from the evening story. Some 
 parents argue that the child must grow accus- 
 tomed to such things. Let him wait, then, until 
 he is old enough or strong enough to listen with- 
 out fear. 
 
 There is another danger beside that of 
 frightening him. An appetite is being created 
 which may later become a source of serious 
 trouble. The boy or girl who is brought up 
 on a diet of ogre stories will continue to demand 
 extravagant and blood-curdling fiction, and if 
 the family library does not contain anything 
 sanguinary enough, he will find it at the news- 
 stand. He may have a giant or two occasion- 
 ally, as he would have a piece of plum cake, 
 but his digestion should not be ruined by a 
 surfeit of them. ^ 
 
 The story period of a child's life merges im- 
 perceptibly into the reading period. If the 
 parent is a good story-teller he will find the 
 story period of surprising extent, for no child 
 ever quite outgrows the fondness for a good 
 story told by word of mouth. The story-book 
 is only the story carefully thought out and trans- 
 ferred to type; and as soon as the child will 
 listen with interest to the reading of books the 
 30
 
 READING IN THE HOME 
 
 stories of the great story-tellers should be read 
 in their own language. 
 
 The next important step in the child's liter- 
 ary history occurs when he finds himself able 
 to translate by his own effort the printed char- 
 acters upon the page, and wanders away from 
 his school reader to test for himself his newly 
 acquired powers. This is the point at which 
 he particularly needs help. He should now be 
 surrounded with so much good reading mate- 
 rial that he will have no time or inclination to 
 read what is low or common. 
 
 It is well to have a definite plan for the 
 children's reading. Set aside an hour after 
 dinner on two or three evenings of each week, 
 or even on one evening if more cannot be 
 spared. Let it be a regular appointment. If 
 the children are of widely differing ages, divide 
 the time between them. Devote the hour of 
 each to the reading of a good book suited to 
 his needs and interests, and suggest other books 
 wliich he may take up by himself during the 
 intervals between the readings. 
 
 Thus the reading of the Angevin period in 
 Dickens's "Child's History of England," or any 
 good elementary English history, will make the 
 31
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 jphild want to know more of the heroes of those 
 
 /old days, and you may start him to reading the 
 
 I story of the Crusades, "The Tahsman" and 
 
 ; "Ivanhoe" of Scott, the Robin Hood legends, 
 
 j Shakespeare's "King John" and "Richard II.," 
 
 ^ Adams's "Page, Squire, and Knight," Yonge's 
 
 "The Prince and the Page" and "Richard the 
 
 Fearless," Miss Porter's "Scottish Chiefs," 
 
 Edward Everett Hale's "In His Name," a 
 
 I romance based on the persecutions of the 
 
 \Waldenses, stories from Chaucer, Sidney 
 
 Lanier's "The Boy's Froissart," and so on, 
 
 supplying a wealth of historical material of 
 
 the greatest interest, and of deep meaning to the 
 
 child at just this time, because he sees it in 
 
 its proper setting and thus understands it. 
 
 No college course in history can ever give one 
 
 quite so clear and permanent an impression as 
 
 thp,t gained in childhood by the boy or girl 
 
 who reads history in this way. 
 
 It may be asked at what point the parent 
 should cease reading to the child. At no 
 point whatever. As the child becomes able to 
 read, the parent may read with him rather 
 than to him, but the reading is best done 
 aloud, and the feeling of association should be 
 32
 
 READING IN THE HOME 
 
 continued as long as possible. I know a father 
 who is reading a course in history, several nights 
 each week, with his sons, now young men. 
 It is difficult to express the sympathy, the joy, 
 and the inspiration that they are finding in 
 this work. I want to say here, that the father 
 who leaves to the nurse or even to the mother 
 the whole duty of introducing his children to 
 the great masters of literature is missing one 
 of the rarest privileges of life. There are few 
 fathers who cannot spend an hour each Sunday 
 evening reading to their children, and there is 
 nothing else which will so strengthen the bond 
 of sympathy between them. The father can 
 in this way watch the mental development of 
 his boy or girl, can see what their interests are, 
 and can help them when they most need help. 
 A word about stimulative or corrective read- 
 ing. Lord Lytton puts into the mouth of the 
 genial Mr. Caxton an interesting prescription for 
 mental ailments. He looks upon a libr ary as a 
 magnificent pharmacopoeia, and for each trou- 
 ble designates an appropriate Hterary remedy. 
 Thus, for hypochondria he prescribes the read- 
 ing of travels; for financial losses, imaginative 
 poetry; for grief, the study of a science, 
 33
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 or a language with plenty of hard reason- 
 ing in it; for narrowness and a tendency to 
 sectarianism, a course in history. Now, while 
 this scheme does not quite apply to children's 
 reading, it is suggestive of an idea which has 
 always guided the thoughtful parent or teacher 
 in choosing reading matter for the young, — 
 namely, to strengthen weak spots in the child's 
 intellectual make-up, and to round out his 
 range of interests. If the child lacks imagina- 
 tion, fairy stories will help to arouse it./ If he 
 knows little about nature, tales of the woods 
 and fields will quicken an interest and open 
 to him a new world. ) But this sort of remedial 
 reading should be done sympathetically and 
 never carried to the point of weariness. There 
 is no sadder sight than to see a poor child being 
 pumped full of something that he does not 
 want, — fidgeting under the ordeal and longing 
 to get away, — and there is no surer way of 
 making him dislike books, of whatever sort. 
 If you find that you are reading to your boy 
 or girl something which awakens no interest, 
 do not insist upon carrying it heroically through 
 to the end. Put it aside and bring it forward 
 at some future time when he is in a mood to 
 34
 
 READING IN THE HOME 
 
 receive it. Your theory as to what he ought 
 to like will be shattered many times by the 
 fact that he does not Uke it, and, after all, it is 
 more important that he should acquire the 
 reading habit and the love of books than that 
 he should be informed upon any particular 
 subject. He should at first be given the books 
 he likes, provided only that they are good and 
 wholesome, for every worthy book read by a 
 child is a round in the ladder upon which he 
 mounts to an appreciation of stronger and 
 greater books, — to a broader view of the pleas- 
 ant fields and pasture lands of literature, and 
 to a communion with " those deathless minds," 
 as Shelley has called them, " which leave, when 
 they have passed, a path of Ught." 
 
 There are continual calls for lists of books for 
 children. It may be said that a list of books 
 which shall meet the needs of every child is like 
 a medicine which shall cure every disorder, — it 
 smacks of quackery. Yet there are certain 
 great and abiding books which should form 
 the framework of every course of juvenile read- 
 ing. It is a significant fact that most of these 
 books, as, for example, the Odyssey, ^Esop's 
 Fables, "Arabian Nights," and "Robinson 
 35
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 Crusoe," were not intended for children at all, 
 but were written when men were more child- 
 like than they are to-day, and when simplicity 
 and directness were the characteristics of all 
 literature. Indeed, you may name on the fingers 
 of one hand all the books, written for children, 
 that have any claim to immortality. 
 
 The next chapter outlines a course of story- 
 telling and reading which is full enough to 
 offer an opportunity for selection, and which 
 contains all the great books that every child 
 should love to know, together with a fair rep- 
 resentation of other and less important writings 
 which represent the best of our modem chil- 
 dren's literature. The most important books 
 are starred, — not always because they are 
 greater books than others unstarred, but be- 
 cause they contain something that is necessary 
 to the development of the child's intellectual 
 life.
 
 CHAPTER III 
 A LIST OF BOOKS FOR HOME READING 
 
 Age, One to Two Years 
 
 ♦A Good PicrruEE Book: Among the best are the animal 
 books issued by Eriiggt_Nistee,-,The Book of the Zoo, 
 for wild animals; The Book of the Fann, Our Moo 
 Cow Book, and Our Dog Friends for domestic animals. 
 Red Riding Hood, in the same series, is also good. 
 Dean's Rag Books, printed on cloth, washable and 
 well-nigh indestructible, are excellent. But, after all, 
 the best picture book for a child is one made by the 
 parents. A yard of curtain-shade material, folded into 
 leaves and stitched at the back, insures a durable 
 foundation upon which may be pasted bright, simple, 
 and attractive pictiu-es — not gaudy but artistic — such 
 as one may collect with a little care. 
 
 ♦Mother Goose: This is the universal children's classic, 
 and has no substitute. The best illustrated edition is 
 that issued by Nister. A good cheap edition is edited 
 by Charles Welsh in Heath's " Home and School 
 Classics." 
 
 Age, Two to Three Years 
 
 ♦Classic Nltrsert Talis: Including Cinderella, The 
 Three Bears, Little Red Riding Hood, Hop o' my 
 Thumb, etc. The Nister edition, entitled Mother 
 Goose Nursery Tales, is the most attractive. Scud- 
 der's " Fables and Folk Stories " is cheaper and the 
 selection of tales is even better. 
 37
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 ) — *Grimm : Fairy Tales. Care should be taken in selecting 
 an edition of Grimm, as many of the tales in complete 
 editions are coarse and, except to the student of folk- 
 lore, quite worthless. The best expensive edition is 
 Nister's. A good cheap edition in two volumes, care- 
 fully edited, is that by Sara E. Wiltse in Ginn's " Clas- 
 sics for Children." 
 
 Batjm, Frank L. : Father Goose. The humor appeals 
 to adults and older children, but the jingles and bright 
 pictures are appreciated by the little ones. 
 
 Perkins, Lucy Fitch: The Goose Girl. A Mother's 
 Lap Book of Rhymes and Pictures. Excellent. 
 
 Seegmiller, Wilhelmina : Little Rhymes for Little 
 Readers. Pictures and text equally good. 
 
 Green. Allen Ayratjlt: The Good Fairy and the Bun- 
 nies. A nonsense book for small children. Well 
 illustrated. 
 
 Age, Three to Foxju Years 
 
 Q — *iEsop : Fables. Perhaps the best edition is that edited 
 by Joseph Jacobs and published by Macmillan. 
 Cheaper editions are issued by the various school-book 
 publishers. 
 
 Q. *Andersen, Hans Christian : Fairy Tales. For an 
 
 expensive edition the Nister is preferred. Blackie and 
 Son, London, issue an attractive cheap edition. The 
 school-book houses also publish selections. 
 
 ♦Stevenson, Robert Louis: A Child's Garden of Verses. 
 Child poetry written from the child's standpoint. Scrib- 
 ner's edition, illustrated by Jessie Wilcox Smith, is good, 
 also the Rand-McNally school edition. 
 
 Lang, Andrew : Blue Fairy Book. 
 
 Lang, Andrew : Green Fairy Book. These books con- 
 tain tales found in G rimm and other collections, 
 38
 
 BOOKS FOR HOME READING 
 
 together with a great many others drawn from the folk- 
 lore of all nations. 
 Harrison, Edfth Ogden : Prince Silverwings. A good 
 fairy story for younger children. 
 
 Age, Four to Five Years 
 
 Q ♦Bible Stories: Especially Adam, Noah, Abraham and 
 Isaac, Joseph, Moses, Elijah, Daniel, Jesus and His 
 Disciples. If help is needed in retelling these stories, 
 Margaret Sangster's Story Bible or Baldwin's Old 
 Stories of the East will prove suggestive. 
 
 ♦Lear, Edward: Nonsense Rhymes. The most artistic 
 nonsense ever written. Get the complete edition in 
 one volume. 
 
 *La Fontaine, Jean de: Fables. These are mainly 
 from iEsop and Oriental sources, elaborated and 
 put into verse. The verse has been admirably pre- 
 served in an English translation by Edward Shirley, 
 illustrated in color and published by Nelson, Edin- 
 burgh. 
 
 Lang, Andrew: Red Fairy Book. 
 
 Lang, Andrew: Yellow Fairy Book. A continuation 
 of the series named under the preceding year. There 
 are also Gray, Crimson, and Violet Fairy Books by the 
 same author, but the child must not be drowned in 
 fairy lore, and usually the two first named will be quite 
 enough. The temperament of the child should decide 
 this. 
 
 Jackson, Helen Hunt: Cat Stories. Useful in awaken- 
 ing interest in domestic pets and in making children 
 kind to them. 
 ^ — MoRLET, Margaret W.: Little Mitchell. The story 
 of a mountain squirrel. Excellent as an alternate to 
 the Cat Stories, or to follow it. 
 39
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 Age, Five to Six Yeaks 
 
 Q *RtJ8KiN, John: King of the Golden River, The most 
 
 beautiful sermon ever preached to children in the guise 
 of a fairy tale. 
 ♦Field, Eugene: Lullaby Land. A collection of Eugene 
 Field's best poems for and about children. 
 
 Q ^*Cahrou., Lewis: Alice in Wonderland. Supplies the 
 
 element of absurdity demanded at this age. 
 ^■^.jCaiiroll, Lewis: Through a Looking Glass. Sequel 
 
 to Alice in Wonderland. 
 Q. — *Andrews, Jane: Seven Little Sisters. Stories of child- 
 life among the various races of mankind. Interesting 
 and useful for its presentation of first ideas of geography. 
 
 O Andrews, Jane: Each and All. Sequel to Seven Little 
 
 Sisters. 
 O- — WiGGm, Kate Douglas: The Story Hour. A charm- 
 ing retelling of the old stories that children love. 
 Q. — -Kipling, Rudtard: Just So Stories. Fanciful expla- 
 nations of How the Camel Got his Hump, How the 
 Rhinoceros Got his Skin, etc. 
 Stockton, Frank: Nights with Uncle Remus. Negro 
 
 folk-lore. Quaint and entertaining. 
 Sewell, Anna: Black Beauty. The story of a horse. 
 Continues the interest in animals begun with the Cat 
 Stories and Little Mitchell the preceding year. Teaches 
 kindness to animals. 
 Ensign, Hermon Lee: Lady Lee. A good collection 
 of animal stories with a purpose. 
 
 Age, Six to Seven Years 
 ♦BuNTAN, John: Pilgrim's Progress. Read it for the 
 story and omit the theological discussions. The best 
 complete edition is published by the Century Com- 
 pany and illustrated by the Rhead brothers. Several 
 40
 
 BOOKS FOR HOME READING 
 
 good abridged editions are obtainable. The mystery 
 of the tale appeals strongly to all children, and they 
 are attracted by the direct, forceful English in which 
 it is written. 
 
 £^-:-*KiNGSLET, Chaiiles: Water Babies. A fascinating story 
 of animal life in river and sea, told with rare skill, and 
 emphasizing the beauty of helpfulness. 
 
 /V— *Brown, Dr. John: Rab and his Friends. The model 
 dog story. No child can read it without having more 
 respec-t and affection for the canine race. 
 *A Good General Collection of Poems for Yotmo 
 Children. The best is, probably. The Land of 
 Song, Book I, compiled by Miss K. A. Shute. The 
 Posy Ring, by Kate Douglas Wiggin; Whittier's 
 Child Life in Poetry, and Open Sesame, Vol. I, by 
 Misses Bellamy and Goodwin, are also good. An 
 " excellent plan, which I have followed with my own 
 
 children, is to make a collection of favorite poems, 
 letting the children choose those which they like 
 best, and copying them into a blank book for further 
 reading and, in some cases, memorizing. 
 i-^_KiPLiNG, Rudyard: The Jungle Book. A strong, thrilling 
 wonder story of life in the jungle, centring about the 
 adventures of Mowgli, a child reared in the wolf-pack. 
 
 ry^ — XiPLiNG, Rudtard: The Second Jungle Book. Ani- 
 mal stories of India and elsewhere. May well follow 
 the first, if there is a demand for more. 
 O-CoLLODi, C: The Adventures of Pinocchio. From the 
 Italian. Pinocchio is a marionette, who, after suffer- 
 ing many misfortunes because of his selfishness, finally 
 conquers himself and develops into a real boy. It is 
 full of quaint humor and human nature. 
 De la Ramee, Louise: A Dog of Flanders. Not quite 
 as good as Rab and his Friends, but useful to follow 
 41
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 it, if the child wants more about dogs. Rather too 
 pathetic for a sensitive child. 
 
 ^^ , - Thackeray. Wm. M.: The Rose and the Ring. A deli- 
 cious extravaganza, forming an excellent introduction to 
 Thackeray. 
 Greene, Frances Nimmo: King Arthur and his Court. 
 A simple retelling of a few of the most celebrated 
 Arthurian legends for young children. 
 
 r ^Francillon, R. E.: Gods and Heroes. The best ele- 
 mentary treatment of the Greek myths. Prepares the 
 way for an appreciation of Hawthorne's and Kings- 
 ley's Greek stories later. 
 Hale, Lucretia P.: Peterkin Papers. Full of humor 
 and good conmaon sense. 
 
 ■y—JMuLOCK-CRAiK, D. M.: Adventures of a Brownie. A 
 fanciful story of one of the familiar house sprites, of 
 whom children always love to hear. 
 Noel, Maxtrice: Buz: The Life and Adventures of a 
 Honey-Bee. Awakens interest in nature and leads to 
 habits of observation. 
 
 Age, Seven to Eight Years 
 
 *Defoe, Daniel: Robinson Crusoe. The greatest story 
 of adventure ever written. Illustrates how much one 
 man can do, unaided. 
 
 ■A *Hawthorne, Nathaniel: Wonder Book. 
 
 ■s — *Hawthornb, Nathaniel: Tanglewood Tales. These 
 two books — often published in one volume — supply 
 the best general idea of the Greek myths for children 
 of this age. 
 
 D *LoNGFELLOW, Henry Wadsworth: Hiawatha. Get a 
 
 complete edition of Longfellow's poems, and if the 
 child is interested, read also Paul Revere's Ride and 
 some of the other Tales of a Wayside Inn. 
 42
 
 BOOKS FOR HOME READING 
 
 >— *Wyss, J. R.: Swiss Family Robinson. Not so good as 
 Robinson Crusoe, but often better liked by children, 
 probably because children occupy a prominent place 
 in the story. 
 Spyri, Joanna: Heidi. A charming story of a little 
 Swiss girl's life in the mountains, and later in the city. 
 Translated from the German. 
 ►— EwiNQ, Jltjana Hobatia: Jackanapes. A story of 
 English life with a real child hero. Its only fault is 
 its sadness. 
 y — ^BuHNETT, Frances Hodgson: Little Lord Fauntleroy 
 A lesson in politeness and friendliness. Particularly 
 useful for boys at this age. 
 Menefee, Maud: Child Stories from the Masters. 
 Stories from Tennyson, from Browning, and from 
 the operas, charmingly retold in simple, poetic 
 prose. 
 Zitkala-Sa: Old Indian Legends. The myths of the 
 Dakotahs told in picturesque English, by one of the 
 tribe, and illustrated by the Indian artist. Angel de Cora. 
 )— Macdonald, Geobge: At the Back of the North Wind. 
 A fascinating fairy tale. 
 Andrews, Jane: Stories Mother Nature Told her Chil- 
 dren. Tales about the dragon-fly and its history, the 
 water lilies, the Indian corn, the pranks of the Frost 
 Giants, how the coral insect builds, how the coal got 
 into the earth, and many other interesting facts in 
 nature. 
 Seton, Ernest Thompson : Wild Animals I have Known. 
 . §ETON, Ernest Thompson: Biography of a Grizzly. 
 Two stirring out-of-door books, written with fine literary 
 skill and of absorbing interest. 
 Jordan, David Starr: Matka and Kotik. A good 
 story of seal life. 
 
 43
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 Age, Eight to Nine Yeaes 
 ♦The Bible: An edition for children published by the Cen- 
 tury Company, and called The Bible for Young People, 
 contains the narrative portions and those adapted for 
 children's reading. If this were better illustrated, it 
 would make an ideal children's Bible. An interesting 
 exercise is the collecting of illustrations from among the 
 Soule photographs, Dresden platinum photographs. El- 
 son prints (smaller sizes) , Prang platinettes. Brown or 
 Perry pictures, or similar collections, and "extra illus- 
 trating" the book. 
 /~^.* Arabian Nights: Supplies the Oriental element which is 
 not found in other fairy tales thus far read. Use a selec- 
 tion of the best tales, — not a complete edition. That 
 edited by Andrew Lang is, on the whole, to be preferred. 
 ♦Swift, Jonathan: Gulliver's Travels. At least the 
 voyages to Lilliput and Brobdingnag. The other voy- 
 ages are less interesting to most children. Use an ex- 
 purgated edition. Any of those published for children's 
 use are suitable. 
 r^JliaviNG, Washington: Rip Van Winkle and The Legend 
 of Sleepy Hollow. An edition by Putnam's Sons called 
 Stories and Legends from Washington Irving contains 
 these and several other good stories from Irving which 
 young people will enjoy. Some will prefer to get the 
 Sketch Book complete, and read the descriptive sketches 
 later. 
 O — ♦Mabie, Hamilton W.: Norse Stories Retold from the 
 Eddas. The best retelling of the Norse myths. 
 ♦Caey, Alice and Phoebe: Poems. Selected children's 
 poems from the works of these two sympathetic and 
 gifted sisters have been collected and edited by Miss 
 Clemmer. The collection is known as Ballads for 
 Little Folk. 
 
 44
 
 BOOKS FOR HOME READING 
 
 BotJVET, Marguerite: Sweet William. The adventures 
 of a little Norman prince. A charming story. 
 
 >--Mulock-Craik, D. M.: The Little Lame Prince. A 
 good fairy tale with a moral. 
 
 ^— ©ODGE, Mary Mapes: Hans Brinker. A story of Dutch 
 life, showing how perseverance brings its reward. 
 
 f — Richards, Laura E.: Five Minute Stories. An ad- 
 mirable collection, combining fun and sound sense. 
 Captain January, by the same author, is also good. 
 
 ij Peart, Josephine D.: The Snow Baby. A story of 
 
 Arctic exploration and life in the frozen North. The 
 Snow Baby is Mrs. Peary's daughter, who was bom 
 among the icebergs. 
 Long, William J. : Beasts of the Field. 
 Long, William J.: Fowls of the Air. Two of the best 
 nature books in print. Noteworthy for their vitality 
 and their sympathetic appreciation of wild life. The 
 same stories are issued in cheai>er form in three volumes. 
 Ways of Wood Folk, Wilderness Ways, and Secrets of 
 the Woods. Northern Trails, and A Little Brother to 
 the Bear, by the same author, are also excellent. 
 
 ) — Andrews, Jane: Ten Boys on the Road from Long Ago 
 to Now. A valuable introduction to history. The ten 
 boys each represent a distinct period, and their stories 
 furnish pictures of life, manners, and customs. 
 
 ) — Eggleston, Edward: Stories of Great Americans for 
 Little Americans. Personal anecdotes of some of the 
 great figures in our national history. 
 
 Age, Nine to Ten Yeabs 
 
 y — *Shake8peare, William: Midsummer Night's Dream. 
 
 ^ .*Shakespeare, Wiluam: The Tempest. 
 
 ^—"•Shakespeare, William: The Merchant of Venice. 
 These three plays appeal to all children. The first two 
 45
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 can be read in many cases even earlier. The finest edi- 
 tion of Shakespeare for children is the larger Tremple 
 Edition, in twelve volumes, illustrated. The volumes can 
 be bought separately. An excellent one-volume Shake- 
 speare is pubhshed by Houghton, MiflBin & Co., in the 
 "Cambridge Poets." Children should be encouraged to 
 go as far in Shakespeare as their interest will lead them. 
 O*— *Homer: The Odyssey. Palmer's Translation. If the 
 opening book is not appreciated, begin with the setting 
 out of Telemachus in search of his father. The wan- 
 derings of Odysseus are always of absorbing interest. 
 Lamb's story of them seldom stirs the little folk as does 
 this translation, in which the poetry and swing of the 
 great epic are preserved. 
 
 ♦KiNGSLEY, Charles: Greek Heroes. The stories of 
 Perseus, The Argonauts, and Theseus told in poetic 
 prose — as fine an example of this style of diction as 
 has perhaps ever been written. It is better than Haw- 
 thorne's, for it preserves the Greek spirit, — which 
 Hawthorne entirely loses. 
 
 ♦Plutarch: Life of Themistocles. Get White's Boys' 
 and Girls' Plutarch. If the children like it, read them 
 also the lives of Pericles and of Alexander. It will be 
 seen that the readings for this year centre about Greek 
 life and history. 
 
 *Cox, Sir G. W. : Tales of Ancient Greece. A fine col- 
 lection of Greek stories. If the child has found dif- 
 ficulty in understanding the books already recommended 
 for this year, Shaw's Stories of the Ancient Greeks will 
 suit better than Cox's book, because simpler. 
 
 ♦Church, Alfred J. : The Story of the Iliad. The Iliad 
 being not quite so simple as the Odyssey, this recasting 
 of the tale by a prince among story-tellers will be found 
 more interesting at this stage than a translation. 
 46
 
 BOOKS FOR HOME READING 
 
 CnrrRCH, Axfhed J.: Stories from Herodotus, Makes 
 the transition from Greek legend to Greek history. 
 
 Church, Aijued J. : Stories from the Greek Tragedians. 
 Strong, interesting tales, well told. 
 
 Church, Alfred J.: Three Greek Children. 
 
 Church, Alfred J.: The Young Macedonian. These 
 two books furnish interesting pictures of child life 
 among the ancient Greeks. They are more valuable at 
 this stage than formal history. 
 
 Burroughs, John : Birds and Bees. 
 
 Burroughs, John: Squirrels and Other Fur Bearers. 
 
 Burroughs, John: Wake Robin. Thoroughly delight- 
 ful and authoritative natiu-e books, by one of the closest 
 observers and most charming writers in this field. They 
 offer a change from the Greek literature, and give a 
 breath of out-of-door life which most children will 
 appreciate. 
 
 Fouque, Baron de la Motte: Undine. One of the 
 little classics of German literature. Undine is a water 
 spirit in hiunan form, but without a human soul — until at 
 length love comes to her and lifts her into a higher life. 
 
 AoE, Ten to Eleven Years 
 
 ♦A GkiOD Young People's History of Rome to form the 
 
 basis for the readings of this year. Guerber's Story 
 
 of the Romans or Yonge's Young Folk's History of 
 
 Rome is recommended. 
 ♦Macaulat, Thos. B.: Lays of Ancient Rome. Heroic 
 
 and inspiring poems, which all children enjoy. 
 ♦Church, A. J.: Stories from Virgil. Gives thechUd an 
 
 excellent idea of the iEneid, and is much more attractive 
 
 at this age than a translation. 
 ♦Church, A. J.: Stories from Livy. Tales of early Roman 
 
 history, drawn from the greatest of Roman historians. 
 47
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 ♦Plutahch: Lives of Brutus and of Caesar. Use White's 
 Plutarch for Boys and Girls, recommended for the pre- 
 ceding year. 
 
 ♦Shakespeare, Wiujam: Coriolanus. 
 q__-*Shakespeare, William: Julius Caesar. These plays 
 will be doubly appreciated after the historical reading 
 which has gone before. 
 
 Chtjech, a. J.: The Burning of Rome. A vivid story 
 of one of the most thrilling events in Roman history. 
 CV— CntiKCH, A. J.: Two Thousand Years Ago; or, the Ad- 
 ventures of a Roman Boy. A good picture of Roman 
 life and manners. 
 
 Church, A. J. : Pictures of Roman Life and Story. 
 C3 Bulwer-Lytton, Sir Edward: Last Days of Pompeii, 
 Most children of ten who have read the foregoing books 
 will find this story of real interest to them. If, how- 
 ever, they are not ready for it, defer the readinguntil later. 
 
 Q» Wallace, Gen. Lew: Ben Hur. A Tale of the Christ. 
 
 Gives an admirable idea of Roman life in the days of 
 Nero and of the beginnings of Christianity in Rome. 
 
 Yonge, Charlotte: The Cook and the Captive. A 
 good story of the Romans in Gaul, illustrating the life 
 of the Northern tribes. 
 (y^. Yonge, Charlotte: Book of Golden Deeds. A collec- 
 tion of short historical stories of all coimtries and ages, 
 emphasizing heroism and sacrifice. 
 
 Ketser, Leander S.: In Bird Land. An entire change 
 of subject. To some children the Roman atmosphere 
 in the foregoing books may grow oppressive. This, 
 like the Burroughs books in the preceding year, will 
 preserve the balance. 
 
 MoRLEY, Majrgaret W. : A Song of Life. Another good 
 natm-e book. 
 
 De Amicis, Edmondo de: Cuore: An Itahan School- 
 48
 
 BOOKS FOR HOME READING 
 
 boy's Journal. A pure,- sweet story of school life in 
 Italy, useful not only for its pictures of Italian life, but 
 for its inspiring moral influence. 
 Abbott, Jacob: Malleville. A story of life in New 
 Hampshire. Old-fashioned, but thoroughly healthful 
 and interesting. Others of the Franconia Stories, of 
 which this is the first, may be read if there is time. 
 ^)- — Stevenson, Robert IjOUIs: Treasure Island. The best 
 of all pirate stories. Boys at this age generally manifest 
 an unmistakable thirst for gore. When this appears, 
 it is better to give them a good pirate book than to let 
 them find a bad one. 
 
 Age, Eleven to Twelve Yeabs 
 
 ^ — -*DiCKEN3, Charles : Child's History of England. To be 
 used during this and the following year as a thread to 
 connect the readings. Other elementary histories may 
 be more exact, but Dickens's is interesting and always 
 popular with children. 
 
 , *ScOTT, Sir Walter: Tales of a Grandfather. The 
 
 history of Scotland in easy, entertaining narrative. Use 
 this in the same way as the Cliild's History of England, 
 carrying the two along together. 
 KiBKLAND, E. S.: Short History of France. Entertain- 
 ingly written for young people. The use of this may be 
 determined by the reception given to the two foregoing 
 histories. 
 
 y__*LANiER, SroNEY: The Boy's King Arthur. (Time: 
 Sixth Century, A. D.) Malory's Morte d'Arthur 
 rearranged and simplified. The latter portion is for the 
 most part in Malory's own language — Old English. 
 Lanier, Sidney: Knightly Legends of Wales. (Sixth 
 Century.) Contains the Welsh Arthurian stories and 
 several of an earlier date. 
 
 49
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 ♦Lowell, James Russell: The Vision of Sir Launfal. 
 Aside from its beauty as a poem it is valuable at just this 
 point as a corrective, or foot-note, to the Arthurian 
 stories. 
 
 Baldwin, James: The Story of Siegfried. Germanic 
 ' folk-lore, 
 y^. Baldwin, James: The Story of Roland. (A. D. 778.) 
 A delightful excursion into French history. Semi- 
 legendary. 
 
 Q^ Tappan, Eva March: In the Days of Alfred the Great. 
 
 (A. D. 871.) 
 
 ♦Shakespeare, William: Macbeth. (1033-1056.) 
 
 BtJLWER-LYTTON, SiR Edward: Harold, the Last of 
 the Saxons. (1066.) A vivid picture of the conflict 
 between Saxons and Normans for the mastery of 
 England. 
 Qf Tappan, Eva March: In the Days of WilUam the Con- 
 queror. (1066.) 
 
 Ptle, Howard: The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood. 
 (1190.) This is probably the best retelhng of the 
 Robin Hood legends, though Miss Tappan's Robin 
 Hood is also excellent. 
 /-'v____*ScoTr, Sir Walter: The Talisman. (1193.) A pic- 
 ture of the Crusades. The great historical char- 
 acters, Saladin, Richard, and Philip, are superbly 
 drawn. 
 
 Q *ScoTT, Sir Walter: Ivanhoe. (1194.) The historic 
 
 interest of Ivanhoe lies in its delineation of the char- 
 acter of Richard Cceur de Lion and the times of the 
 Third Crusade. Robin Hood and his men furnish 
 the legendary element. It follows The Talisman, and 
 shows Richard after his return to England. Both of 
 these great novels are particularly valuable in inspiring 
 in a boy the spirit of chivalry. 
 50
 
 BOOKS FOR HOME READING 
 
 (^ — ^*Shake8peabe,Wiluam: King John. (1202-1216.) No 
 No formal history is as good for children as Shake- 
 speare's historical dramas. 
 
 YoNGE, Charlotte: The Prince and the Page. (1280.) 
 A good story for yoimg people, illustrating social 
 conditions in England at the end of the thirteenth 
 centiuy. 
 ■^ _ Porter, Jane: Scottish Chiefs. (14th Century.) Al- 
 ways inspiring to children, thoroughly healthful, and a 
 valuable sidelight to Scottish history. 
 
 Lanier, Sidney: The Boy's Froissart. (14th Century.) 
 The Chronicles retold in simple Enghsh. Covers 
 both English and French history. 
 "^ — *Shakespeare, William: Richard II. (1398-1399.) 
 
 Knox, Thomas W.: Travels of Marco Polo. (1275- 
 1295.) Abridged from the Book of Marco Polo, A 
 stirring account of travel and adventure in the East. 
 Combines the elements of history, geography, and per- 
 haps a touch of fiction, though scholars are beginning 
 to believe that nearly all the geographical facts are 
 correct. 
 
 KiNGSLET, Charles: Madam How and Lady Why. A 
 fine introduction to geology. Teaches habits of ob- 
 servation. 
 
 Edgeworth, Maria: Parent's Assistant. The title is 
 formidable, but the quaint, old-fashioned stories are 
 charming. They are real classics, and no child should 
 miss the opportunity of becoming thoroughly acquaint- 
 ed with them. 
 
 ♦Chaucer, Geoffrey: The Prologue and The Km'ght's 
 Tale are told in readable prose but very nearly in 
 the phraseology of the original, and are published 
 in the McClurg edition, "Old Tales Retold for Yoimg 
 Readers." 
 
 61
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 Age, Twelve to Thirteen Years 
 
 ♦Shakespeare, William: Henry IV. (1402-1413.) 
 ♦Shakespeare, William: Henry V. (1414-1420.) 
 ♦Shakespeare, Willlwm: Henry VI. (1422-1471.) 
 ♦Scott, Sir Walter: Quentin Durward. (1450.) A 
 vivid picture of the life and times of Louis XI. The 
 scene is laid in France and Burgundy. 
 ♦Shakespeare, William: Richard III. (1471-1485.) 
 ♦Eliot, George: Romola. (15th Century.) A thrilling 
 story of Florentine life in the days of Lorenzo de Medici 
 and Savonarola. The lesson which it emphasizes is the 
 degeneration of character resulting from doing what is 
 pleasant rather than what is right. 
 ♦Scott, Sir Walter: Marmion. This stirring poem, 
 though its hero is fictitious, is a noble expression of the 
 spirit of the Scottish invasion of England under James, 
 and contains a fine description of the Battle of Floddeu 
 Field. Get an edition of Scott's poems containing this 
 and the two following. 
 « ♦Scott, Sir Walter: The Lay of the Last Minstrel. 
 (16th Century.) A song of border warfarcand enchant- 
 ment, giving a good picture of Scottish manners and 
 customs during the period of which it treats. 
 j^->a__*Scott, Sir Walter: Lady of the Lake. (16th Century.) 
 A romance of love and war, more graceful than either 
 of the two preceding poems but less stirring. 
 ♦Shakespeare, Wiluam: Henry VIII. (1520-1533.) 
 AiNswoRTH, William Harrison: The Tower of London. 
 (1553.) Tells the story of Lady Jane Grey and 
 her brief reign, draws the characters of Mary and 
 Elizabeth, and gives a fine idea of the tower and of the 
 political intrigues which went on within it. Quite 
 exciting.
 
 BOOKS FOR HOME READING 
 
 Scott, Sir Walter: Kenilworth. (1560.) English life 
 in the reign of Elizabeth. 
 
 Hale, Edward Everettt: In His Name. (16th Century.) 
 An excellent story for young people, treating of the 
 persecutions of the Waldenses in France. 
 
 Bennett, John: Master Skylark. (16th Century.) The 
 story of a little singer in the days of Queen Elizabeth. 
 Shakespeare is introduced and the Elizabethan drama 
 interestingly described. It will help the child to under- 
 stand Shakespeare. 
 
 y -*Cervante8, Miguel de: Don Quixote. (1605.) This 
 
 old Spanish classic is a favorite with children, and 
 should find a place on every list for young people's 
 reading. The Knight of the Rueful Countenance is one 
 of the great figures in the world of literature. 
 
 Sccnr, Sm Walter: Old Mortality. (1679.) The story 
 of the Covenanters, showing the faith, the courage, and 
 the desperation which inspired the Scottish rebellion 
 against Charles II. 
 
 ^ Blackmore, R. D. ; Loma Doone. A charming romance, 
 
 the scene of which is laid in England at the beginning 
 of the eighteenth century. 
 
 Scott, Sir Walter: Rob Roy. Valuable as a picture of 
 society in Scotland early in the eighteenth century. The 
 life at Osbaldistone Hall is an example of the bar- 
 barism which prevailed in English countrj' seats. The 
 narrative cuhuinates in the collapse of the Jacobite up- 
 rising. 
 
 ♦Scott, Sir Walter: Guy Mannering. (18th Century.) 
 Perhaps, all in all, the greatest of Scott's novels. It 
 portrays the middle of the eighteenth century. Meg 
 Merrilies, Dominie Sampson, and Dandy Dinmont 
 are characters with whom every reader should be 
 familiar. 
 
 53
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 ♦Goldsmith, Oliver: The Vicar of Wakefield. (18th 
 Century.) A story of English country life, full of humor 
 and of homely wisdom. Its greatness lies in its sim- 
 plicity. 
 
 SotJTHEY, Robert: Life of Nelson. (1758-1805.) An 
 excellent biography, useful not only for its historical 
 information but for its high ideals. 
 
 Martineau, Harriet: The Peasant and the Prince. 
 (1789.) A picture of French society just before the 
 French Revolution. Thoroughly wholesome and in- 
 tensely interesting. 
 
 O ^*DicKEN8, Charles: A Tale of Two Cities. (1789- 
 
 1793.) A wonderfully strong piece of historical fiction, 
 bringing vividly before the reader the bloody days of the 
 French Revolution. Life in London and life in Paris 
 are illustrated and contrasted. 
 ' Saintine, X. B.: Picciola. (1804.) A touching story 
 of a prisoner and a flower. The scene is laid in France 
 during the reign of Napoleon. 
 ^^ *DicKENS, Charles: A Christmas Carol, and The Cricket 
 on the Hearth. The best of Dickens's short sketches. 
 Show the joy of a kind heart. May be read earlier if 
 preferred. 
 
 ♦Hughes, Thomas: Tom Brown at Rugby. Not only the 
 best description of English school life ever written, but 
 the most thoroughly attractive presentation of the manly 
 elements of a boy's character. 
 ' Irving, Washington: The Alhambra. The Moorish 
 legends associated with the old palace at Granada, and 
 a fine description of the palace itself. 
 ^^_J!Spenser, Edmund: The Faery Queen. The McClurg 
 edition, in the series of " Old Tales Retold for Young 
 Readers," gives the simpler narrative passages in prose 
 and as nearly as practicable in the poet's words. 
 54
 
 BOOKS FOR HOME READING 
 
 ♦English History Told Bt English Poets. Edited by 
 Katherine Lee Bates and Katherine Coman. Valuable 
 in coordinating history with literature. The selections 
 are for the most part heroic and inspiring. 
 
 White, Gilbert: Natural History of Sel borne. A classic 
 English nature book, offering an alternative for some 
 of the historical reading given above. 
 i;^^__Ball, Sir Robert S. : Starland. A popular treatment of 
 astronomy for young people. 
 
 Age, Thirteen to Fourteen Years 
 
 Abbott, J. and J. C: Christopher Columbus. 
 
 TowLE, George M. : Pizarro. Has a good account of the 
 Conquest of Peru. Towle's Vasco da Gama, Magellan, 
 Drake the Sea-King of Devon, and Sir Walter Raleigh 
 are also good. They cover the period of discovery, 
 exploration, and conquest, and are as exciting as any 
 boy could wish. 
 
 Coffin, Charles C. : Old Times in the Colonies. One 
 of the best histories of the Colonial period for young 
 people. All of CoflSn's books are good. 
 (Jf- ♦Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth: Evangeline, The 
 Courtship of Miles Standish, Paul Revere's Ride. 
 Reread the last two, although the child may be some- 
 what familiar with them. They will mean more to him 
 now. Also read The New England Tragedies. 
 
 ♦Whittier, John Greenleaf: Ballads of New England, 
 Snowbound. The last named may be read later in the 
 year if preferable, as it is a picture of New England life 
 at the beginning of the nineteenth century. 
 
 Irving, Washington: Knickerbocker's History of New 
 York. The delightful humor and the exaggeration do 
 not destroy its value as a sidelight on American his- 
 tory.
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 ♦Cooper, James Fenimore: The Last of the Mohicans. 
 Covers the period of the French and Indian War. 
 One of the most representative pieces of American 
 fiction. 
 * *Ha"Wthorne, Nathaniel: Grandfather's Chair. A series 
 of stories of New England life, covering the most im- 
 portant events from the early settlements to the Revo- 
 lution. 
 
 ♦Irving, Washington, and Fiske, John: Washington and 
 His Country. An abridgment of Irving's Life of Wash- 
 ington, by John Fiske, to which is added a brief history 
 of the United States by Mr. Fiske, containing the nar- 
 rative from the time of Washington to the end of the 
 Civil War (1865). 
 
 ♦Franklin, Benjamin: Autobiography. Not only valua- 
 ble as a picture of life in the Colonies and during the 
 formative period of United States history, but useful in 
 showing young people how industry, frugality, and 
 perseverance bring their reward. Also a fine example 
 of good, vigorous EngUsh prose. 
 
 rv ♦Holmes, Oliver Wendell: Grandmother's Story of 
 
 Bunker Hill Battle. Get the complete poems of Holmes 
 and read also A Ballad of the Boston Tea-Party, Ode 
 for Washington's Birthday, Lexington, Old Ironsides, 
 Robinson of Leyden, The Pilgrim's Vision, Under the 
 Washington Elm, and other historical and patriotic 
 selections; also, as examples of Holmes's best serious 
 verse. The Chambered Nautilus, and The Last Leaf; 
 and for humor. The Deacon's Masterpiece, How the 
 Old Horse Won the Bet, The Ballad of the Oysterman, 
 etc. If a complete edition is not desired, get the River- 
 side Literature edition in cloth, which is cheaper and 
 which includes nearly all the above and a number 
 more. 
 
 5a
 
 BOOKS FOR HOME READING 
 
 ♦Bryant, William Cullen: Song of Marion's Men, 
 The Green Mountain Boys. Get complete poems 
 and read also Thanatopsis, Sella, To the Fringed 
 Gentian, To a Waterfowl, The Death of the Flow- 
 ers, The Planting of the Apple-Tree, Robert of 
 Lincoln, and as many more as time and interest 
 indicate. 
 
 Q> — *Cc)OPER, James Fenimobe: The Spy. A stirring story 
 of the Revolution. The scene is laid in New York State, 
 by the banks of the Hudson. 
 ^•Cooper, James Fenimoke: The Pilot. A story of the 
 sea. Paul Jones is the hero. About the same |>eriod 
 as The Spy. 
 /^N_CoFFrN, Charues C: The Boys of '76. A good picture 
 of Revolutionary times. 
 Coffin, Charles C: Building the Nation. Covers 
 the formative period of our history and shows the 
 development of our arts, manufactures, and com- 
 merce. 
 Seawell, Molly Elliot: Decatur and Somers. A story 
 of American naval exploits in the early days of the nine- 
 teenth century. The author's other naval biographies, 
 Paul Jones, Midshipman Paulding, Twelve Naval 
 Captains, etc., are also excellent. 
 
 •--v *Hale, Edward Everett: The Man "Without a Coimtry. 
 An inspiration to patriotism. Illustrates the effect of 
 Burr's treason. 
 
 "^ — • *Parkman, Francis: The Oregon Trail. Valuable not 
 only for the history which it presents of the opening of 
 the great West, but as an example of the work of one 
 of our best American historians. 
 Abbott, J. and J. C: Life of Daniel Boone. A picture 
 of pioneer life in the Middle West. 
 
 Y-- Dana, Richard II. : Two Years Before the Mast. A 
 
 67
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 story of adventure, describing a voyage around Cape 
 Horn to California in ante-railroad days. One of the 
 best books of its type. 
 Stowe, Harriet Beecher: Uncle Tom's Cabin. Inter- 
 esting as a story and important because of the influence 
 which it had upon our nation in creating a sentiment 
 against slavery. 
 , Coffin, Chas. C: The Drum Beat of theNation. Treats 
 of the Civil War. Coffin's The Boys of '61 also covers 
 this period, and is good. 
 
 Q P age. Thomas Nelson: Two Little Confederates. Life 
 on a Virginia plantation during the Civil War. A good 
 book for Northern children to read. 
 • Roosevelt, Theodore, and Lodge, Henry Cabot: Hero 
 Stories from American History. A collection of stories 
 inspiring courage, manliness, and patriotism, as well 
 as giving interesting historical data. 
 
 Q^ Alcott, Ix)uiSx\ M.: Little Women. A good, pure, 
 natural story of home life, — of deep interest and fine 
 influence. 
 f Qv^ -Alcott, LothsaM.: Little Men. A sequel to Little 
 Women, following the lives of another generation of 
 children. Like the preceding, it is thoroughly whole- 
 some and helpful. 
 
 Age, Fourteen to Fifteen Years 
 
 ♦RtJSKiN, John: Sesame and Lilies. The most inspiring 
 and helpful talks ever given to young people on the 
 subject of books and reading. 
 ^^ *Homer: The Iliad. Bryant's translation in English verse 
 is most likely to be appreciated by boys and girls at this 
 age, though for maturer readers Chapman's is probably 
 the best. Pope's translation is a noble poem, but not 
 thoroughly Homeric. 
 
 58
 
 BOOKS FOR HOME READING 
 
 > — *Shake8Pb:are, William: As You Like It. 
 
 ♦Shakespeare, William: Hamlet. 
 
 ♦Shakespeabe, William: King Lear, 
 
 The above three plays of Shakespeare — the first, his 
 representative comedy, the last two, his greatest tragedies 
 — are suggested as completing, with the plays previously 
 reconmiended, the barest possible course in Shakes- 
 peare. It is to be hoped that other plays, at least 
 Othello, Romeo and Juliet, and Twelfth Night, will be 
 read in preference to any of the unstarred books in 
 this list. 
 
 ♦Milton, John: L' Allegro, II Penseroso, Ode on the 
 Morning of Christ's Nativity, Lycidas, and at least the 
 First Book of Paradise Lost, — more if the reader is 
 ready for it. 
 
 ♦Dickens, Charles: Pickwick Papers. 
 V— *DicKEN8, Charles: David Copperfield. These might 
 be read much earlier in the course. They have been 
 deferred only to make room for the historical material 
 in the preceding years. The reader will want more 
 of Dickens; this is intended only as an introduction. 
 
 ♦Thackeray, William Makepeace: Henry Esmond. 
 Probably the best novel with which to begin the reading 
 of Thackeray. A year later read Pendennis, and The 
 Newcomes. Vanity Fair is better appreciated when 
 one has reached maturity. 
 ___ J?Tennt80N, Alfred: Enoch Arden, Idylls of the King. 
 The former a narrative of love and sacrifice; the latter, 
 a retelling of the Arthurian legends with grer t beauty 
 of imagery and heroic sentiment. 
 -. ♦Eliot, George: Silas Mamer. An intensely human 
 story, written from the heart. Like Romola and others 
 of George Eliot's novels, its strength lies in its portrayal 
 of the development of character. 
 58
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 Qk— J'HtJGO, Victor: Les Miserables. Not the entire story, 
 for the young reader is probably not quite ready yet 
 for its digressions and its philosophy. An abridgment 
 of it, called Jean Valjean, in the series of " Classics for 
 Children," contains the main thread of the narrative — 
 the absorbing story of its principal character. 
 O — *PoE, Edgab Allan: The Fall of the House of Usher, 
 A Descent into the Maelstrom, and The Masque of the 
 Red Death. Read also, of Poe's poems, The Raven, 
 Lenore, Israfel, The Bells, Annabel Lee, Ulalume. 
 The "Riverside Literature Series" supplies a cheap 
 edition of Foe in one volume. This contains all the 
 above and several other selections. 
 ♦Bbowning, Robert: An edition of the simpler narrative 
 poems, known as The Boy's Browning, is a very good 
 introduction to the poet. The title is a misnomer. It 
 is quite as much for girls as for boys. Read at least The 
 Pied Piper of Hamelin, How They Brought the Good 
 News, The Lost Leader, Herve Riel, Incident of the 
 French Camp, and Rabbi Ben Ezra. 
 ♦Wordsworth, William: Poems. At least Lyrical Bal- 
 lads, The White Doe of Rylstone, Laodamia, The Ode 
 on Intimations of Immortality, and some of the Sonnets. 
 Wordsworth's philosophy is better appreciated later, 
 but his poetry appeals to children because of its trans- 
 parent simplicity. 
 
 * *BtrRNS, Robert: Poems. At least The Cotter's Saturday 
 Night, To a Mouse, Bannockbum, For a' That, Bonnie 
 Doon, Afton Water, Of a' the Airts, and others of the 
 songs. 
 
 . ♦Coleridgb:, Samuel Taylor: Rune of the Ancient 
 Marinw. 
 
 - *Gray, Thomas: Elegy in a Country Churchyard. This 
 and the foregoing have doubtless been read in school. 
 60
 
 BOOKS FOR HOME READING 
 
 Repeat them. They are in most general collections of 
 poetry. None of the other work of Coleridge or of Gray 
 is important at this time. 
 ♦Lamb, Charles: Essays of Elia, First Series. These 
 models of familiar English should not be overlooked. 
 Their quaint humor is a distinct note in English litera- 
 ture. 
 ♦Holmes, Oliver Wendell: The Autocrat of the Break- 
 fast Table. A rare combination of wit, philosophy, and 
 good sense, showing Dr. Holmes at his best. Usefid 
 to stimulate thought. The other two Breakfast Table 
 books — The Professor, and The Poet — are almost 
 as good. 
 
 j2)—*Hawthohne, Nathaniel: The Marble Faun. Interest- 
 ing as a study of character, and valuable as a description 
 of modem Rome, with its art and its legends. A good 
 book for general culture. 
 Saint-Pieeee, Be21Nardin de: Paui and Virginia. A 
 
 wholesome, old-fashioned love-story. 
 Austen, Jane: Pride and Prejudice. This is probably 
 Miss Austen's best work, and is far better reading for 
 young people than more highly spiced fiction. It is 
 natural and healthful. 
 
 } ■ ■ ■ WiQOiN, Kate Douglas: Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm. 
 One of the brightest of modern stories. Rebecca is a 
 most interesting character and one that will not soon be 
 forgotten. 
 
 ►— — Clemens, S. L. (Mark Twain) : Innocents Abroad. 
 Perhaps the most thoroughly representative example 
 of American humor. Also useful for its pictures of 
 travel and its shrewd observations on men and 
 things. 
 Tatlor, Bayard: Views Afoot. Admirable sketches <rf 
 European life and customs. 
 61
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 ^^ Thobeau, Henry D.: Walden. A delightful book of 
 out-of-door life, full of the poetry of nature. Tho- 
 reau still remains the greatest of American nature 
 writers. 
 
 ♦A Good Brief Anthology of English Poetry. There 
 are many from which to select. Palgrave's Golden 
 Treasury is excellent within its limits — including only 
 songs and lyrics of the British poets. Whittier's Songs 
 of Three Centuries, Longfellow's Poems of Places, and 
 Emerson's Parnassus represent the poetry which appeals 
 to the poet. Browne's Golden Poems oflFers a wider 
 selection, including many popular poems not usually 
 foimd in anthologies. Gayley and Flaherty's Poetry of 
 the People is made up almost entirely of ballad and folk 
 poems. Sherwin Cody's Selections from the Great 
 English Poets represents, as its title indicates, the great 
 ') poets, and, all in all, is perhaps as choice a selection as 
 has ever been made. These — particularly the last — 
 are books to be read often, and kept at hand for refer- 
 ence. 
 
 Chesterfield: Selected Letters. Full of good counsel 
 and worldly wisdom. The best edition is that edited 
 by Edwin Ginn. 
 
 ♦Hunger, Theodore T. : On the Threshold. Talks to 
 young people on the meaning and the opportunities of 
 life. An inspirational book of this sort should be made 
 a part of the reading course of every boy and girl. Dr. 
 Hunger's book gives the key to character building. 
 Smiles's Self-help and Mathews' Getting on in the 
 World are also excellent, but perhaps place a little too 
 much emphasis upon "success" as an incentive. Bish- 
 op Spalding's Education and the Higher Life, and 
 Wilson's Making the Most of Ourselves, are strong 
 and helpful. 
 
 62
 
 BOOKS FOR HOME READING 
 
 The foregoing list comprises about two hun- 
 dred books, somewhat more than half of which 
 are starred. In reviewing the authors repre- 
 sented, a few of the great names of literature 
 will be missed, — but only a few, and those 
 better adapted to the mature mind than to the 
 child. We are not planning that the boy or 
 girl shall finish his reading at the age of fifteen, 
 but that he shall have only fairly begun it. 
 
 It may perhaps have been discovered that the 
 underl3ring idea of the course is to give the child 
 what is most likely to interest him at a given 
 age. We begin with the nursery jingles, which 
 fall pleasantly upon the ear before the mind 
 takes much thought of what they mean. Then 
 follow the fairy tales, commencing as soon as 
 the child can understand them, and continuing 
 until — well, it is doubtful if we ever grow too 
 old for fairy tales. With the fairy stories come 
 the fg^bles and the myths, each leading in a dif- 
 ferent direction. The fables, in- which con- 
 versational animals form an important part, 
 point the way to true stories of animak, — 
 stories which inspire a love for the brute crea- 
 tion and a disposition to be kind toward them ; 
 and these, in turn, bring us to natural history 
 63
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 stories, encouraging the scientific impulse, and 
 leading the child to observe and investigate. 
 The myths, on the other hand, lead to the 
 ancient legends, which are semi-historic, and 
 they, in turn, to history. It will be seen that 
 the reading for the ninth year centres about 
 Greek history, for the tenth about Roman his- 
 tory, for the eleventh and twelfth about the his- 
 tory of England, and for the thirteenth about 
 American history. This conserves interest and 
 leads to a better understanding of the readings. 
 American history is placed at about the age 
 when the child will be studying it in school, and 
 the reading will thus furnish side-lights on his 
 study. Stories of people and places, the begin- 
 nings of geography, should begin at about the 
 age of five or six,) and (stories of travel and ad- 
 venture, of which " Robinson Crusoe " is the 
 first, may begin a year later. \ Poetry^ should ex- 
 tend from Mother Goose to^Shakespearei Here 
 we have all the elements of literature for chil- 
 dren : folk-lore (including fairy tales, fables, and 
 myths), nature stories, geography, history, fic- 
 tion, poetry."^ Arrange them as your boy or girl 
 can best assimilate them, but try not to neglect 
 any side of the course. That side which appeals 
 64
 
 BOOKS FOR HOME READING 
 
 to the child's temperament will naturally occupy 
 the prominent place, but all should receive 
 some attention before the age of fifteen has 
 been reached. 
 
 It will be seen that this list makes no distinc-_ 
 tion between books for boys and books for 
 girls. Good hterature is universal in its inter- 
 ests. A book which is narrowed down to any 
 sex or class is not properly literature at all. It 
 may be a vehicle for technical knowledge, and 
 therefore useful, but in so far as it is technical 
 or exclusive, it loses its claim to literary stand- 
 ing. It is true that boys are attracted to stories 
 about boys, and girls to stories about girls, but 
 this is, after all, a surface attraction. If a 
 book is human it is interesting to either sex; if 
 it is not human it is not real literature. No 
 girl will decUne to read "GuUiver's Travels" 
 because Gulliver was a boy, and no boy will 
 turn from "Alice in Wonderland" because Alice 
 did not happen to be Tom. 
 
 I have said nothing about books of applied 
 science, arts and crafts, inventions, and amuse- 
 ments. These are not Uterary, and do not find 
 an appropriate place in a course of reading 
 where parents and children unite. They are»
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 however, important, and every boy and girl 
 should be provided with such of them as he 
 needs. Among the best of this class are : 
 
 Sctence: Holland's Butterfly Book, Holland's Moth 
 Book, Meadowcraft's A B C of Electricity, Taylor's 
 Why My Photographs are Bad, Holden's The Sciences. 
 
 Manual Training AND Amusements: Beard's American 
 Boy's Handy Book, Beard's American Giri's Handy 
 Book, Beard's Outdoor Handy Book, White's How to 
 Make Baskets, The Boy Craftsman, Sloane's Electric 
 Toy-Making, Hoffman's Magic at Home, Baker's Boy's 
 Book of Inventions, Baker's Boy's Second Book of In- 
 ventions. 
 
 Every healthy boy and girl likes to work with 
 the hands, and should be given an opportunity 
 to do so. It is as important to keep him from 
 becoming abnormally bookish as it is to lead 
 him to love books. A work-bench, a butterfly- 
 net, a box of raffia, a good battery, and a few 
 such books as I have mentioned supply the 
 necessary corrective. 
 
 66
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 READING IN THE SCHOOL 
 
 IN all our courses of elementary instruction, 
 reading is quite properly awarded the 
 first place. It is the one fundamental study. 
 All other branches depend upon it for the very 
 means of expression, — for oral instruction can 
 at best play but a small part in any general 
 scheme of education. Reading is thus the door 
 to learning, the gateway into that Garden of 
 the Hesperides, where golden fruit hangs ready 
 to be plucked, — dragon-guarded, it is true, as 
 everything is that is worth the having, yet within 
 the reach of him who has the will to take and 
 eat. 
 
 Reading, as we know it in our schools, is a 
 twofold study. It is both a means and an end. 
 In the first place, it is the formal process of 
 translating printed characters into articulate 
 speech. The image of the word upon the page 
 is thrown on the retina of the eye, the impres- 
 sion is carried to the brain, the voice receives 
 an impulse from the will and gives out a vocal 
 67
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 symbol corresponding to the printed symbol. 
 Or the reading may be silent, and the voice take 
 no part in the process. In either case, we have 
 here simply the mechanics of reading, — a sort 
 of reading which may be performed without 
 leaving any permanent impression on the brain, 
 a mere expressing of one symbol in terms of 
 another without appropriating the idea for 
 which the symbol stands. 
 
 But enveloped in this physical mechanism of 
 nerve and muscle is that which gives to read- 
 ing its significance, which makes it worth the 
 acquisition. One does not read in the true 
 sense unless he has taken possession of the 
 ideas which the printed words express. And 
 thus it is that when we speak of reading we 
 mean not only the reading, but the thing read, — 
 not only the process, but the product as well. 
 
 The importance of reading as a study in our 
 schools has led to a search for easy methods, 
 philosophic methods, all sorts of methods by 
 which the child may be inducted into its de- 
 hghts and mysteries. The evolution of the 
 school reading book forms an interesting chap- 
 ter in the history of education, and a brief 
 resume of the steps by which the study has 
 68
 
 READING IN THE SCHOOL 
 
 reached its present position in the schools may 
 help us to appreciate what we now have. 
 
 The first reading book prepared for schools 
 was the "horn-book," found in England as early 
 as A. D. 1450. It was properly no book at all, 
 but a flat piece of wood with a handle, like a 
 paddle. On its face was pasted a sheet of paper, 
 two or three inches wide and about twice as 
 long, upon which was printed the alphabet in 
 both large and small letters, the vowels, and 
 several columns of aVs, eb's, and ib's^ followed 
 by the rituahstic phrase, " In the Name of the 
 Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, 
 Amen," — the whole closing with the Lord's 
 Prayer. Some horn-books had certain letters 
 of the alphabet arranged in the form of a cross, 
 giving rise to the expression, "criss-cross row," 
 meaning the first steps in learning to read. 
 Others had a rudely engraved Greek cross, 
 followed by the letters in horizontal rows. The 
 paper was protected by a thin sheet of horn, 
 which gave the device its name. 
 
 A variation of the horn-book was the battle- 
 dore, originally a wooden bat, used in the game 
 of battledore and shuttlecock, somewhat as the 
 racket is used in tennis. It was of solid wood.
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 and in shape and size much like the horn-book. 
 The similarity suggested to some ingenious 
 teacher the idea of popularizing the art of learn- 
 ing to read by putting the alphabet on one side 
 of the bat. Hence the battledore became a 
 primer as well as a means of sport, and later, 
 when primers were printed on cardboard and 
 on paper, the name battledore was retained as 
 the name of the printed book. 
 
 It is beUeved that the battledore never made 
 its way across the Atlantic, but we know that 
 the horn-book was used in our early Colonial 
 schools until displaced by the New England 
 Primer. 
 
 Another interesting variation of the horn- 
 book is described by Prior in his poem, " Alma; 
 or, The Progress of the Mind" (1718). 
 
 "To Master John the English maid 
 A hom-book gives, of gingerbread ; 
 And that the child may learn the better. 
 As he can name, he eats each letter. 
 Proceeding thus with vast delight, 
 He spells and gnaws from left to right." 
 
 This form of acquiring knowledge is similar 
 to that advocated by the German educator, 
 Basedow, and actually carried out in some 
 schools both in Germany and in England, — 
 70
 
 READING IN THE SCHOOL 
 
 the making of cakes with a letter stamped on 
 each, and allowing the pupils to eat their alpha- 
 bet as they mastered it. The idea is in line 
 with Bacon's statement that there are certain 
 kinds of literature which should be "chewed 
 and digested." 
 
 It is significant that the early primers, includ- 
 ing the hom-book, were intended for religious 
 instruction. The church and the school were 
 not as widely separated then as now, and the 
 primer was the vehicle of the earliest formal 
 religious teaching. The word "primer" is de- 
 rived from "prime," the first canonical hour 
 of the Roman Catholic day. 
 
 Henry VIII caused the issue of both Catholic 
 and Protestant primers at different periods of 
 his career; Melanchthon and Luther prepared 
 primers, Melanchthon's beginning with the 
 words " Philipp Melanchthon desires the salva- 
 tion of all children," and containing the alpha- 
 bet, the Lord's Prayer, the Ave Maria, several 
 Psalms, the Commandments, the Sermon on 
 the Mount, and other selections from the 
 Scriptures. 
 
 The New England Primer was the first and 
 most important school book printed in this 
 71
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 country. It reflected in a marked degree the 
 Puritan spirit of the age which produced it. 
 The book opens with a series of scriptural quo- 
 tations, and closes with Mr. Cotton's catechism, 
 quaintly denominated, "Spiritual Milk for 
 American Babes, Drawn from the Breasts of 
 Both Testaments for their Soul's Nourish- 
 ment." The first purpose of the New England 
 Primer was to instil religious doctrine and to 
 build character. In this it was abundantly 
 successful, and its impress was left upon a gen- 
 eration of sturdy New Englanders who have 
 never failed to give credit for its influence. 
 
 The New England Primer was first pub- 
 lished about 1690 by Benjamin Harris, at the 
 London Coffee House in Boston, and held a 
 place in the schools of this country for more 
 than a century and a half, though the last half- 
 century was a period of gradual decline. A 
 great many editions were printed, by various 
 publishers, each pubhsher changing the contents 
 to suit his own religious views or the changing 
 conditions of the times. The first editions 
 contained frightful portraits of the reigning 
 English sovereigns; but in 1776, George III 
 was displaced by John Hancock, and a few 
 72
 
 READING IN THE SCHOOL 
 
 years later Hancock gave way to Washing- 
 ton. 
 
 About a hundred years after the issue of the 
 New England Primer, Noah Webster's Spelling 
 Book, familiariy known as the "Blue-back," 
 was published at Hartford (1783). This was 
 a primer and reading book as well as a speller, 
 and practically covered the ground of the New 
 England Primer, with less of theology and more 
 of word drill. Children read no longer the 
 harrowing tale of Mr. John Rogers consumed 
 at the stake, but of the boy who stole apples 
 and was pelted first with turf and then with 
 stones. There was something of human in- 
 terest in the book, though the formal didactic 
 element was still strikingly prominent. 
 
 The "Blue-back Speller" was the leading 
 American school book for a half-century or 
 more, and is even yet found occasionally in 
 some of the backwoods schools of the South. 
 It is estimated that more than eighty millions 
 of copies have been printed and sold. Its dis- 
 tinguished author also issued a reader " calcu- 
 lated to improve the mind and refine the taste 
 of youth, and also to instruct them in Geogra- 
 phy, History and Politics of the United States." 
 78
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 It did not, however, achieve any such popular- 
 ity as that gained by the spelling book, and was 
 quite overshadowed by the English Reader of 
 Lindley Murray. This English Reader con- 
 tained poetical selections, as well as moral 
 stories and rather sombre didactic discussions. 
 With its "Introduction," and its "Sequel," it 
 formed a three-book series, the first graded 
 series of readers ever printed. Before this 
 time, the reading book which followed the 
 primer in the school curriculum was always 
 the Bible. 
 
 No really important development in reading 
 books occurred during the first half of the 
 nineteenth century, though series varying in 
 extent from three to seven books were issued 
 by Picket, Worcester, Putnam, Pierpont, Cobb, 
 Goodrich ("Peter Parley"), Swan, and Tower. 
 Pierpont's series emphasized good literature, 
 while Cobb's made the first successful attempt 
 to grade the lessons, and placed at the head of 
 each lesson the new words to be found therein. 
 
 In 1850 appeared McGuffey's Readers, — on 
 
 the whole, the most successful series of school 
 
 reading books ever published in this country. 
 
 They united the literary features of the English 
 
 U
 
 READING IN THE SCHOOL 
 
 Reader and the grading of Cobb's, the moral 
 tales of the Blue-back Spelling Book and the 
 didactics of the New England Primer — all 
 modified and modernized to suit the growing 
 educational needs of the times. Of course, 
 McGuffey had competitors, and within a dec- 
 ade Sanders, Hillard, Parker and Watson, 
 Marcius Willson, and several others of lesser 
 note, had entered the field. Willson was the 
 only one who oflFered anything new. His ambi- 
 tious scheme embraced every branch of knowl- 
 edge known to man, including chemistry, 
 zoology, history, physiology, natural philosophy, 
 and architecture. The moral stories, too, were 
 not wanting — witness the downward course 
 of "Lazy Slokin," who becomes successively a 
 loafer, thief, and murderer, and drags his bane- 
 ful career through four or five lessons, which 
 alternate with scientific disquisitions upon the 
 claws of birds and the breathing of fishes. 
 Lazy Slokin was one of my first literary ac- 
 quaintances, and I have never forgotten him. 
 School readers always come in flocks. 
 After the McGuffey-Sanders-Willson period,'^ 
 there was nothing new for about thirty 
 years, when educational progress — or the 
 76
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 competition of school-book publishers — led to 
 another era of production, which brought forth 
 Appleton's, Barnes's, the New Franklin, and 
 a little later Harper's and Stickney's. This 
 group held the field until the beginning of the 
 new century. Since that time there has been 
 a more marked advance than at any period 
 since the publication of the McGuffey books. 
 
 It is significant that all the older books em- 
 phasized the content, and paid but little attention 
 to the means by which the content was secured. 
 The aim was to teach religion or morals or 
 literature or science, and the pupil learned to 
 read by reading. But with the growth of mod- 
 em pedagogy and the rise of the analytic spirit 
 came the effort to smooth the path of learning 
 by improving the mechanical process. This 
 resulted in a more careful grading of the selec- 
 tions and building up of the vocabulary, fre- 
 quent reviews to fix the knowledge already 
 gained, the introduction of object-lessons and 
 games, and the dramatization or acting out of 
 the sentences by the pupil. 
 
 Modem school readers are of many kinds 
 and built on many theories. There is the 
 mechanical reader, which so interests itself in 
 7Q
 
 READING IN THE SCHOOL 
 
 the means of teaching to read that it provides 
 absolutely nothing worth the reading. There 
 is the "useful information" reader, a lineal 
 descendant of Marcius Willson's books, which 
 provides knowledge on all conceivable subjects 
 except hterature. There is the "nature 
 reader," weakly scientific and fancifully poetic, 
 which, like the flowers of which it treats, has 
 already bloomed and is fast going to seed ; and 
 finally, there is the literary reader, which aims 
 to introduce the child to the best that has been 
 sung or told by poet or novehst or historian or 
 orator, and which not only provides the con- 
 tent, but develops the taste. Fortunately, the 
 hterary reader is the popular one, and the writer 
 is glad to believe it has come to abide with us. 
 
 But, it is asked. Is there no place for nature 
 stories and geography stories ? Certainly, and 
 this brings us to the point where we must differen- 
 tiate between basal and supplementary readers. 
 
 The basal reader, as has already been said, 
 should be literary, and yet it must do more than 
 provide good literature. It must first of all 
 teach the child to read. When it has done 
 this, it must introduce him to the great writers 
 and guide him into the realm of books. With 
 77
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 the amount of time usually devoted to reading 
 in the school curriculum, it requires about three 
 years to learn to read, and the best basal 
 reading book for these years is the one which 
 teaches the pupil the most quickly and the 
 most eflPectively to grasp and to translate the 
 meaning of the printed page. This is accom- 
 plished in the first book by means of a small 
 vocabulary of common words, every one of 
 which is repeated again and again in different 
 connections and combinations until the pupil 
 has been given an opportunity to thoroughly 
 master it. In the second and third books, 
 the vocabulary is gradually extended, becom- 
 ing at the beginning of the fourth year the 
 vocabulary of culture, — the key which will 
 enable the pupil to gain access to the simpler 
 masterpieces of literature. While these pri- 
 mary books are necessarily built in a more or 
 less mechanical way, and upon definite con- 
 structive lines, they must interest the child, and 
 must not appear artificial. As the highest art 
 is to conceal art, the author of a primer must 
 be an artist as well as a bom teacher. For it is 
 as impossible to make a child love reading when 
 taught by purely mechanical means as it is to 
 78
 
 READING IN THE SCHOOL 
 
 make him realize the beauty of the snowy heron 
 by showing him the skeleton of one. On the 
 other hand, it is quite as futile to expect him to 
 leam quickly by giving him stories and mem- 
 ory gems unless there is beneath them a well- 
 defined constructive framework. Our fathers 
 learned without this aid, but they learned labo- 
 riously, and their learning was not unmixed 
 with tears. 
 
 Teachers differ widely as to the value of a 
 basal reader above the third or fourth grade. 
 Some would discard it altogether at that point, 
 and devote the reading period thereafter to 
 extended classics. This plan has somewhat 
 of merit in it, but it fails in that it limits the 
 child's horizon to the few complete pieces of 
 literature which he is able to read in the class- 
 room. A good basal reader above the third 
 grade is not an end in itself. It does not supply 
 all the hterature that the pupil should read, but 
 is a guide and an inspiration, opening to him 
 new doors and giving him examples of the work 
 of the world's best writers, as well as a desire to 
 read and know them better. Shorter poems 
 and a few brief prose classics may be given 
 entire, but in most cases an extract must suffice, 
 79
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 an extract, however, which should be a com- 
 plete unit in itself, while it is a part of the larger 
 unit which embraces it. 
 
 When we come to supplementary reading 
 the field is wide. Here we have a choice of 
 literature, biography, history, geography, na- 
 ture study, and the arts and sciences. The 
 books, however, which give inspiration rather 
 than merely knowledge are the only ones which 
 should be admitted to the reading period. De 
 Quincey has classified all books as books of 
 knowledge and books of power. The classifi- 
 cation is a most useful one. We need in the 
 reading class the books of power. Readings in 
 geography and science are good, but they should 
 either be confined to the period assigned to 
 those branches or be given a separate period. 
 The reading hour should be devoted to the 
 acquisition of culture, a culture broad enough 
 to include both taste and character, — and this 
 is gained from an acquaintance with the great 
 masters of hterature. No merely scientific or 
 instructive book should be allowed to usurp 
 the place of the book which touches the heart. 
 The meaning of all true literature, as Carlyle 
 says of the meaning of song, " goes deep." 
 80
 
 CHAPTER V 
 SUPPLEMENTARY READING 
 
 T^THEN we attempt to classify our literary 
 * ▼ material for supplementary reading, 
 we find that it falls broadly under six heads: 
 (1) folk-lore, including fairy or wonder tales, 
 fables, myths, and legends — all of which intro- 
 duce the supernatural element; (2) inspira- > 
 tional books of biography and history, such as 
 may justly be considered "books of power"; 
 (3) a similar class of nature books, including 
 essays and sketches of out-of-door hfe; (4) trav- 
 els, described with literary skill — not including y' 
 the ordinary geographical readers; (5) simple j^- 
 interpretative books on art; and (6) fiction. /^ 
 
 The fairy tale is the natural beginning of 
 literature. It is as old as the world, and as wide. 
 There has been no country or age which has 
 not delighted in the thought of spirits in the 
 earth and air and sea, — beings powerful either 
 for good or ill, who interest themselves in human 
 affairs. The poet sees in them the personifica- 
 tion of the forces of nature; the scholar sees 
 81
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 remnants of religious ideas, of ancient divini- 
 ties; the child sees simply wonderful creatures 
 which are yet quite real to him, and which walk 
 and talk and live with him — the good fairies 
 on terms of delightful intimacy, the bad suffer- 
 ing his cordial detestation. To most children, 
 the fairy tale brings the first clear distinction 
 between good and evil, and thus is effective in 
 awakening and developing the moral sense. 
 You may weary the child with platitudes re- 
 garding right and wrong, but you cannot tell 
 him of Cinderella without arousing his anger 
 at the selfishness and injustice of the step- 
 sisters, and making him rejoice in the final 
 triumph of the modest girl who did her duty. 
 
 There is a class of well-meaning but unimagi- 
 native persons, — and some teachers are found 
 among them, we are sorry to say, — who have 
 declared war upon fairy tales, — preferring to 
 teach their children useful facts about the rain- 
 fall in Kamchatka, or the chemical constituents 
 of the blood. The writer attended recently a 
 teachers' convention in a Western State, and 
 heard an address in which the speaker urged the 
 banishment of fairy stories from the school- 
 room, arguing with Mr. Gradgrind, that it is the 
 82
 
 SUPPLEMENTARY READING 
 
 business of the school to teach facts, not fancies. 
 His peroration closed with the triumphant 
 challenge, "What is a fairy? Give me the 
 definition of a fairy!" Ah, my benighted 
 friend, do you not know there are some things 
 so fine as to elude definition ? If in your youth- 
 ful days you had read more fairy tales, you 
 would have been a wiser and a better man 
 to-day. 
 
 The fairy tale is the heritage of every child. 
 It is the food which nourishes his spirit, the 
 force which gives wings to his soul. Out of it 
 come the influences which sweeten and deepen 
 life, for it strengthens the imaginative faculties, 
 and without imagination life is at best a dreary 
 thing. As we grow older, it is true, the friends 
 of our story-books may be forgotten, and their 
 adventures cease to interest us; but they have 
 done their work in our hearts, and we pass 
 almost unconsciously from the Hansel and 
 Gretel, whose joy is in a magic house of sugar 
 plums, to the Beatrice who leads her poet- 
 lover to the gates of Paradise. 
 
 The fairy tales which first claim the child's 
 attention are those old favorites of the nursery 
 which were venerable when Perrault collected 
 83
 
 ^ 
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 them, more than two hundred years ago, — The 
 Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Little Red Riding 
 Hood, Puss in Boots, Tom Thumb, and others. 
 They might perhaps better be called wonder 
 stories, for fairies do not appear in all of them, 
 though all contain the supernatural element. 
 With these stories should be included other 
 popular tales, of English origin and of more 
 recent date, — Jack and the Bean Stalk, Jack 
 the Giant Killer, The Three Bears, etc.; also 
 the German folk-tales of Reynard the Fox. 
 All these are useful for supplementary reading 
 in first and second year. The content is famil- 
 iar to the child, and this familiarity helps him 
 to translate the printed text. He has, too, the 
 pleasure of rediscovering in the reading book 
 his old nursery friends. Many good school 
 editions of these stories are obtainable. Among 
 / the best are Miss Grover's "Folk-Lore Primer," 
 I Wiltse's " Folklore Stories and Proverbs," -* 
 I O 'Shea's "Six Nursery Classics," and Smythe's 
 ' "Reynard the Fox," for first grade; Scudder's 
 "Fables and Folk Stories," Baldwin's "Fairy "^ 
 Stories and Fables," Perrault's "Tales of ^ 
 Mother Goose," O'Shea's "Old Worid Wonder 
 Stories," and Blaisdell's " Child Life in Tale 
 84
 
 SUPPLEMENTARY READING 
 
 and Fable," for second grade. "The Heart of 
 Oak Books," I and II, edited by Dr. Charles 
 Eliot Norton, also contain a choice collection 
 of fairy tales, fables, and rhymes for the first 
 two grades. 
 
 The next and most characteristic group of 
 fairy tales comprises Grinmi's and Andersen's. 
 Some of them in simplified form are included 
 in the books already mentioned, but in their 
 entirety they are best adapted to third and 
 fourth grades. Grimm's tales are genuine 
 folk-lore, the tales of iJie people, most of them 
 very old, and some of them the common pos- 
 session of many nations. They are Grimm's 
 only in the sense that the Brothers Grimm 
 collected and published them. The tales are 
 of unequal value, as is always the case with 
 folk-stories, many of them being coarse and 
 absolutely harmful in their influence. Good 
 school editions, containing only the best, are 
 issued by the leading educational publishers. 
 Miss Wiltse's, in two volumes, and the "River- 
 side" Grimm are particularly good. 
 
 Andersen's stories differ from Grimm's in 
 that they are original. Although the author 
 drew his material from many sources and 
 85
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 utilized the machinery and sometimes the inci- 
 dents of the old folk-tales, he so wrought them 
 over and infused them with his own peculiar 
 genius that he made of them something essen- 
 tially new. The moral effect was ever present 
 in his thoughts, and there is in his tales none 
 of the grossness so often found in Grimm's. 
 
 The next important wonder story is Ruskin's 
 
 King of the Golden River," adapted to fifth 
 and sixth grades, — a tale of transparent beauty 
 and a model of English style. 
 
 Kingsley's " Water Babies," of about the 
 same grade, introduces the child to the wonders 
 of Hfe in river and sea. It is not so important 
 for its natural history — which is often quite 
 fanciful — as for its beautiful lesson of help- 
 fulness, and its rare literary charm. 
 
 Following this, and suitable for sixth or sev- 
 enth grade, is Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress." 
 This is classed as a wonder story, because 
 the wonder element in it is that which makes 
 it popular with children. The allegory is but 
 dimly understood and the theology makes 
 little impression. But Apollyon and Giant 
 Despair and the Celestial City and the Shining 
 Ones by the river are never forgotten. The 
 86
 
 SUPPLEMENTARY READING 
 
 quaintness and vigor of the diction, too, are 
 not lost upon children. This great classic 
 should be read in schools far more than at 
 present. 
 
 If I were asked to name a half-dozen other 
 wonder tales of the highest value, I should 
 select: (1) Collodi's " Pinocchio " — third to - 
 sixth grade — an Italian classic full of human 
 nature and shrewd appreciation of boy life; (2) 
 Lewis Carroll's delightfully absurd and ever- 
 popular "AHce's Adventures in Wonderland " — 1 
 
 fourth to sixth grade; (3) Baron de la Motte 
 Fouqu6's romantic story of "Undine " — sixth to 
 eighth "^ade; (4) Swift's " GulUver's Travels," 
 full of strange situations and amazing dispro- 
 portions — fifth and sixth grades; (5) the 
 •^Arabian Nights," with its rich flavor of Orie n. O 
 talism and its mingling of the natural and the 
 supernatural — fifth to eighth grade; and (6) 
 Irving's " Rip Van Winkle," — sixth to eighth - — O 
 grade. 
 
 The fable diflFers from the fairy tale in hav- 
 ing a distinct moral purpose. The fairy tale 
 may have such a purpose, as in the case of most 
 of Andersen's stories and Ruskin's " King of 
 the Golden River," but the purpose is subor- 
 87
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 dinated to the story. In the fable, however, 
 the moral is paramount. Again, the fable rarely 
 introduces supernatural beings, as does the fairy 
 tale; its only departure from the natural is in 
 giving to animals, and occasionally to in- 
 animate objects, the characteristics and powers 
 of men. 
 
 The best known fables^ are usually called 
 by the name of ^Espp, though it is probable 
 that iEsop is responsible for very few of them. 
 As Thackeray says, in his preface to "The New- 
 comes," "Asses under lions' manes roared in 
 Hebrew; and sly foxes flattered in Etruscan; 
 and wolves in sheep's clothing gnashed their 
 teeth in Sanskrit, no doubt." iEsop perhaps 
 introduced fables into Greece, and may have 
 made a few himself; but the fable idea has 
 been traced back to the Buddhist teachers of 
 India, who formed their stories upon the model 
 of the old beast-tale of primitive folk-lore, 
 making it the vehicle of moral truth. La Fon- 
 taine's fables are partly iEsopic (which is 
 to say, Greek) and partly Arabic. But both 
 the Greek and Arabic came from India, as did 
 also the Syriac and the Persian. Thus from 
 whatever point we begin, we may trace our 
 88
 
 SUPPLEMENTARY READING 
 
 way back to the plains of the Indus and to 
 the beginnings of Aryan civilization. The 
 history of the fable is almost coincident with 
 the life of the race. 
 
 / Like all primitive hterature, the fable is 
 particularly suited to children.^) It is simple, 
 dramatic, satisfies the sense of justice, "ain3f 
 carries with it a moral idea. Authors of school 
 reading books, recognizing its adaptability 
 to the very young, make use of it frequently 
 in first and second readers. The folk-lore 
 readers which have been mentioned for first 
 and second grades contain fables as well as 
 wonder stories. For third grade, the best col- 
 lection of fables is perhaps that in the series 
 of " Classics for Children," which is called 
 iEsop's, but which includes in a supplement 
 some of La Fontaine's, in English verse, and 
 several of the Russian fables of Krilof. Edi- 
 tions are also pubhshed in Maynard's "English 
 Classics" and in the series of supplementary 
 readers issued by the Educational Publishing 
 Company. 
 
 The myth is the fairy tale of primitive peo- 
 ples, — a fairy tale with a meaning so deep that 
 it embraces all the reUgion, philosophy, and 
 89
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 science of antiquity. Those grown-up children 
 of former times saw more profoundly than 
 we into the poetry of nature and peopled their 
 world with beings that cast no shadow in the 
 sun. The myths are primitive poetry, and 
 though our children may not altogether under- 
 stand them, we fancy that they come more closely 
 into sympathy with them than many of us 
 grown-ups. Myths, too, are the natural htera- 
 ture of childhood. The child delights in them, 
 and in familiarizing himself with them is pre- 
 paring to appropriate and to enjoy in later 
 years the fruits of the highest imaginative litera- 
 ture, for without a knowledge of mythology 
 he will find himself upon the sea of letters like 
 a ship without a chart. 
 
 The myths of most pronounced literary value 
 come to us from the Greeks and from the 
 Norsemen. They have been interpreted by 
 the greatest scholars and retold by the most 
 famous writers of all time. The Greek myths 
 are more deUcate than the Norse, and reflect 
 the intellectual and poetic characteristics of 
 the race which produced them. There is 
 nothing at all approaching Athene in the my- 
 thology of any other people, nothing so poetic 
 90
 
 SUPPLEMENTARY READING 
 
 as Phoebus Apollo, nothing as significant as 
 Proserpina. As the Greeks surpassed all other 
 peoples in their art, so their myths surpass all 
 others in artistic feeling. 
 
 Of Greek myths the best collections for 
 school reading are, probably: For third and 
 
 fourth grades, Francillon's "Gods and Heroes," 1^ 
 
 Baldwin's "Old Greek Stories," and Peabody'*- — ^ 
 "Old Greek Folk Stories'*; somewhat more ad- \ ^ 
 vanced, and better adapted to fifth and sixth 
 grades, Hawthorne's "Wonder Book" and^^ ^ 
 " Tanglewood Tales,'* Kingsley's " Greek ; 
 Heroes," Church's "Stories of the Old World," / 
 Shaw's " Stories of the Ancient Greeks " (con- i ^ 
 taining Greek history stories as well as the ^ 
 myths), and Lamb's "Adventures of Ulysses"; 
 for seventh and eighth grades. Professor 
 Palmer's incomparable prose translation of 
 the Odyssey, and Bryant's poetic versions of 
 both the Odyssey and Iliad. 
 
 The Norse myths, while inferior to the Greek 
 in refinement, are preeminent in strength, 
 and vitality. They represent great elemental 
 forces struggling with each other and gradu- 
 ally emerging out of chaos. Though confused, 
 they are f ull of dramatic powe r. Odin, drink- 
 91
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 ing from his mighty mead horn in Valhalla 
 and eating of the flesh of the boar Serimnir, 
 is a veritable savage as compared with Zeus, 
 but he moves in an atmosphere that is alive 
 and stirring with gigantic mysteries, half seen " 
 and dimly understood. Thor with his hammer, 
 Idun with her magic apples, Loki with his 
 tricks and schemings, are strangely fascinating 
 to the child, and the very crudity of these figures 
 brings them closer to him, for they are child- 
 like. 
 / Of Norse myths, the best elementary book 
 is probably Miss Smythe's "Old Time Stories — T) 
 Retold," containing also several Greek myths. 
 This may be used as early as second grade. 
 For intermediate grades many good books 
 are issued, — Keary's "Heroes of Asgard," 
 Holbrook's " Northland Heroes,'* '^radish's ^ 
 "Old Norse Stories," Hall's "Viking Tales," 
 Foster and Cummings's "Asgard Stories," and 
 Litchfield's " Nine Worlds." For grammar 
 grades, no other treatment of the subject ap- 
 proaches Hamilton W. Mabie's "Norse Stories 
 , Retold from the Eddas." ^ 
 
 \^ The Norse myths may well be made to in- 
 clude the "Nibelungenlied,' that great German 
 92
 
 SUPPLEMENTARY READING 
 
 epic of the thirteenth century, for it is only 
 a German variation of the old Norse saga of 
 the Volsungs. The Norse hero Sigurd be- 
 comes, in the German, Siegfried, Gudrun is 
 Kriemhild, and Brynhild, the Valkyrie, is 
 Brunhild. The stories of Siegfried adapted 
 to school use come to us mainly through Wag- 
 ner 's interpretation of the character in his 
 cycle of music dramas. Wagner's Siegfried 
 is altogether a nobler character than the Sigurd 
 of the old Norse myth. With the Nibelungen 
 stories we usually find the stories of Wagner's 
 other heroes, Parsifal and Lohengrin, though 
 these are connected rather with the Arthurian 
 legends, of which we shall speak later. The 
 best collection of Wagner stories for the lower 
 grades is Miss Menefee's " Child Stories from \/ 
 the Masters," which contains a number of other 
 tales as well, and is adapted to third or fourth 
 grade. Miss Pratt's "Stories from Old Ger- '^ 
 many," also^ good, is a little more advanced. 
 Fc:- teachers, Baldwin's "Story of Siegfried" 
 will be found useful, also Skinner's " Readings 
 in Folk Lore," which affords a wealth of mate- 
 rial for stories, conversation, and language work 
 on the myths, fables, and legends of the North. 
 93 
 
 /
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 More naive and childlike than either Greek 
 or Norse myths, and fully their equal in pic- 
 turesqueness, are the Indian myths of our own 
 country — a peculiar product of wild, free, 
 barbaric, out-of-door life. 
 
 "With the odors of the forest. 
 With the dew and damp of meadows, 
 With the curling smoke of wigwams. 
 With the rushing of great rivers." 
 
 Every American boy and girl should make the 
 acquaintance of the most important, at least, 
 of these Indian spirits. Coyote, the thinker 
 and creator, Iktomi, the spider fairy, Kwasind, 
 the strong man, Pau-Puk-Keewis, the storm 
 wind, and, most important of all, Hiawatha, 
 the teacher and benefactor of his people. These 
 myths vary greatly among the different Indian 
 tribes, are often contradictory, and do not form 
 a consistent system of mythology, as do those 
 of the Greeks and Norsemen. But they are 
 wonderfully interesting to children and breathe 
 the poetry of the wild. 
 
 The best introduction to Indian myths is 
 
 Miss Holbrook's "Hiawatha Primer," which 
 
 can be used in the first grade. While reading 
 
 this, children may be encouraged to make wig- 
 
 94
 
 SUPPLEMENTARY READING 
 
 warns and canoes out of bark or paper, pine- 
 trees out of wood and cardboard, tomahawks, 
 peace-pipes, bows and arrows, moccasins, and 
 all sorts of articles of Indian dress, warfare, 
 and domestic utility, out of such materials as 
 lend themselves most easily to the purpose. 
 Children need such busy work to assist them 
 in picturing out the scenes, for though imagi- 
 native, their imagination is not of the abstract 
 kind which forms its concepts without reference 
 to environment, but rather of that simpler sort, 
 which invests humble materials with the 
 attributes of romance. The child, after all, 
 cannot get an image of a spear unless he has 
 a stick to build it on. 
 
 To follow the line of interest awakened in the 
 " Hiawatha Primer," I know of nothing better 
 for second grade than the same author's "Book \/— 
 of Nature Myths." These are mainly Indian, 
 though a few Greek and Japanese myths are 
 included. For third year. Miss Chandler's 
 book of tlie Indian myths of the Pacific Coast, 
 "In the Reign of Coyote," is of interest and 
 value. It introduces another class of myths, 
 in which animals are the chief characters, 
 whereas the myths of the Dakotahs, which 
 96
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 form the basis of the Hiawatha cycle, are for 
 the most part men personifying natural forces. 
 The animal myths or beast-tales are more 
 childlike than the human myths, and represent 
 a more primitive mode of thought. In fourth 
 and fifth grades, Hiawatha may be read, com- 
 plete, from Longfellow's text. Pratt's " Leg-^i»il^ 
 ends of the Red Children " and Zitkala-Sa's / 
 " Old Indian Legends " also furnish good sup- 
 plementary matter for these grades. A book 
 of Indian lore which will prove invaluable to 
 the teacher is Schoolcraft's "Algic Researches." /^ 
 Its title is somewhat formidable, but its con- 
 tents thoroughly delightful. It is the treasure- 
 house from which Longfellow drew most of his 
 material for " Hiawatha," and which has been 
 consulted by all writers on Indian tradition 
 and history. Much Indian folk-lore is woven 
 into Cooper's great romances, "The Leather 
 Stocking Tales," at least one of which — 
 usually "The Last of the Mohicans" — is '^ 
 taken up in the Uterature work of the high 
 school. 
 
 Closely aUied to the myth and often insep- 
 arably connected with it is the legend. Al- 
 though in our modern collections Uttle if any 
 96
 
 SUPPLEMENTARY READING 
 
 distinction is made between the two, they 
 differ in this: that the myih is wholly the 
 product of the imagination — often developed 
 from the phenomena of nature or from the 
 inborn idea of divinity, while the legend is 
 based upon historic fact. The legend stands 
 chronologically between the myth and authen- 
 tic history. The stories of Zeus and Athene, 
 Thor and Loki, Mondamin and Hiawatha, are 
 myths, but those of Agamemnon and Odys- 
 seus, Horatius and Scsevola, Roland and 
 Oliver, Arthur and Robin Hood, are legends, 
 some with more and some with less of historic 
 authenticity, but all developed from a germ of 
 historic truth. 
 
 The Greek legends are so interwoven with 
 the myths that we have not attempted to sepa- 
 rate them but have included them all under 
 the head of myths. We cannot tell whether 
 the Argonauts ever sailed to Colchis, or 
 whether Odysseus ever entered Troy. Roman 
 legends are somewhat more distinct, and ap- 
 proach more neariy the historic. Here we 
 have the figures of Romulus and Remus, of 
 Horatius, of Cincinnatus, of Mucius Scaevola, 
 of Virginius, of Marcus Curtius, and many 
 97
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 others whose deeds of heroism or of prowess 
 
 form an interesting introduction to Roman 
 
 / history. A few of these tales are found in 
 
 Ol—JBald win's "Fifty Famous Stories Retold," 
 adapted to third grade. The " Story of ^Eneas," 
 good for fifth or sixth grade, is in Church's 
 
 ^ L "Stories of the Old Worid," together with the 
 
 Greek stories of the Argonauts, Thebes, Troy, 
 and the adventures of Ulysses. Church's 
 "Story of iEneas" is also pubHshed separately 
 in Maynard's "EngUsh Classics." Clarke's 
 "Story of iEneas" covers the same ground and 
 is of about the same degree of difficulty. Guer- 
 i ber's "Story of the Romans" includes nearly 
 all the Roman legends, with a simple treatment 
 of Roman history. It may be used in sixth 
 grade. Macaulay's " Lays of Ancient Rome " V^ 
 — giving in verse the legend of Horatius, " The 
 Battle of Lake Regillus," "The Sacrifice of 
 Virginia," and "The Prophecy of Capys," 
 may be read easily in seventh and eighth grades, 
 are full of the heroic spirit of a primitive people, 
 and, aside from their legendary value, are gems 
 of English verse. 
 
 The most important mediaeval legends are 
 those of Eang Arthur, Robin Hood, Roland, and
 
 SUPPLEMENTARY READING 
 
 Tell, The Arthurian cycle of tales fonns the 
 finest and most inspiring group of legends to 
 be found anywhere in literature. They are not 
 only of intense interest and rare poetic value, 
 but are so interpenetrated with the spirit of 
 chivalry that children find them an inspiration 
 to right thinking and noble living. Courage, 
 generosity, politeness, consideration for the 
 weak, and self-respect before the strong, a high 
 sense of honor and a steadfast devotion to duty, 
 — in a word, all that goes to make up true man- 
 liness, is found in these old tales without a hint 
 of moralizing, but as a series of beautiful and 
 noble pictures to be admired and remembered 
 forever. There is nothing finer than the glow 
 of noble enthusiasm with which a boy follows 
 the fortunes of these old Knights of the Round 
 Table. Sir Launcelot, Sir Gareth, Sir Tris- 
 tram, Sir Percival, Sir Galahad, come to be 
 real personages to him, and he gives to them 
 a devotion which lifts his own life and motives 
 upon a higher plane. 
 
 Malory's "Morte d'Arthur," that rare old 
 
 English classic with its sweet smack of Norman 
 
 French, is the source from which we derive our 
 
 modem versions of the Arthurian tales. It is 
 
 99
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 the source, too, from which Tennyson drew his 
 exquisitely poetic "Idylls of the King," and is 
 a book which no imaginative person can fail to 
 love. Sidney Lanier has purged it of its dross, 
 arranged its somewhat scattered chapters in 
 systematic form, translated some of its more 
 obscure archaisms, and issued it as " The Boy's 
 King Arthur." It is a large book, and unsuited 
 to class use, but is a mine of pure gold to the 
 teacher. 
 
 The most important legends of the Arthurian 
 cycle are available in cheap and convenient 
 editions. Frances Nimmo-Greene's " King Ar- 
 thur and his Court," Miss Radford's "King 
 Arthur and his Knights," and Louise Maitland's 
 "Heroes of Chivalry" are the best collections 
 for school use. They are adapted to fifth or 
 sixth grade. Lowell's " Vision of Sir Launfal," 
 may well be read in eighth grade as a modem 
 interpretation of the legends of the Grail. 
 J Miss Maitland's book, " Heroes of Chivalry," 
 contains, in addition to the Arthurian stories, 
 the best short account with which I am famil- 
 iar of Roland, the French hero who showed 
 a close spiritual relationship to King Arthur's 
 Knights, and who followed them, in point of 
 100
 
 SUPPLEMENTARY READING 
 
 time, a little more than two centuries. The 
 story of Roland is told with greater detail by 
 Mr. Baldwin in a somewhat bulky book, ex- 
 cellent for teachers' use, but unsuitable for class. 
 Of particular value also for the teacher or 
 for class reading in the higher grades is the 
 prose translation of "The Song of Roland," l»^ 
 issued in the "Riverside Literature Series." 
 
 Far inferior to the legends of King Arthur 
 and of Roland are those of Robin Hood, yet 
 they have their place in literature. The Merry 
 Men of Sherwood Forest are brave, generous, 
 and good-natured, though they possess no 
 very high order of virtue. They live in the 
 woods, a happy, careless, improvident life, 
 robbing from the rich and giving to the poor. 
 The stories suggest fresh air and green, growing 
 things, fun, ease, and freedom. The very law- 
 lessness of it all is quite fascinating to children 
 — for children are impatient of restraint, and 
 a heroic robber who sleeps out of doors appeals 
 strongly to them. No one can deny the charm 
 of the Robin Hood tales, yet I cannot quite 
 agree with those who laud them for their moral 
 influence. Their value is at best literary and 
 historic. Howard Pyle's or Eva March Tap- 
 101
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 pan's book in the hands of the teacher will 
 supply the materials for an occasional good 
 story, but for supplementary reading in the 
 class there is other material more useful, 
 li^f — As for Tell, he is almost a myth. His story 
 appears with some variations in the literatures 
 of Aryan nations as widely separated as Persia 
 and Iceland, yet the Swiss have claimed him 
 so persistently, and have adorned his story with 
 so much of circumstantial detail, that we may 
 perhaps admit the possibility of a popular hero 
 having existed among them, upon whom these 
 fabulous tales have been hung. Schiller has 
 lifted him into an important place in literature, 
 and whether myth or legend, the story is well 
 worth introducing into the school room. The 
 i best school edition is McMurry's "William 
 Tell," adapted to seventh grade. The story is 
 told in simpler form, for third or fourth grade 
 reading, in Scudder's "Book of Legends" and 
 in Baldwin's "Fifty Famous Stories." 
 
 Passing out of the realm of legend, we now 
 enter that of history. Here the books that 
 should be admitted to the reading hour, as has 
 been already said, should include only the in- 
 spirational and the heroic. The sober facts 
 102
 
 SUPPLEMENTARY READING 
 
 of history, the development of the arts, the 
 onward march of civilization, will all be traced 
 in their proper order in the history class. We 
 are here concerned only with the picturesque 
 aspects of history, and especially with that 
 personal element in it which falls more properly 
 under the head of biography. 
 
 The eaiJifisLhistory stories are those which 
 come to us from the Hebrews and are preserved 
 in thejlihle — the biographies of Abraham, 
 Joseph, Samuel, David, Elijah, Daniel, and 
 others of the patriarchs and prophets, — Ruth, 
 too, and Esther, those types of exalted woman- 
 hood. They are siipple, picturesque, inspiring, 
 and possessed of a deep moral influence. 
 Teachers who are accustomed to regard them 
 as the vehicle of religious instruction are often 
 bhnded to their high literary value. It is too 
 often assumed that the child has extracted all 
 the good from them in Sunday-school, — but 
 what of the child who does not go to Sunday- 
 school? He is surely in special need of the 
 moral upUft which comes from the right por- 
 trayal of these grand old figures. And if the 
 child has learned something about them on a 
 Sunday, he will get new inspiration by taking 
 105
 
 CHILDREN'S READING -^ 
 
 them into his every-day work. Unfortunately, 
 the Bible may not be studied or even read, 
 in the larger part of our American schools, and 
 the stories and parables of the greatest moral 
 teacher that the world has ever known are ban- 
 ished from the class-room. But few school 
 boards are so narrow as to exclude the national 
 heroes of the Hebrews and admit those of the 
 Greeks, Romans, Germans, French, and Anglo- 
 Saxons. The best form in which to read these 
 stories is in the words of the Bible, omitting ir- 
 relevant and unsuitable passages. "Old Testa- 
 , ment Stories in Scripture Language," issued in 
 
 \( the "Riverside Literature Series" and adapted 
 to fourth grade, admirably meets the require- 
 ments of the class-room. Baldwin's " Old Sto- — O 
 
 '>i ries of the East," and Heerman's " Stories from^^::^!^ 
 the Hebrew," retell the old tales picturesquely, 
 and are graded about the same as the "Old 
 Testament Stories." Guerber's "Story of the -: — C 
 Chosen People " presents a connected history of 
 the Jews, and is somewhat more advanced than 
 any of the foregoing. 
 
 Greek and Roman history stories are often 
 combined with stories of the gods and of 
 legendary heroes, as in Shaw's " Stories of the 
 104
 
 SUPPLEMENTARY READING 
 
 (3— Ancient Greeks," Harding's "Greek Gods,\ 
 Heroes, and Men," and "The City of the\ 
 Seven Hills," and Guerber's "Story of the ) — -O 
 Greeks" and "Story of the Romans." These I 
 are all admirable little books and can be used 
 to advantage in intermediate grades. In the 
 grammar grades Plutarch's " Lives " should be l/— ^ 
 read. Most of the school-book publishers issue 
 editions containing five or six of the hves, 
 including both Greeks and Romans. Of the 
 Greek lives, Alexander and Themistpcles^ 
 may be particularly recommended, and of the 
 Roman, Caesar and Fabius.-. 
 
 Out of the mass of stories from mediaeval and 
 modem history, special mention can only be 
 made of the following: Miss Hurll's lives of 
 ^ Raphael and Michelangelo, which give an 
 / excellent picture of the Renaissance in Italy, / 
 and familiarize the pupil with the great art of . c\* 
 that period, Pitman's " Stories of Old France," 'r^ C 
 Rolfe's "Tales from English History," and 'f 
 "Tales from Scottish History" (taken from the i 
 
 /works of standard authors), Blaisdell's "Short- ^D 
 
 ' Stories from English History," Hawthorne's 
 "Grandfather's Chair" (stories from New 
 Englknd history), and Blaisdell and Ball's 
 105
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 "Hero Stories from American History," — all 
 for fifth and sixth years; Scott's "Tales of a 
 Grandfather" (Scottish history), Franklin's 
 "Autobiography," Scudder's "George Wash- 
 ington," and Irving and Fiske's "Washing- 
 ton and his Country," for seventh and eighth 
 grades. 
 
 For stories covering the important epochs 
 / of general history, there is nothing better than 
 >« v1 J ane Andrews's "Ten Boys who Lived on the 
 Road from Long Ago to Now " (fifth to seventh 
 grade). This is historical fiction rather than 
 history, the characters being imaginary, but 
 the book gives vivid pictures of the conditions 
 of Ufe at different periods of the world's devel- 
 opment, and helps to an appreciation of all 
 history stories which may afterward be read. 
 
 Poems referring to picturesque events or to 
 heroic action are suitable for the fifth and suc- 
 ceeding grades. For English history, a little 
 book edited by Katherine Lee Bates and 
 Catherine Coman, entitled "English History 
 Told by the Poets," is excellent. For American 
 history, a simihar collection, including, how- 
 ^ ever, prose as well as poetry. Lane and Hill's 
 
 r^ 1' American History in Literature" may be used 
 
 106 
 
 J
 
 SUPPLEMENTAJIY READING 
 
 I to advantage. " Paul^ Revere's Ride" may be C 
 
 I read in fifth grade, "The Courtship of Miles— 
 
 \ Standish" and Whittier's "Mabel Martin" 
 
 / in sixth, Holmes's "Grandmother's Story of 
 
 j Bunker Hill Battle " in seventh, and " Evange- 
 / line " in eighth. Matthews's " Poems of Amer- ^ 
 L, ican Patriotism" is also good in seventh or 
 eighth. For general history, including also 
 legends, nothing is better than Gayley and^ 
 r A _F lflliprty's "Poetry of the People." This is 
 adapted to sixth, seventh, and eighth grades. 
 
 When we come to nature books, we find our- 
 selves between Scylla and Charybdis, Scylla 
 being the class of sentimental, untrustworthy, 
 and altogether misleading stories written by 
 people who know only the surface appearances 
 of nature, while Charybdis is that ultrascien- 
 tific, exact, and lifeless sort which are only 
 " books of knowledge." Yet there are nature 
 books which may fairly be classed as "books 
 of power," and among them, in spite of the 
 criticisms and counter-criticisms which have 
 been bandied back and forth between their 
 authors, I would place side by side the works 
 of Burroughs, Seton, and Long. Burroughs ^ 
 has never been surpassed in the nicety of his 
 107
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 observations and the delightful manner in 
 which he tells them. His best work is that 
 which describes Nature in her more familiar 
 aspects, and which leads his readers to look 
 sharply and sympathetically. Seton and Long, 
 on the other hand, find their inspiration in the 
 wilderness, stories of which they tell with so 
 rare an enthusiasm that we almost feel the 
 shadows of tlie big woods and hear the splash 
 of the paddle in the quiet lake. And to this 
 group we must add Thoreau, the first of our 
 New England nature writers, whose simple 
 spirit is one of the beautiful things in the his- 
 tory of American letters ; and Charles Dudley 
 Warner, the genial essayist ; and Gilbert White, 
 the English nature writer, who, though he wrote 
 more than a century ago, and described a fauna 
 in many respects unfamiUar to us, has invested 
 his work with such charm that it has taken 
 rank as one of the little classics of the world. 
 / Seton's best books for school reading are 
 
 O— r~" Krag and Johnny Bear " and " Lobo, Rag and 
 l^ ixen." Long's are perhaps "Secrets of the 
 
 ^) Woods," "Wilderness Ways," and "Ways of 
 *^ Wood-Folk," though his "Northern Trails" 
 ' and "A Little Brother to the Bear" are not 
 108 
 
 V
 
 v/ 
 
 SUPPLEMENTARY READING 
 
 far behind. All of these may be used in fifth 
 to eighth grade. Burroughs's books available 
 for school use are "Birds and Bees," "Squirrels 
 and Other Fur Bearers," "Sharp Eyes," and 
 "A Bunch of Herbs." These are of marked 
 literary value, and are adapted to perhaps one 
 grade higher than either the Long or Seton 
 books. "The Succession_pJLFQXest Trees " is \/ 
 the only one of Thoreau's essays which has 
 been issued in convenient form for schools. 
 This and Gilbert White's "Natural History of 
 Selborne" cannot be used successfully earlier 
 than eighth grade. Charles Dudley Warner's 
 "A Hunting of the Deer" may be read in 
 seventh or eighth. An excellent collection of 
 [poems of nature in two volumes, entitled 
 ature in Verse" — third to fifth grades in- 
 clusive — and " Poetry of the Seasons " — sixth 
 Ito eighth inclusive — compiled by Mary I. 
 , Lovejoy, is also available. 
 
 Of travel and books on foreign lands, there 
 are very few adapted to school use which have 
 any claim to literary standing. T ^ie aver^ ffe 
 geo graphical reade r is a volume bristling with 
 facts, and intended to supplement the work of 
 the text-book. It is useful in its place but its 
 109
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 place is the geography class. Probably the 
 most distinctly literary treatment of foreign 
 life and scenes which has ever been written for 
 Q^ — young children is Jane Andrews's " Seven Little 
 ^^- Sisters " and " Each and All," adapted to about 
 fourth grade. These books are not travels; 
 they are rather stories of children in other lands, 
 yet they are so picturesque and full of the at- 
 mosphere and color of the localities of which 
 they treat, that they may be placed in the same 
 class with the few really good travel books. 
 / "The Youth's Companion" has published at 
 different times many excellent sketches of travel 
 by well-known contemporary travellers and 
 writers. The best of these sketches are pub- 
 lished in several volumes for school reading 
 *^ i under the titles, " The Wide World," " Northern 
 e>;. Europe," "Under Sunny Skies," "Toward the 
 f^-i Rising Sun," and " Strange Lands near Home." ^X^ 
 j They are suited to fifth and sixth grades. 
 ^ If we are to devote our reading hour to the 
 acquisition of culture, surely a part of the time 
 cannot better be spent than by learning some- 
 thing of the meaning and message of art. For 
 this purpose several series of reading books have , 
 been issued. Cyr's " Graded A rt Readers" a nd v 
 110
 
 SUPPLEMENTARY READING 
 
 Grover's "Art Literature Readers" set before 
 the pupil in the early grades reproductions of 
 great paintings and sculptures, accompanied by 
 stories which give an insight into their meaning 
 and by anecdotes from the lives of the artists 
 who produced them. Pictures appeal to the 
 child early, and it is pedagogically right to 
 emphasize the picture element in the first and 
 second readers, training the eye to recognize 
 good art. 
 
 Miss Hui JLhas written for the higher grades 
 a series of little volumes on the lives and works 
 of the great artists. Room can be found in the 
 average course for but few such books, but 
 these few are well worth consideration. Miss 
 '^ Hurll's "Raphael" and "Michelangelo" have 
 already been mentioned under Biography. 
 These two in eighth grade, preceded by her 
 volume on Greek sculpture in seventh grade, 
 would add strength to~tlie average reading 
 course. 
 
 We have now reached the field of fiction — 
 possible realistic fiction, as distinct from the 
 fiction of wonderland, which has already been 
 considered. The first and greatest work of 
 fiction adapted to children is generally conceded 
 lU
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 to be "Robinson Crusoe," a story which com- 
 bines more elements of interest to the young 
 than any of our other great English classics. 
 Adventure, shipwreck, a strange land, the mak- 
 ing of things with the hands, ingenious details 
 which give a touch of truth and vividness to 
 the narration, — finally the picture of a brave 
 man not daunted by misfortune nor overcome 
 by obstacles, — all this is enough to attract and 
 hold the interest of any child. "Robinson 
 Crusoe " may be read in the fourth year. Many 
 good teachers use it orally in earlier grades as 
 the basis of construction work and of conversa- 
 tion regarding trades and occupations. Dr. 
 Charles McMurry, in his "Special Method in 
 Primary Reading," recommends its use in this 
 way in second grade. Such a treatment pre- 
 pares children to read the story with greater 
 interest and appreciation when it is put into 
 their hands a few years later. 
 
 Other good fiction adapted to school reading 
 is (1) "Heidi," a sweet story from the German 
 of Joanna Spyri, descriptive of Alpine life and, 
 later, of a little mountain girl's experiences in a 
 German city. Fourth and fifth grades. (2) 
 "Abdallah," from the French of Laboulaye. 
 112
 
 SUPPLEMENTARY READING 
 
 An Oriental tale with an element of mystery and i 
 a deep moral lesson. Sixth and seventh grades. 
 (3) "The Nuremburg Stove" and (4) "A Dog 
 of Flanders " by Mme. de la Ramee, the foiTner 
 published also with several other tales by the 
 same author under the general title "Bimbi." 
 Fourth and fifth grades. (5) "Jackanapes" 
 and (6) "The Story of a Short Life" by Mrs. 
 Ewing. Two stories which always interest 
 children and influence them for good. Fifth 
 and sixth grades. (7) Lamb's "Tales from 
 Shakespeare," an excellent introduction to 
 Shakespeare's plays. Sixth or seventh grade. 
 (8) Brown's "Rab and his Friends" and (9) 
 Sewell's "Black Beauty" inspiring kindness to 
 animals. Sixth or seventh grade. (10) Dick- 
 ens's "Christmas Carol" and (11) "The 
 Cricket on the Hearth." Seventh and eighth 
 grades. (12) Hawthorne's " Tales of the White 
 Hills," or at least "The Great Stone Face," 
 which is the finest of the collection, and which 
 no child should leave school without having 
 read. May be used in seventh grade, though 
 it is better in eighth. (13) Martineau's "The 
 Peasant and the Prince," a picture of life in 
 France on the eve of the French Revolution. 
 113
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 Seventh and eighth grades. (14) Irving's " Leg — -^ 
 end of Sleepy Hollow," issued usually with "Rip 
 Van Winkle" and others of the Sketch Book es- 
 says. Seventh or eighth grade. (15) Hughes's 
 "Tom Brown at Rugby," a fine, strong story 
 with a thoroughly healthful influence. Eighth 
 grade. 
 
 There is also a class of narrative and de- 
 scriptive poems which may be included under 
 the general head of fiction and read in the last 
 /years of the grammar school. The most im- 
 i portant are Tennyson's "Enoch Arden," Whit- ^^ 
 V tier's "Snow Bound," and Bums's "Cotter's 
 j Saturday Night.". -, " ' '" 
 
 / We shall not consider poetry, as librarians 
 usually do, a distinct class of literature, for our 
 division has been made on the basis of subject 
 rather than of form, and in this scheme poetry 
 and prose stand side by side. Bryant's Trans- 
 lation of the Odyssey and Lamb's "Adventures 
 of Ulysses " clearly belong in the same class, 
 though one is verse and the other prose; so, 
 also, "Evangeline" and "The Peasant and the 
 Prince." Yet we must find or make a place for 
 a graded series of miscellaneous poems which 
 ought, for two reasons, to be included among 
 114
 
 SUPPLEMENTARY READING 
 
 our supplementary reading books; first, be- 
 cause we need in the schools more poetry than 
 the average series of readers supplies; and 
 second, because these books furnish the neces- 
 sary material for memorizing. We do not 
 need, surely, to enter a plea for poetry in the 
 school-room. All good teachers recognize the 
 importance of training the ear early to appre- 
 ciate the beauty of rhythm and cadence, the 
 musical expression of what is best and deepest 
 in nature and in life, for all that is best and 
 deepest finds its perfect expression in poetry. 
 The child should early be taught to read and 
 to love it, beginning with the musical jingles of 
 Mother Goose in his first school year and ex- 
 tending to "The Cotter's Saturday Night" and 
 "Thanatopsis" in the highest grammar grade. 
 The best collections of short poems issued 
 for school reading are Miss Shute*s " Land of 
 Song," and Wilder and BeTIainy^^^Open Se-^ 
 same." Each is in three volumes, graded ac- 
 cording to difficulty, and covers the entire 
 common school course. A good general col- 
 lection of literary excerpts in both prose and 
 verse is the "Heart of Oak Books^," published 
 in eight volumes, a book for each school year. 
 115
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 The importance of memorizing a large num- 
 ber of the best of these short poems cannot be 
 overstated. The boys and girls who grow up 
 to manhood and womanhood possessed of a 
 store of the best thoughts that have ever found 
 human expression have at hand an inspiration 
 which can never be taken from them, but which 
 will when most needed stand them in good 
 stead. Who can tell how many times in after 
 years, when tempted or discouraged or 
 wavering, these thoughts will come back and 
 strengthen them? The song^ 2l,Eippa4s not 
 merely a poet's fancy. It is a type of the way 
 in which the music of a sweet or noble verse 
 can touch the heart and influence the life. 
 And who can measure the folly of allowing 
 children to commit to memory, for recitation, 
 doggerel from the newspapers or milk-and- 
 water lyrics from juvenile magazines, while 
 with the same mental effort they might be 
 learning something that would be to them a 
 joy forever? 
 
 When we review the supplementary reading 
 
 material adapted to the grades, we find that 
 
 there is, psychologically, a time at which each 
 
 class of literature appeals to the child with the 
 
 U6
 
 SUPPLEMENTARY READING 
 
 greatest force. In the earliest grades JFoUc- 
 lore and fable supply the natural mental food; 
 soon afterward myths, then legends, which 
 merge at length into biography and history. 
 The reading matter should be varied, and no 
 one year entirely devoted to a single subject, 
 else it will become monotonous; yet the wise 
 teacher will give prominence always to the sub- 
 ject which is particularly suited to the stage of 
 the pupil's mental development. 
 
 A tabular view will help to make clear this 
 adaptation of subject to the developing inter- 
 ests and abilities of the child : 
 
 1st Grade: FOLK-LORE* (including Rhymes, Fables, 
 Myths, and Wonder Stories). Stories of 
 Children, Animal Stories, Pictm-es. 
 
 2d Grade: FABLES. Wonder Stories, Myths, Rhymes. 
 Stories of Children, Animal Stories, Pic- 
 tures. 
 
 3d Grade: WONDER STORIES. Myths, Fables, 
 Legends, Stories of Children, Animal Sto- 
 ries, Short Poems, Pictures. 
 
 4th Grade: MYTHS. Legends, Wonder Stories, Biog- 
 raphy, Fiction, Animal and Nature Sto- 
 ries, Travels, Short Poems. 
 
 5th Grade: LEGENDS. Myths, Wonder Stories, Biog- 
 raphy, History, Fiction, Nature Stories, 
 Travels, Short Poems. 
 
 * The important subject is in capitals. 
 117
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 6th Grade: BIOGRAPHY. History, Fiction, Travels, 
 Nature Stories, Legends, Myths, Wonder 
 Stories, Short Poems. 
 
 7th Grade: HISTORY. Biography, Fiction, Travels, 
 Nature Stories, Legends, Myths, Short 
 Poems. 
 
 8th Grade : FICTION . Poetry, History, Biography, Na- 
 ture Stories, General Literature. 
 
 This table corresponds with the development 
 of the child's mind, and represents an orderly 
 progression to the close of the seventh year. 
 The subjects to be emphasized during the 
 eighth year are more largely a matter of choice. 
 
 In the foregoing discussion, nothing has been 
 said of method. Normal institutes, teachers' 
 associations, and educational journals have 
 given this subject so much attention that the 
 average teacher is perhaps in danger of having 
 too much method rather than too httle. It may 
 be said, however, that the teacher of inter- 
 mediate or grammar grades who requires no 
 supplementary reading to be done outside of the 
 school-room will not be able to give her pupils 
 any considerable acquaintance with literature. 
 No other subject is so well suited for home work. 
 If the pupil reads the lesson outside of school, 
 the class period can be devoted to conversation 
 118
 
 SUPPLEMENTARY READING 
 
 about the lesson, to the intensive reading of the 
 most significant portions of it, — the only way 
 in which average boys and girls can be made to 
 get the full meaning out of what they have 
 read. In the primary grades the case is other- 
 wise. There the work must be done in the 
 school-room and much of it by means of 
 story-telling. The pupil's abiUty to understand 
 far exceeds, at this stage, his abihty to read, 
 and the teacher should supply a wider thought 
 element by telhng and occasionally reading 
 stories which the child is unable to read him- 
 self. The grading which has been suggested 
 for books mentioned in this chapter refers to the 
 pupil's reading. Books adapted to reading in 
 the higher grades furnish material for primary 
 stories, which the active teacher will not be 
 slow to appropriate and use. Other books 
 helpful to teachers are named in the Appendix. 
 
 
 U9
 
 CHAPTER VI -^ 
 THE SCHOOL LIBRARY 
 
 THE school library forms a strong bond 
 between the school and the home. It 
 coordinates the child's home reading with 
 his school work and adds to the efficiency of 
 both. In homes of ignorance, where there are 
 no books, it affords a substitute for the home 
 library, and in homes of poverty, where the 
 library is small, it widens the Uterary horizon. 
 It assumes the most important function of the 
 parent when the parent is incompetent. It is 
 both an inspiration to right living and a means 
 of culture, for it shows the child through what 
 means great and good men have become great 
 and good; how honesty, purity, gentleness, 
 and temperance sweeten and glorify life. It 
 sets before him high ideals not impossible of 
 attainment. It tells him the story of this old 
 world of ours, opens his eyes to the wonders of 
 nature, and demonstrates the goodness of God. 
 Then, too, its leavening influence touches the 
 parents. It reaches thus into the dark comers 
 120
 
 THE SCHOOL LIBRARY 
 
 of society and brings to many a discouraged, 
 hard-worked father and mother an intellectual 
 stimulus and the vision of a fuller life. Men 
 and women who have almost forgotten how to 
 read, and who in their own childhood never 
 had good books, take up the volumes which 
 their boys and girls bring home from school 
 and get a glimpse into a worid where all is not 
 expressed in terms of dollars and cents. 
 
 Most people assent to the importance of the 
 school library, but do not seem to realize that 
 its value depends wholly upon the selection of its 
 books. I have seen school libraries which were 
 actually harmful because so dull that they 
 created in the child a prejudice against all 
 sorts of libraries from that time forth. I have 
 seen others selected by incompetent teachers, 
 which contained quite as much trash as good 
 reading matter — OUver Optic books side by 
 side with Motley's histories, Henty jostUng 
 Shakespeare. The selection of a school library 
 requires expert judgment, and the teacher 
 cannot make up a list from publishers' cata- 
 logues, not knowing the books he is ordering, 
 and be at all sure that he has selected what his 
 pupils need. 
 
 121
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 Public library commissions and State Super- 
 intendents in many of the States have pre- 
 pared school library lists to assist teachers in 
 their choice; pupils' reading circles have pub- 
 lished the titles of their adopted books extending 
 back over a period of years and representing a 
 careful selection from the best literature for chil- 
 dren; children's Ubrarians have issued sug- 
 gestive catalogues — the best of which are those 
 ^ of Miss Hewins of the Hartford Public Library, 
 y'^ Misses Prentice and Power of Cleveland, and 
 . the children's catalogue of the Boston Public 
 Library; specialists in children's literature have 
 added their contributions to the bibliography 
 of the subject; but after the use of all these 
 helps there is still the problem of selecting 
 from a large number of reasonably good books 
 those whch are best, or which best meet the 
 requirements of a given school. 
 
 In the rural districts — and in many towns 
 and villages as well — the teacher or school 
 board is met at this point by the itinerant 
 agent of some school supply company with the 
 oflfer of a library of fifty volumes for fifty dol- 
 lars, or forty volumes for forty dollars, or some 
 equally Uberal proposition. The books are 
 122
 
 THE SCHOOL LIBRARY 
 
 "elegantly bound in uniform style, with gilt 
 tops, and an expensive oak case free." After 
 stripping the proposition of its affluent fancy 
 — and obscure English — and reducing it to 
 plain facts, it is found that the fifty volumes 
 are mostly non-copyright fiction, printed on a 
 gray-white paper which turns yellow at the 
 edges after a few months' exposure to the hght, 
 and from well-worn plates, the capitals being 
 innocent of comers and the e's and s's filled 
 with printer's ink, while horrid gaps appear in 
 the midst of words which have a reasonable 
 claim to continuity. The bindings are showy 
 and weak, and the books fall to pieces after a 
 few months' wear. The titles are alphabeti- 
 cally arranged from " Adam Bede " to " Woman 
 in AVhite," the oak case is a rough but highly 
 varnished affair costing perhaps forty or fifty 
 cents to manufacture, and the books are such 
 as are printed for the consumption of depart- 
 ment store buyers, who find them constantly 
 on the bargain counters, "marked down to 48 
 cents,'* and sometimes even cheaper. In one 
 case which recently came under my notice, as 
 an incentive to school-room decoration a beauti- 
 ful picture in a *' massive solid gilt frame " was 
 128
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 offered with the library. The "solid gilt frame" 
 was, as might be expected, a delusion; as for 
 the picture — I spare you a description of its 
 horrors. This is not a fanciful story, but a 
 plain statement of the manner in which rural 
 and village school boards in some of our West- 
 em States are solicited to purchase libraries, 
 and in which, alas, many do purchase them. 
 
 A good school library may begin in a very 
 small way. Twenty well-selected books are 
 more valuable than a hundred carelessly 
 selected ones, and the need of economy is often 
 a real advantage, since it makes the teacher 
 distinguish more carefully between the essen- 
 tial books and those which are only useful. A 
 good library is a growth. It is never com- 
 pleted, and is often more valuable when it 
 has gained by slow accretions the volumes that 
 have been found to be indispensable to it than 
 when it has sprung into being like Pallas, fully 
 equipped and ready to do business. 
 
 Buy well-made books. Some people can- 
 not understand why books issued by reputable 
 publishers and dressed in very modest bind- 
 ings should cost more than the department- 
 store variety, with their wealth of ornamental 
 124
 
 THE SCHOOL LIBRARY 
 
 stamping and their "fool's gold" decorations. 
 But the teacher who has admitted the latter 
 class of volumes into a school library knows, 
 having learned by experience that a well-made 
 book is cheaper than a flimsy one, even though 
 its first cost be twice as great. It should be a 
 part of the education of every boy and girl not 
 only to know the diflFerence between a noble 
 book and a common one, but also between an 
 honestly made book and one made to deceive. 
 Especially should the books of a school library 
 conform to the mechanical standard which 
 Ruskin demanded, — "printed in excellent 
 form, for a just price; but not in any vile, 
 vulgar, or, by reason of smallness of type, 
 physically injurious form, at a vile price. For 
 we none of us need many books and those 
 which we need ought to be clearly printed, on 
 the best paper, and strongly bound." 
 
 It is perhaps unnecessary to urge the teacher 
 to beware of donations, — dead books which 
 are generously bestowed upon the school library 
 because they are of no further use to anybody. 
 There is a current notion that the scope of a 
 library is large enough to include any book, not 
 absolutely inmioral, which contains informa- 
 125
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 tion. Of the large public library this is per- 
 haps true, but the school library should be a 
 working hbrary and every book in it aUve. 
 Nothing quenches the pupils' interest so 
 quickly as an array of dry, unreadable, for- 
 bidding volumes. Throw them out ! 
 
 The school library has, in its relation to the 
 pupil, a two-fold use : (1) it suppUes good books 
 for home reading — either such as appeal to 
 the pupils' individual tastes, or such as are 
 recommended by the teacher to ampUfy the 
 work of the class, and (2) it .affords in the 
 school-room an opportunity to get information 
 on specific topics. Every good school hbrary 
 fulfils these two functions, and thus embraces 
 both a circulating and a reference hbrary. 
 
 The foundation of the circulating section of 
 the library should be the "books of power" 
 which have been already suggested for the home 
 library and for supplementary reading in the 
 school. As the school library in its broadest 
 sense includes all sets of books owned by the 
 school and used for supplementary reading, 
 there need be no duplication. The library 
 simply extends the range and amount of this 
 Uterary material, providing more than is neces- 
 126
 
 THE SCHOOL LIBRARY 
 
 sary for the work of the reading class and 
 stimulating the child to follow up his acquaint- 
 ance with the great masters of English prose 
 and poetry to whom he has been introduced 
 in the school-room. 
 
 In addition to this literary foundation, the 
 circulating section of the library should provide 
 good reading books on science, nature, geog- 
 rapliy, ]iistor}% and kindred branches — "books 
 of knowledge " — which will add to the interest 
 and value of the daily lesson and give to the.^ 
 pupil a wider outlook. Here belong such , 
 books as Tjmdall's "Forms of Water," Inger-' 
 soil's "Book of the Ocean," Grant Allen's ' 
 "Story of the Plants," Ball's "Starland," Jor- , 
 dan's "Science Sketches," Livingstone's "Last i 
 Journals," all of which not only extend but 
 enliven and make more effective the material 
 of the text-books. A suggestive list of several 
 hundred books adapted to school libraries will 
 be found in the Appendix to the present volume. 
 
 The reference section of the library is equally 
 important. It is the laboratory where the 
 pupil investigates literature and history and 
 geography, using cyclopaedias instead of test 
 tubes and books instead of batteries. Every 
 127
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 teacher knows that the knowledge which a 
 child discovers is worth twice that which is 
 given to him in his text-book, cut up and par- 
 tially predigested. So the reference Ubrary 
 has come to be a sine qua non in modem edu- 
 cation, and the fuller and more usable it is 
 the more deep and sure will be the foundations 
 provided for the pupil's knowledge. 
 
 The reference library should contain, first 
 of all, good dictionaries — more than one — a 
 Webster's International, Webster's Imperial, 
 Standard, or Worcester's, and by all means a 
 Century if the funds will permit; for the Century 
 gives more fully and exactly than any other 
 dictionary the origin, the history, the organism 
 of words, — and of all that a pupil learns at 
 school the one thing that marks his degree of 
 culture is his knowledge of words, his ability 
 to use them rightly, to know them intimately, 
 to distinguish between so-called synonymous 
 words which mean quite different things. Most 
 words are full of a significance that the un- 
 educated person never feels, and in proportion 
 as one recognizes these finer meanings will he 
 be able to appreciate the highest literature. 
 Besides the dictionaries, Roget's "Thesaurus, 
 128
 
 THE SCHOOL LIBRARY 
 
 jef English Words" and Crabbe's "English 
 r Synonymes" are of great value in giving the 
 pupil this abihty to make and to understand 
 fine distinctions. 
 
 Then come encyclopaedias, the most useful of 
 which we believe to be the New International. 
 This covers a wide range of subjects, provides 
 enough information but not too much, is exact, 
 authoritative and, withal, exceedingly well writ- 
 ten. If a second set can be purchased, it may 
 be well to get the Britannica; but the Britannica 
 is so full that the average child who consults 
 it loses himself in its detailed and technical 
 information and misses the salient fact for 
 which he is seeking. Lippincott 's " Gazetteer 
 o Lthe World " is almost a necessity, and Lip- 
 ^incott's "Biograghical Dictionary" is useful, 
 though much of itsmformaHonTslo be found 
 in the dictionaries and encyclopaedias. The 
 best biographical dictionaries of Uving men and 
 Y women are "Who's Who in America," and 
 "Who's Who" (English), wEfcHlh^uTd be re- 
 placed by new editions every three or four years, 
 or as often as issued. (A few good histories of 
 the Eastern nations, Greece, Rome, France, 
 Germany, England, and the United Stat^; a 
 129
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 (standard geography, like Mill's "Interna- 
 tional '\( a historical atlas — Labberton's is 
 perhaps the best; a group of practical science^ 
 books which will enable children to identify the 
 flowers, birds, and butterflies ; a simple reference 
 book on art, such as Hoyt's "World's Painters ^ 
 and their Pictures," and on mythology, as Bul- 
 
 — finch's "Age of Fable," or, better, Gayley's 
 ^ Classic Myths in English Literature " ; finally, 
 a book of famihar quotations — Bartlett's, by 
 all means, and a year book of current knowl- 
 edge — either the " New York World's " or the 
 "Chicago Daily News'" annual almanac, — 
 these form the nucleus of a reference library 
 which may be extended as the needs of the 
 pupils demand and as the available library 
 funds permit. A fuller list is suggested in the 
 Appendix. 
 
 But with the finest possible collection of 
 books the school hbrary problem is only half 
 solved. The pupil must be taught to use the 
 library, else it has entirely failed of its purpose. 
 There are unfortunately some schools in which 
 the pupil, like the youth in the Arabian tale, 
 has treasures of priceless value just before 
 him, but cannot reach them because he does 
 130
 
 tHE SCHOOL LIBRARY 
 
 not know the talisman which can open the 
 door. More than a half-century ago, Emer- 
 son, with his prophetic insight, voiced the need 
 of a professorship of books, — of the employ- 
 ment of men or women in our colleges to teach 
 the student how to unlock these treasures, 
 where to go for instant information on any 
 given subject, and whom to trust as guides. 
 This need is now met in some of our colleges 
 and in a few secondary schools by reference 
 librarians, who help the students in their 
 researches and in some cases give them talks 
 on the use of the card catalogue, Poole 's Index, 
 encyclopaedias and dictionaries, systems of 
 classification, and whatever else may tend to 
 make them familiar with the library and per- 
 fectly at home in it. In the graded schools, 
 too, much excellent work has been done by 
 the children's librarians of the great public 
 libraries, who visit the school-rooms at the 
 teacher's invitation and talk to the pupils 
 familiarly about books and how to use them. 
 
 To learn how to read and to get the most 
 
 out of books is the important thing in our 
 
 school training. Carlyle has said: "If we 
 
 think of it, all that a university, or final highest 
 
 131
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 school can do for us, is still but what the first 
 school began doing, — teach us to read. We 
 leam to read, in various languages, in various 
 sciences; we leam the alphabet and letters of 
 all manner of books. But the place where wo, 
 are to get knowledge, even theoretic knowl 
 edge, is the books themselves! It depends od 
 what we read, after all manner of professors 
 have done their best for us. The true univer- 
 sity of these days is a collection of books." 
 
 132
 
 // 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 THE PUBLIC LIBRARY 
 
 A ROOM in the sunniest comer of the 
 library building, ample shelves well 
 stocked with books, low tables around which sit 
 a score of children reading, whilst a sweet-faced 
 woman helps them find the books they want and t\^ 
 introduces them to the world of the great and 
 wise, finally, an atmosphere of peace in which 
 the hurly-burly of the outside world finds no 
 place — this is what the public library is giving 
 to the children. 
 
 It was not so very long ago that children in 
 the public libraries, like dogs in the parks, 
 were unwelcome unless kept in leash by a 
 responsible attendant. If one of tender years 
 happened to stray into those awful precincts 
 alone, he was gently but firmly shown to the 
 door and told to run away. But all this is 
 changed now, and some of our public library 
 authorities are raising the question whether 
 the children are not getting more than their just 
 share of attention, to the neglect of their elders. 
 133
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 "The story hour," which has come to be 
 a recognized institution in our best public 
 libraries, is doing as much as any other library 
 influence to interest children in good reading. 
 A certain period is set aside, sometimes regu- 
 larly each week, sometimes on special occasions 
 or holidays, when the children's librarian, or 
 an expert story-teller from without, who has 
 both sympathy and discrimination, gathers 
 the children about her and tells them the tales 
 that form the basis of our best literature. Lis- 
 tening to stories is the natural approach to 
 reading from books, and is the first step toward 
 the acquisition of culture. 
 
 But it is not only in the reading-room that 
 children are made to know and to love books. 
 As Mahomet to the mountain, so the library 
 goes to the child, if the child will not come to 
 it. The idea of the peripatetic library — the 
 " travelling library " as it is now generally called 
 — is in line with modem progress. In these 
 twentieth century days space has been anni- 
 hilated by rail and steam, inertia has been over- 
 come, locality has been destroyed, the world 
 is on wheels. The commercial traveller brings 
 his samples to the country merchant, takes 
 134
 
 THE PUBLIC LIBRARY 
 
 his order, and sends his goods in an 
 incredibly short interval of time; the uni- 
 versity lecturer deUvers six parallel courses 
 of lectures in six States and appears at each 
 point regularly once a week ; the poUtical orator 
 addresses a crowd from the rear platform of 
 his special car, and almost before the words of 
 his parting injunction have faded away is in the 
 next town urging another audience to vote 
 for Smith and defeat the rascal Jones; even 
 churches are built in railroad coaches, the 
 itinerant evangelist ministering to a dozen 
 charges and bringing his house of worship 
 with him. What then so natural in these days 
 of locomotion as the travelling library? 
 
 We are probably indebted to the Scotch for 
 the germ which has developed into this impor- 
 tant system of book distribution. Early in 
 the last century — in 1810 I believe it was — a 
 collection of religious tracts was circulated in 
 Scotland, augmented a few years later by 
 books of standard literature and science. 
 These " itinerant libraries," so-called, flourished 
 for more than two decades but finally died 
 of inanition. Thirty years after their dis- 
 appearance Australia developed a peripatetic 
 135
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 system, and somewhat later the Universities 
 of Oxford and Cambridge sent out university 
 extension libraries; but the travelling library 
 in this country dates from 1889 and owes its 
 origin to Mr. Melvil Dewey, director of the 
 New York State Library, at Albany. 
 
 The travelling library is simply an extension 
 of the State library, or in some cases, as in Wis- 
 consin, of the county library, — twenty-five, 
 or fifty, or a hundred books being sent out at 
 a time and entrusted for three months or six 
 months to the care of a responsible person, 
 who becomes a local or sub-librarian. This 
 local librarian loans the books to children as 
 well as to adults, under a simple code of regu- 
 lations, returning the entire library when it 
 has served its purpose and receiving in ex- 
 change a new selection of books, thus keeping 
 alive the interest of the readers and stimula- 
 ting them to read. Stations are established 
 in village shops and post-oflSces, often in 
 farm houses at some distance from the towns 
 but conveniently located with reference to the 
 rural population. In a number of States trav- 
 elling librarians are employed. The travelling 
 librarian is a real literary evangeUst, preaching 
 136
 
 THE PUBLIC LIBRARY 
 
 the gospel of good books. He strengthens the 
 hands of the local librarian, revives the 
 flagging interest, establishes new centres, 
 and carries light into the dark places. What 
 a field of usefulness is open to him! Coming 
 into personal contact with hundreds of people, 
 young and old, to whom the world of books 
 is a terra incognita, he rescues many a country 
 youth from intellectual starvation, fans in some 
 the spark which shall kindle into genius, and 
 in others not so gifted stimulates the intelli- 
 gent use of the powers which they possess, in- 
 suring at least better crops and broader citizen- 
 ship. 
 
 The transportation of the libraries from place 
 to place offers a problem which each State is 
 working out for itself. In some localities, not- 
 ably in the South, the railroads, recognizing 
 the philanthropy of the idea which underlies 
 this library movement, are shipping the libra- 
 ries without charge. In other parts of the 
 country the local centre pays a nominal amount 
 to cover the cost of freight. Mr. Dewey 
 strongly advocates, and has already put into 
 commission in New York, a type of library 
 wagon driven by a trained librarian, who, after 
 137
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 the manner of the religious colporter of a 
 former generation, goes from station to station, 
 canying his books with him. 
 
 The children have a large share in the travel- 
 ling library. In most libraries from one-fourth 
 to one-third of the books are adapted particu- 
 larly to children's use, and children are among 
 the most devoted readers. In a small village in 
 New York State a girl of thirteen recently 
 drew from a travelling library during the six 
 months of its stay thirty-two books. A boy 
 of fifteen drew twenty-five books. The statis- 
 tics at other points show an interest almost as 
 great. 
 
 Several of our large city libraries, notably 
 the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh and the New 
 York City public library, have adapted the 
 travelling system to urban conditions and are 
 sending out into the tenements trained chil- 
 dren's librarians, bearing good books. The 
 books, in libraries containing from twelve to 
 twenty volumes, known as "home libraries," 
 are placed in the hands of certain families, who 
 agree to take care of them for a specified time 
 and to loan them to such neighbors as may 
 wish to read. Little circles are thus formed 
 - 138
 
 THE PUBLIC LIBRARY 
 
 — for the most part of children, though grown- 
 up members of the families join in them, too. 
 The library visitor comes once a week and 
 talks to them, tells them stories — such stories 
 as are told to the hbrary children during the 
 " story hour." Then she makes the connection 
 between the story and the book, taking a volume 
 from the case, and reading a few interesting 
 pages from it. After a friendly hour she goes 
 away, leaving the seed to germinate. When 
 one set of books has been read through she 
 brings a new set and takes the old ones back — 
 very dirty, probably, but the city can well af- 
 ford to bum them and buy more, for the books 
 are making citizens, and these children who are 
 learning to read good literature will not need 
 so many poHcemen to look after them a few 
 years hence, thanks to the library visitor. 
 
 Nor does this beautiful and far-reaching 
 philanthropy stop with the reading of books. 
 The hbrary worker gains the confidence of 
 parents as well as of children. She learns the 
 troubles and discouragements of the lower 
 strata of society, and is able to give help. She 
 does much of the work usually accomplished 
 by the "friendly visitor" of the charitable
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 organizations, and does it more effectively, 
 for the unfortunate ones who are most in 
 need of aid and sympathy are shy in the 
 presence of charity and often suspicious of 
 the church. 
 
 Another important movement in Ubrary ex- 
 tension has to do with the pl ^ -QJ pg of libraries 
 ill the schools, its aim being to bring into accord 
 the work of the two great educational influences 
 of the present age, the public library and the 
 public school. When one stops to consider 
 the many points at which the work of the 
 librarian and the teacher overlap, it will be 
 seen that a great saving of energy and an 
 enormous gain in eflSciency must result from 
 this union. The function of the library is to 
 put the right book into the right hands — not 
 only into the hands that are outstretched for 
 it but into those in which it will do good. The 
 librarian, busied with the details of adminis- 
 trative work, purchasing, classifying, cata- 
 loguing, keeping in order, though she may have 
 — and must have — sympathy with the chil- 
 dren who frequent the library, cannot come 
 into that close relationship with them which 
 is enjoyed by the teacher, who has them with
 
 THE PUBLIC LIBRARY 
 
 her six hours in every day, Sundays and holi- 
 days excepted, who directs their intellectual 
 progress, and who comes to know their needs 
 more intelligently and often more sympathet- 
 ically than even the parent. 
 
 These considerations have led to the devel- 
 opment of a system in which the public library 
 places its resources at the command of the 
 schools, the librarian giving of her practical 
 knowledge of the books, and the teacher of 
 her knowledge of the child. The librarian 
 visits the school and talks to the children, tells 
 them how to ** find things " in books, tells the 
 younger ones a few good classic stories and 
 suggests where they may find others, tells the 
 older ones how to use a card catalogue, how 
 to run down a reference, where to find good 
 material to help them in their history and 
 geography. The teacher makes individual ap- 
 plication of the librarian's generaUties and fits 
 a particular book to a particular want. The 
 librarian is the specialist; she has at her fingers' 
 ends the entire Materia Medica of the Ubrary, 
 and is skilled in the uses of all sorts of books; 
 but the teacher is familiar with the cliild's 
 constitution and habits, a sort of knowledge 
 Ul
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 quite as important. Consultation of this sort is 
 in line with modem practice and is yielding pro- 
 nounced results in school-rooms where it has 
 been tried. The books are supplied from the 
 school Ubrary, so far as the school library can 
 meet the demand; but beyond that point the 
 public library is drawn upon and offers from 
 its greater resources a wide range of reference 
 material and books on special subjects appro- 
 priate either to the work of the class or to the 
 celebration of the annual festivals and the 
 birthdays of great men and women. These 
 books are sent to the school-room for reference 
 or distribution, and the school is thus made in 
 effect a branch library, or, if you please, a 
 travelling library station. 
 
 If the public library is convenient to the 
 school — and in villages it always should be — 
 the reference work is often best done in the 
 library itself. This method has the double 
 advantage of affording a quiet place in which 
 the pupil may work without distraction, and 
 of familiarizing him with the library — helping 
 him to acquire the "library habit." If the 
 alliance of school and library accomplished 
 nothing beyond this, it would be well worth 
 142
 
 THE PUBLIC LIBRARY 
 
 all the eflForts that have been put forth m its 
 behalf. 
 
 The object sought by both librarian and 
 teacher is the culture of the child — particu- 
 larly the development in him of a discrimina- 
 ting love of books, for this is the straight road 
 to culture. The child is placed by law under 
 the influence of the teacher during just those 
 years when, if ever, the reading habit is formed 
 and the trend given which determines the 
 child's intellectual life. It is a critical period, 
 and no agency should be overlooked which can 
 contribute toward the end in view. 
 
 In such ways as these the public library is 
 reaching out after the children. In the coun- 
 try farm-house, in the city tenement, and in the 
 school-room, as well as under its own roof-tree, 
 it is bringing to them the knowledge of a great 
 new world — a world of opportunity, of en- 
 couragement, of delight. It is extending their 
 vision over distant lands and bygone centuries, 
 acquainting them with the secrets of nature 
 and the mysteries of science, opening their 
 hearts to the sweet influences of poetry, and 
 pointing out to them the path of righteousness 
 and truth. 
 
 143
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 THE SUNDAY.SCHOOL LIBRARY 
 
 OLD Richard de Bury, writing his " Philo- 
 biblion," more than five centuries ago, 
 quaintly apostrophizes books: "O books! Ye 
 are the golden pots in which manna is stored 
 and rocks flowing with honey, nay, combs of 
 honey, most plenteous udders of the milk of 
 hfe, gamers ever full; ye are the tree of life- 
 and the fourfold river of Paradise. Ye are 
 the stones of testimony and the pitchers hold- 
 ing the lamps of Gideon, the scrip of David 
 from which the smoothest stones are taken for 
 the slaying of GoUath. Ye are the golden 
 vessels of the temple, the arms of the soldiers 
 of the Church, with which to quench all the 
 fiery darts of the wicked." 
 
 Richard de Bury's hbrary was, no doubt, 
 largely theological in its scope — as became a 
 worthy churchman. There were, of course, 
 copies of the Greek and Latin classics and a 
 sprinkhng of the more frivolous poets, which 
 he excuses as being, on the whole, not antag- 
 144
 
 THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL LIBRARY 
 
 onistic to truth, because a. man "may make 
 of any subject, observing the Umitations of 
 virtue, a study acceptable to God." But as 
 during the Dark Ages, the monasteries were 
 the houses of learning, and as monks were the 
 writers as well as the copyists of books, it was 
 inevitable that Hterature should take on a 
 reUgious hue and that its function should be 
 regarded as particulariy to strengthen the faith, 
 and, as the good bishop put it, "to quench the 
 fiery darts of the wicked." 
 
 More than four hundred years after Richard 
 de Bury's expression regarding the use of books, 
 the Sunday-school Ubrary came into being, — 
 and it is surprising to note how Uttle change 
 had taken place in the Church's conception of 
 literature. Books were pubUshed, it is true, 
 which were merely entertaining, and some few 
 which were both entertaining and ennobling, 
 but the founders of the Sunday-school library 
 frowned upon them, feeUng that the books 
 which the Church offered to her children should 
 be rehgious books, — nothing else. This feel- 
 ing resulted in a class of juvenile literature 
 which was unspeakably dreary; and not only 
 dreary, but puerile as well, for its authors 
 U5
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 found it necessary to dilute their theology and 
 administer it for the most part in story 
 form, in order to induce the child to read it at 
 all. 
 
 This religious fiction was sharply distin- 
 guished from all common or profane fiction and 
 showed, with some variations, piety triumphant 
 and the sinner punished. The earliest Sunday- 
 school literature was more or less sectarian, 
 each denomination through its accredited pub- 
 lishing house issuing its own books and holding 
 itself responsible for the strict orthodoxy of its 
 output. Later, this idea gave way to the 
 broader view that mooted points of theology 
 should be excluded from Sunday-school litera- 
 ture — a plan which made the books a trifle 
 less heavy, but did not alter their other char- 
 acteristics. The heroes and heroines were still 
 pretematurally pious and generally died young. 
 Their pleasures were unworldly, and their en- 
 thusiasms were of that spiritual sort which no 
 healthy boy or girl can understand. I remem- 
 ber how in my childhood I disliked them — 
 how I feared to be too good lest I might in 
 some faint way resemble them and might, like 
 them, be marked for early death. 
 146
 
 THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL LIBRARY 
 
 It was soon discovered that this literature 
 had failed in its object, because no normal child 
 would read it except upon compulsion, and 
 having read it, was likely to be driven into an 
 attitude of hostility to the things which it set 
 forth. The conception of the Sunday-school 
 library then underwent a change. It was sec- 
 ularized, and from being an effort at religious 
 training it became merely a sort of lure, like 
 the reward-of-merit card, the prize book, and 
 the Sunday-school picnic. Oliver Optic and 
 Henty displaced the pious stories of earUer 
 years and Huckleberry Finn became a popular 
 favorite. For a time this new idea of the Sun- 
 day-school library accomplished its purpose, 
 but as the public library, growing in popularity 
 and influence and extending along the same 
 lines, has been able to place a fuller and better 
 class of books within reach of children every- 
 where, the library in the Sunday school has 
 finally lost its power to attract, and has found 
 no longer an excuse for being. Thus we hear 
 of the passing of the Sunday-school library, 
 and many eminent Sunday-school workers and 
 speakers have sung its requiem. 
 
 For my part, I believe there is still a place 
 147
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 for it. It will not be the library of the former 
 generation with its cant and artificiality, nor 
 that of the present generation with its sensa- 
 tionalism, but a library of pure, good literature 
 at once attractive and ennobling — a literature 
 which shall assist in the work of the Sunday 
 school by teaching better morals and advancing 
 higher ideals; and an important division of it 
 shall be devoted frankly to subjects connected 
 more or less intimately with the study of the 
 Bible. 
 
 Will you serve with us, kind reader, on a 
 committee entrusted with the reorganization of 
 a library along such lines as we have indicated ? 
 The destructive work must precede the con- 
 structive, and will prove quite stimulating, we 
 are sure, for man is naturally a destructive 
 animal, never quite outgrowing the joy of 
 smashing things; and to be turned into an 
 average collection of Sunday-school books with 
 a free hand causes all one's savage instincts to 
 rise up and take possession of him. 
 
 Upon what, then, shall we first la^ 
 
 hands ? There is that long line of "Elsiebdoks,' 
 
 with their vapid sentimentality, tracing the 
 
 heroine from early childhood to old age and 
 
 U8
 
 THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL LIBRARY 
 
 continuing the baneful succession through her 
 children, grandchildren, and various kin. She 
 is taken east, west, north, and south, to the 
 World's Fair, to Nantucket, to — Heaven knows 
 where. There are thirty-five volumes of the 
 stuff, including those devoted to " Mildred,** a 
 friend of Elsie's, who also grows up, is married, 
 and has children expressly to provide material 
 for more volumes. This is probably the most 
 useless lumber that we shall find in the library. 
 Into the dust-bin with itV 
 
 Then there are the " Pjiidy" books by Sophie 
 May, intended for somewnat younger readers. 
 Shall they share the same fate? Perhaps you 
 suggest that they are interesting to small chil- 
 dren, rather bright — in spots — and really do 
 no harm. Faint praise, it must be confessed, 
 and yet not altogether warranted. For while 
 one or two volumes of this sort may furnish 
 innocent diversion, what shall we say of thirty ? 
 Children are fond of them, no doubt. So are 
 they fond of pie, but pie in unlimited quantities 
 is generally held to be inferior to bread as an 
 article of diet. The most remarkable feature 
 of both the Prudy and the Elsie books is their 
 persistent continuity. Each volume contains 
 149
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 the germ of another, suggesting those cleverly 
 made nests of boxes devised, we believe, by the 
 Japanese, each box of which on being opened 
 discloses another within, a little smaller, until 
 the investigator reaches one so tiny as to seem 
 scarcely worth opening at all. Yet he has not 
 reached the end ! It is wonderful how long it 
 is before he does reach it. 
 
 That shelfful of books with worn bindrngs'T 
 indicative of much use, are the Oliv^pKPptic 
 output, the delight of two generations of boys. 
 The writer was recently asked for an opinion 
 as to whether these books are harmless, and at 
 first was inclined to deal leniently with them. 
 I remembered a small boy who some thirty 
 years ago or more — I will not say how many 
 more — read them and named his dogs and 
 rabbits, — yes, and even insensate spools — after 
 their heroes, and acted out the glorious fights 
 of Waddy Wimpleton and Tommy Toppleton, 
 or shut up the vicious ShuiBes in the brig of 
 the Young America. I remembered how he 
 squandered the small earnings of several weeks 
 to hear their accomplished author in a public 
 reading, and actually shook hands with him 
 after it, and went away with a sense of awe 
 150
 
 THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL LIBRARY 
 
 greater than if he had touched the hand of 
 royalty. Many men of the present generation 
 have that kindly feeling for Mr. Adams which 
 is bom of boyish memories. But have you 
 ever reread one of his books since your peg-top 
 days? I did, as an experiment, partly in the 
 interest of literature and partly, I confess, with 
 a hope that I might feel again one of those 
 rare thrills that used to come with the reading 
 of them — but I did not finish the book. I 
 stopped midway with that sense of mingled 
 sorrow and humiliation which often follows the 
 disillusionment of a first love. Seen in the 
 light of maturer judgment, these heroes of Mr. 
 Adams's are tawdry enough, and their declama- 
 tions suggestive of cheap melodrama. The best 
 that can be said of the Optic books is that they 
 are not immoral; as for their literary quality, 
 they are the veriest claptrap. In number they 
 are imposing, there being by actual count one 
 hundred seventeen of them. What can be 
 expected from a writer, of very moderate abil- 
 ity, who chooses to spread his energy over so 
 wide a space ? 
 
 A successful rival of Oliver Optic for the 
 favor of the present generation of boys is 
 151
 
 \ CPILDREN'S READING 
 
 George^. Henty, the English war correspond- 
 ent/He has written only seventy-three books, 
 and is therefore not entitled to quite the con- 
 sideration due to the achievements of his some- 
 what elder American contemporary. Yet in his 
 seventy-three volumes he has given us consider- 
 ably more bloodshed than we find* in Oliver 
 Optic's one hundred seventeen. He fairly revels 
 in gore. His admirers point to the fact that he 
 is writing history, and therefore finds it neces- 
 sary to introduce a quantity of slaughter; but 
 history is not all slaughter, and boys will grow 
 up into more peaceful citizens if they have 
 rather less of that sort of thing. With Henty, 
 history is only a background for a story, and 
 often, as he portrays it, not a very consistent or 
 truthful background. From "The Cat of Bu- 
 bastes" to Buller's campaign in South Africa, 
 he touches almost every period, but his best 
 books are those describing the modem English 
 warfare, of which he himself was an eye-witness 
 and about which he is therefore competent tp- 
 speak. \ y^ 
 
 We now reach the Reverend E. j^.^Jloe's 
 novels, once in high repute for SuBday-school 
 libraries and much read by those who abstain 
 152
 
 THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL LIBRARY 
 
 from ordinary fiction, deeming it trivial, but 
 who feel justified in taking deep draughts of 
 this particular sort because of its religious 
 stimulus. Mr. Roe's books belong to that 
 class of fiction the heroines of which Miss 
 Repplier has happily described as "dividing 
 their time impartially between flirting and 
 praying, between indiscriminate kisses and 
 passionate searching for light." Now, no rea- 
 sonable person can object to a good, frank love 
 story, such a story, for example, as "The Bride 
 of Lammermoor" or "Loma Doone"; but 
 your stories in which religion is used as a mask 
 for love-making, or in which love-making is 
 employed as a sugar-coating for a sermon, are 
 bad, and the sooner we throw them out the 
 better. v ^^,,0^^ 
 
 ks, for Miss Rosa N5uchette Carey, there 
 is little in her volumes worth tjie reading. 
 Miss^JiV^therell and Miss Am^Mqa Douglas I 
 place, on good authority, m the same class. 
 I have not read their books. In view of the 
 brevity of life and the fact that there is more 
 good literature in print than I can ever hope to 
 acquire, I have followed Bacon's suggestion 
 and have been content with reading a few 
 153
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 of these volumes by deputy — with much 
 sympathy, be it said, for the deputy. 
 
 But, happily, there is a pleasanter side to 
 this discussion. It is the constructive side. 
 Having disposed of the rubbish, what shall we 
 put in our library ? 
 
 First of all, books that help to build char- 
 acter._„By this we do not^ mean formally 
 religious or formally moral books, or, in fact, 
 any formal sort of books whatever. The 
 moral influence of a book is like the fragrance 
 of a flower. It is intangible. A moral which 
 obtrudes itself repels a child. He must not 
 know that there is in the book a sermon for 
 him. It is better that the author who writes 
 it shall not know. But a good man or woman 
 writing for children — and writing with judg- 
 ment and literary skill — cannot any more help 
 making a morally helpful book than he can 
 help influencing morally the people with whom 
 he comes in contact. He will unconsciously 
 write himself into his work. 
 
 Many books have been written, like those of 
 a former generation already referred to, which 
 are exceedingly moral, yet which fail of any in- 
 fluence because they are so insufferably dull. 
 154
 
 THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL LIBRARY 
 
 Therefore the second qualification of a good ^ 
 Sunday-school book is that it shalljje^interest- 
 in g, — ip teresting not so much to the book- 
 worm who will read anything, but to the normal 
 child who hkes life and action and who will not 
 read any book in which he does not find them. ^ 
 The third qualification is that the book shall O 
 have hterar^ me rit,— that it shall be a real 
 book, not a clumsy imitation of one. Charles 
 Lamb in one of his essays writes : " I confess 
 that it moves my spleen to see these things in 
 books' clothing perched upon shelves like false 
 saints, usurpers of true shrines." There are 
 many books written to instruct or to entertain 
 the young which fall into Lamb's classification 
 of biblia a-biblia, together with "court calen- 
 dars, almanacs, draught-boards bound and 
 lettered at the back 'Paley's Moral Philo- 
 sophy;' " etc. They are not books in the liter- 
 ary sense ; there is nothing literary about them. 
 Their authors presume upon the all-embracing 
 appetite of childhood, and think that the young 
 reader will not know that he is being cheated. 
 They are like the man who fed bricks to the 
 ostrich. The ostrich ate them thankfully, but 
 they did not agree with him, and he died. 
 155
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 Now, it may not be the function of the Sun- 
 day school to t^ach literature, — aside from the 
 literature of the Bible, — but in teaching morals 
 and rehgion it cannot afiFord to ignore anything 
 that will minister to the child's complete 
 development; least of all can it afford to give 
 him that which will weaken one of his finest 
 faculties. The German government requires 
 that its army oflBcers visit the art galleries and 
 go to the opera a reasonable number of times 
 each year. This is not to make them better 
 soldiers, but to make them better men. Surely, 
 the aim of the Sunday school should not be less 
 inclusive. 
 
 These, then, are the three requisites of a J2 
 good Sunday-school book: moral influence, - ■• 
 interest, and literary strength. It may be 
 argued ttat these are also the requisites of 
 a good pubUc Ubrary book for children, or 
 of a good school Ubraiy book. In a broad 
 sense this is true, but the Sunday-school library 
 should emphasize somewhat more strongly the 
 moral element and give less attention, except 
 in the department of Bible study, to the merely 
 informational. 
 
 jFiction there should be, and plenty of it, 
 156
 
 THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL LIBRARY 
 
 provided only it is strong_jjad_tnie^_ For the 
 older readers, Sco tt and Thac keray and Dickens 
 and George Eliot ; for the younger, the standard 
 stories already mentioned as suitable for school 
 and home. I think the Sunday-school book 
 which impressed me most as a boy was Edward 
 Everett Hale's "In His Name," a strong and 
 beautiful story of the Waldenses. This is a 
 type of the best fiction for young people, a 
 book that leaves with one a sense of the beauty 
 of righteousness, that strengthens faith, that 
 gives to life a fuller and a deeper meaning, and 
 that brings one a little nearer to the Author of 
 Ufe. 
 
 Other works not so religious in spirit have a 
 similar effect. Miss Alcott's "Little Women" "^y-nZ 
 and " Little Men " exercise a profound influence li^ — j^ 
 for good by showing the charm of a pure, 
 healthy, joyous home life. It cannot, perhaps, 
 be expected that all of Miss Alcott's stories . 
 should be as good as these, but "The Old- J^— t^ 
 Fashioned Girl " is not far behind them. 
 
 Susan Coolidge has written a few good books 
 and others not so good. Her "Katy Did"j/^ 
 books start well, but her last title, "What 
 Katy Did Next," is a naive admission of an 
 157
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 exhausted inventive faculty. She finishes her 
 
 heroine in three books, and deserves credit for 
 
 ,- not dragging her through six. 
 
 i Mrs. Burnett's "Little Lord Fauntleroy" 
 
 c and " The Little Princess " (the revised version 
 
 , of " Sara Crewe " ) are interesting and helpful ; 
 
 0-! — 'SO are Mrs. Dodge's "Hans Brinker," "The 
 
 Q- — Land of Pluck," and "Donald and Dorothy"; 
 
 \ Mrs. Jackson's stories, "Ramona" for the 
 
 (y-\ older children, "Nelly's Silver Mine" and 
 
 ** Cat Stories " for the younger ; Mrs. Richard's 
 
 "Captain January," "Melody," and "Queen 
 
 ildegarde"; Miss Wiggin's "Rebecca,'! — — g^ 
 " Timothy's Quest," and " Polly OUver's Prob- — ^^ 
 lem"; Mrs. Whitney's "We Giris," "Home- 
 spun Yams," and " Faith Gartney's Girihood "; 
 ' Miss Jewett's " Play Days " and " Betty Leices- 
 ter's Christmas " ; Miss Johnston's " Little "O 
 Colonel" and "Two Little Knights of Ken- 
 Itucky." 
 
 Of stories of boy life, Hughes's "Tom Brown 
 at Rugby " deserves the first place. More mod- 
 em and appealing somewhat more strongly to 
 , American boys are those three stories by Ralph 
 / Barbour, " For the Honor of the School," " The 
 y/ Half-Back," and "Behind the Line." Holland's 
 
 158
 
 / THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL LIBRARY 
 
 V "Arthur Bonnicastle," slightly different in its 
 \ atmosphere, is a strong book with a lesson. 
 < Edward Eggleston's " Hoosier School Boy," 
 J Page's "Two Little Confederates," and J. T. O 
 { Trowbridge's glowing pictures of boyish activ- 
 ity are strong and inspiring. 
 
 From contemporary English and Scotch 
 writers we have some of the best stories fors. 
 young people that have ever been written. / 
 William Black, Ralph Connor, Ian Maclaren, L 
 George Macdonald, Mrs. Mulock-Craik, and f 
 Miss Ewing have widened the range of our / 
 children's reading and have given them both 
 good hterature and a moral upUft. 
 
 I am old-fashioned enough to believe that 
 with these modem stories our young people 
 should not be allowed to lose sight of the novels 
 of Jane_Aiistea and Maria Edgewort h^ They ^y" 
 are not in very high repute during these strenu- 
 ous modem days and, it must be confessed, are 
 not very stirring. But they are natural and 
 simple and healthful, — far more healthful 
 than our highly spiced modem fiction. Char- 
 l otte Bronte , too, and Jane Porter and Mrs. / 
 Charles s hould find a place in our list. 
 Tlien, leaving Fiction, there is the field of 
 159
 
 [ 
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 Biography. Biography is the moral, respon- 
 sibie element in history. It is history in the 
 concrete. Aside from showing the influence _ 
 that an individual may exercise on the world 
 or the nation, it offers to the young the sti mulus 
 of great examples. We should recommend not>^ 
 so much the biographies of Caesar and Napo- ) 
 leon as of Washington, of Franklin, of Lincoln, / 
 of Nelson, of Robert L. Stevenson, of Horace/' 
 Greeley, of John G. Whittier, of Frances Wil- \ 
 lard, of Louisa M. Alcott. One of the most^ 
 stirring biographies of recent times is that of 
 John G. Paton, missionary to the New Hebri- 
 des, edited by his brother, James Paton. It is 
 thrilling enough to suit any boy, and it empha- 
 sizes the point so often overlooked, that success 
 in life is not always to be measured by con- 
 ventional standards, and that to do good is 
 better than to be famous.; Balfour's "Life of 
 Stevenson," Southey's "Life of Nelson," Scud- 
 der's "George Washington," Butterworth's 
 "Boyhood of Lincoln," Elbridge Brooks's biog- 
 raphies of Lincoln, LaFayette, and Grant, Dr. 
 Hale's "A New England Boyhood," Miss Bol- 
 ton's books of "Boys and Girls who became—^ 
 Famous," Barton's "Captains of Industry," 
 160
 
 THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL LIBRARY 
 
 Riis's "The Making of an American," Booker O 
 Washington's "Up from Slavery," Helen Kel- ^ 
 ler's "Story of My Life" — these are but types 
 of the sort of biography that generates moral 
 force. 
 
 History s hould be represented, as in the 
 school or public library. Lowell, in his ad- 
 dress at the opening of the public library at 
 Chelsea, concisely expressed its ethical value 
 when he said : " It teaches that there is a sternly 
 logical sequence in human affairs, and that 
 chance has but a trifling dominion over them, 
 — teaches perhaps more than anything else 
 the value of personal character as a chief factor 
 in what used to be called destiny." 
 
 Geography, Travel, Nature, and Science will 
 find a place, of course, but not so important a 
 place as in the school or public library, since 
 these branches are for the most part instructive 
 rather than inspirational. Local conditions 
 will have much to do in determining the pro- 
 portion which they should bear to the rest of the 
 hbrary. If the public library is not easily 
 accessible or not much used by the children, 
 books of this character should be more numer- 
 ous than otherwise. 
 
 161
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 Under the head of _Essa^s_and Miscellanies 
 may be grouped a class of books which afford 
 opportunities for both inspiration and cul- 
 ture. This part of the library will appeal to 
 young people approaching manhood and 
 womanhood, — at that period when the mind 
 is open to receive impressions and the heart 
 ! quick to respond to noble thoughts. Emerson's 
 
 Essays, Ruskin's "Sesame and Lilies, '^"EtEIcs"^ 
 . of the Dust," "Crown of Wild OUve," and 
 I "Athena, the Queen of the Air"; Van Dyke's 
 1 "The Blue Flower"; Drummond's Addresses 
 j and "Natural Law in the Spiritual World," 
 \ Hamilton Mabie's "Books and Culture" are 
 representative of the class. A few books of 
 r- wholesome counsel will be read with interest and 
 profit at this stage. Such are Smiles's "Self- 
 \ Help," Mathews's " Getting On in the Worid," 
 1^ Bishop Spalding's "Education and the Higher 
 Life," Clark's "Self-Culture," Lubbock's 
 " Pleasures of Life," Munger's " On the Thres- 
 hold," Wilson's "Making the Most of Our- 
 selves," and Mrs. Starrett's "Letters to a 
 Daughter." Books of practical sociology, like 
 Miss Addams's "Democracy and Social Ethics," 
 \ Riis's "Children of the Poor" and "How the I 
 \ 162 
 
 \ 
 \
 
 THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL LIBRARY 
 
 Other Half Lives," Dr. Henderson's "Modern J 
 Methods of Charity," and Wood's "The City/ 
 Wilderness" may be included in this section.^ 
 They will enlarge the sympathies and emphasizef 
 the brotherhood of man. j 
 
 Poe try, too, should be made much of. It is 
 the medium through which the finest minds in 
 all ages have expressed the deepest truths. 
 Who Uke the poet can touch man's heart and 
 arouse the best that is in him ? Tennyson and 
 Browning and Longfellow and Lowell and 
 Wl^itt ier an d Sidney Lanier, to say nothing of 
 the older and greater poets, have not only made 
 life larger and sweeter but, what is more, have 
 made mankind better. The Sunday school 
 can do no greater service than to put these great 
 moral teachers within reach of the young. 
 
 We now come to that literature which is dis- 
 tinctly the province of the Sunday school, the 
 literature of the Bible. To this a large part of 
 t'Ee'Tnergy of Sunday-school librarians and 
 library committees should be directed, for 
 while the public library or the school library 
 or the home hbrary may supply other good 
 literature, the Sunday school must supply the 
 literature for its own work. It is as absurd for 
 163
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 the Sunday school to depend upon the printed 
 lesson helps alone as it is for the public school 
 to depend upon its text-books. There must 
 be a study or reference library. 
 
 This Biblical literature should include, first, 
 a good Bible dictionary^ — Hastings's is un- 
 doubtedly the best, though Davis's will answer 
 if the funds will not at once permit the purchase 
 of the larger work. Then an up-to-date atlas, 
 such as MacCoun's "The Holy Land in Geog- 
 raphy and History," "A Haimony of the 
 Gospels," Burton and Stevens, a few standard 
 works on Biblical history and literature — 
 not too technical, — among which we should 
 
 Tname prominently Kent's "History of the 
 Hebrew People," Kent and Riggs's " History of 
 the Jewish People," and McFadyen's "Intro- 
 duction to the Literature of the Old Testa- 
 ment"; Rhees's "Life of Jesus," Edersheim's 
 "Life of Christ," Burton and Mathews's "Con- 
 structive Studies in the Life of Christ," 
 Mathews's "History of New Testament Times," 
 
 I Bartlett's "Apostolic Age," and Moulton's 
 
 1^ "Literary Study of the Bible." 
 
 There should be a few good books for teach- 
 ers, treating of the pedagogy of Sunday-school 
 164
 
 THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL LIBRARY 
 
 work. Burton and Mathews's " Principles and 
 Ideals for the Sunday School," DuBois's " The 
 Point of Contact in Sunday School Teaching," 
 Forbush's "The Boy Problem," Coe's " Educa- 
 tion in Religion an3 Morals," EUzabeth Har- 
 rison's "Study of Child Nature," and Sully's 
 "Studies in Childhood" indicate the line of 
 thought. 
 
 The Hterature of missions s hould not be 
 overlooked. Many Sunday schools are not 
 greatly interested in missions — more 's the 
 pity. Perhaps it is because the superintendent 
 is not greatly interested in them. A missionary 
 organization in the Sunday school or the mis- 
 sionary committee of the Christian Endeavor 
 Society can do much to awaken an interest, but 
 they can do it most effectively by getting bright 
 and readable missionary literature into the 
 hands of the young people. Many Sunday 
 schools depend for their missionary inspiration 
 upon chance talks from returned missionaries 
 who happen to be in the neighborhood. No 
 comment is necessary on the average missionary 
 address of this sort. Most of us have at one 
 time or another felt its depressing influence -^ 
 some of us very many times. If instead of 
 165
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 these talks our young people could get their 
 inspiration from the brightest minds in the 
 missionary field, in words carefully thought 
 out and expressed in literary form, there would 
 be inspiration indeed. That notable series of 
 books which includes Hodgkins's " Via Christi," 
 a general introduction to the study of missions, 
 Mason's "Lux Christi" (missions in India), 
 Griffis's "Dux Christus" (missions in China), 
 and Parsons's "Christus Liberator" (missions 
 in Japan), in spite of their formidable Latin 
 titles, are full of life and interest. 
 
 Having selected our ^unday-schopl Ubrary, 
 we are confronted by the problem of how to 
 handle it. The methods commonly in use are 
 twenty years behind the times. An inex- 
 perienced youth is often selected as librarian 
 — not because of any fitness for the place but 
 simply to give him something to do and to 
 keep him in the school. It is good for the boy, 
 but bad for the library. This Ubrarian, without 
 any special knowledge of children's literature, 
 is called upon to assist the pupils in selecting 
 their books — often to select the books for 
 them. In some cases he is even permitted to 
 choose and buy new books. The children take 
 166
 
 THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL LIBRARY 
 
 what he gives them and after trying vainly to 
 get interested, decide that the library is "no 
 good." 
 
 The methods of distribution are even more 
 primitive . In many Sunday schools a crowd 
 of children may be seen each week at the close 
 of the session standing impatiently before a 
 little window in the wall, each waiting for a 
 book, and in most cases getting at last some- 
 thing that he did not want. Titles often 
 tell nothing. Perhaps he asked for "A 
 Rose in Bloom," thinking it was some- 
 thing about flowers, or for "The Jewish 
 Spectre" under the impression that it was a 
 ghost story. 
 
 It is of vital importance that the Sunday- 
 school Ubrary be placed in competent hands. 
 Books, however good, are worth nothing unless 
 read, and it is the duty of the management so 
 to handle the library that they shall be read. 
 Dignify the oflSce of librarian by securing for it 
 the best equipped man or woman in the church 
 — one who is familiar with children's litera- 
 ture and, if possible, conversant with modem 
 library methods. Such men and women are 
 willing to take classes in the Sunday school; 
 
 m
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 they should be willing to undertake this work, 
 which is quite as important and for which 
 their training has perhaps particularly fitted 
 them. 
 
 The librarian need not be expected to do 
 the detail work. For. this purpose several 
 assistant Ubrarians should be chosen from 
 among the young men or women of the church 
 — the custom has been to employ young men, 
 but the gentler sex are, we think, usually more 
 successful in gaining the confidence of the 
 children. It should be understood that the 
 duty of a librarian, and of an assistant libra- 
 rian as well, is not simply to give out and 
 receive books, keep records, and paste labels. 
 He should advise the children as to what books 
 are most interesting and what are the best for 
 certain things, and the children should be en- 
 couraged to ask advice. It is an excellent plan 
 to set aside a period each week, — perhaps 
 on Sunday afternoon or at some other time 
 than the school hour, — and invite the children 
 to come into the library, to handle the books, 
 and to find out what they really want to read. 
 The hbrarian may give them a little talk similar 
 to that of "the children's hour,'^which has
 
 THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL LIBRARY 
 
 done so much in the public library to encourage 
 reading. 
 
 Besides the librarians, a strong and active 
 libra ry committee is a necessity. This should 
 consist of from three to seven members, includ- 
 ing the librarian. They should be selected 
 because of their ability and their knowledge of 
 children as well as of literature. They should 
 decide upon all books considered for admission 
 to the hbrary, adding constantly to their list 
 as new books appear or as older books of merit, 
 previously overlooked, are rediscovered. We 
 know a Sunday school where the control of the 
 library is placed in the hands of a "governing 
 board" of fifteen members, selected from 
 among the trustees and leading members of 
 the church, each one making an annual sub- 
 scription of five dollars and thus solving the 
 problem of financial support. The governing 
 board appoints a library committee from the 
 church at large, while the hbrarian is elected by 
 the teachers of the Sunday school. The libra- 
 rian selects his own assistants. 
 
 Next in importance to the management of 
 the hbrary and the selection of its books is its 
 catalogue. This should be printed in conven-
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 ient form, classified by subject and grade, and 
 a copy placed in the hands of every pupil in 
 the school. The arrangement should be alpha- 
 betical under each subject heading, but opin- 
 ions differ as to whether it should be arranged 
 by title or by author. We very much prefer the 
 latter arrangement. It is in Une with modem 
 library usage, and emphasizes to the child the 
 meaning of authorship. It teaches him that 
 in every author's work there are certain char- 
 acteristics which, if they please him, will lead 
 him to read more, 
 v/ The ^lassificatian. is also a disputed point. 
 Perhaps the simplest is something Uke this: 
 
 1. Fiction. 
 
 2. Myths, Fables, and Fairy Tales. 
 
 3. History and Biography. 
 
 4. Geography, Travel, and Adventure. 
 
 5. Stories of Animals and Birds, Nature 
 and Science. 
 
 6. Essays and Miscellanies, including In- 
 dustries, Art, Government, and Social Studies. 
 
 7. Poetry. 
 
 8. Biblical Study and Teachers' Books. 
 
 9. Missions. 
 
 170
 
 THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL LIBRARY 
 
 Under each division give (1) library number, 
 (2) author, (3) title, and (4) approximate age 
 of pupils to whom the book is adapted, thus: 
 
 FICTION 
 
 Lib. Aathor Title Ages to which adapted 
 
 No. Hearing Reading 
 
 1. Abbott, Jacob: Malleville 8 11 to 16 
 Story of a group of children on a vbit among the White 
 Mountains. 
 
 2. Alcott, Louisa M.: Little Women 8 11 to 18 
 The home life of an interesting family of girls. Fine. 
 
 S. Alcott, Louisa M,: Little Men 8 11 to 18 
 
 Boy life at a delightful home boarding-school. 
 
 A brief annotation under each title, or, at 
 least, under titles that are not self-descriptive, 
 is a great help to the pupil and saves many 
 a disappointment. 
 
 With an eflficient librarian, a judicious 
 library committee, a reasonable appropriation 
 and a good catalogue, the problem of the Sun- 
 day school library ceases to be a problem. 
 Thus equipped, the library becomes a power 
 for good — a worthy adjunct to the Sunday 
 school. Neither the pubhc hbrary nor the 
 school library can quite do its work, and if 
 they could, it would not be wise to allow them 
 to do it. The institutional idea is becoming 
 more and more prominent in our church poUty. 
 171
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 The church does not need, perhaps, to interest 
 itself in libraries or in free kindergartens, or 
 in study clubs, or in lecture courses, for all 
 these good things can be found outside, yet 
 it surely is the Church's privilege to help to 
 make the most of man, and the time has passed 
 when religion could be considered as a thing 
 apart from life. 
 
 172
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 THE ILLUSTRATING OF CHILDREN'S BOOKS 
 
 ON a shelf in my library is an old volume, 
 now yellow and dog-eared, which was 
 a treasure of my grandmother's childhood. It 
 was one of the few picture books vouchsafed 
 the children of a century ago. I regard it 
 with more than a book-lover's affection, and 
 am constrained to look at it when at all pessi- 
 mistic about the juvenile books which are 
 being put forth by the publishers of to-day, for 
 it emphasizes, as nothing else can, the develop- 
 ment in the art of making books for children, 
 and teaches us to be thankful for what the 
 young people of the present generation have 
 escaped. This volume is "A New Hiero- 
 glyphical Bible for the Amusement and Instruc- 
 tion of Children; Being a Selection of the 
 most useful Lessons and most interesting Nar- 
 ratives, Scripturally Arranged, from Genesis 
 to the Revelation, Embellished with Familiar 
 Figures and Striking Emblems Elegantly En- 
 graved. . . . Recommended by the Rev'd 
 173
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 Rowland Hill, M. A. New York: Printed for and 
 Published by the Booksellers. MDCCXCVI." 
 The Preface further informs us that the author's 
 object is " to imprint on the Memory of Youth 
 by lively and sensible images the sacred and 
 important truths of Holy Writ, " and that " the 
 utmost attention has been paid to select such 
 passages for illustration and embellishment 
 as contained truths the most obvious and im- 
 portant or historical facts the most interest- 
 ing." Turning over the leaves we find one 
 of the first "obvious and important truths'* 
 to be the following, labelled "Exodus xxxix, 
 28," without a suggestion of context: "And 
 a Mitre of fine linen, and goodly Bonnets of 
 fine linen and linen Breeches of fine twined 
 linen." The "striking emblems elegantly 
 engraved" consist of an episcopal mitre, two 
 sunbonnets, and a pair of boy's trousers — the 
 pictures taking the place of the words which 
 they are supposed to represent, and thus form- 
 ing a sort of illustrated rebus, to attract and 
 interest the young. 
 
 Contemporary with this stimulating volume, 
 was the well-known New England Primer, 
 with its crude representation of Adam's Fall, 
 174
 
 ILLUSTRATING CfflLDREN'S BOOKS 
 
 and its mildly exciting picture of Mr. John 
 Rogers being consumed at Smithfield, with a 
 cheerful smile upon his face, and "His Wife 
 with nine small Children & one at her Breast 
 following him to the Stake." 
 
 The period which gave to the children of 
 America the Hieroglyphical Bible and the New 
 England Primer did not recognize the humorous 
 or the fanciful as in any sense legitimate matter 
 for the young, though the children's books 
 of that epoch appeal to us of to-day with a 
 humor which is quite irresistible. A child's 
 book was then a serious matter, and mere 
 amusement was an end for which it never 
 aimed. The child was considered as quite 
 able to amuse himself without assistance, and 
 the proper function of the book was to instruct, 
 correct, and admonish. As the New Eng- 
 land Primer had it : " Thy Life to mend. This 
 book attend. " 
 
 But it is now to the illustrations rather than 
 to the text of these books that I wish to call 
 attention. They are fairly typical of the wood 
 engraving of that period, though probably 
 not the best work that could then be done. 
 Bewick in England had made, some thirty or 
 175
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 forty years earlier, his really admirable "[Book 
 of British Birds," and " Book of British Quad- 
 rupeds," but wood engraving had not come to 
 be regarded as a fine art, and was used mainly 
 to advertise merchandise, to call attention to 
 the sailing of ships, and occasionally to act as 
 a vehicle for imparting moral or religious les- 
 sons. Bewick's books were so far superior 
 to anything that appeared for almost a hun- 
 dred years afterwards that they do not seem 
 to belong to the epoch which produced them. 
 Turning from the juvenile volumes of the 
 beginning of the nineteenth century to those 
 of to-day is Hke passing from a darkened room 
 out into the sunshine. Illustrating is now a 
 distinct art, and illustrating for children is an 
 important branch of it. Some of the best 
 artists of the present generation have devoted 
 their lives to the service of the child; and the 
 function of illustrating has risen from merely 
 embellishing the text to really interpreting it. 
 We sometimes speak of the illustrations of a 
 book, in connection with its typography and 
 binding, as its "mechanical features," but 
 this characterization is not as often made as 
 formerly, and should not be made at all. The 
 176
 
 ILLUSTRATING CHILDREN'S BOOKS 
 
 pictures of a child's book are an organic part 
 of it. They are as much to the child as the 
 text — often more than the text — and determine 
 in many cases his literary Ukes and dislikes. 
 The interpretation which the artist gives to 
 Cinderella may decide whether she is to be 
 admired or only pitied, and Robinson Crusoe 
 may be made an altogether kind and friendly 
 person or a frightful semi-savage. 
 
 This influence is, of course, especially strong 
 in the case of the very young. A picture is 
 the simplest and most elementary expression 
 of an idea. It precedes written language. The 
 savage told his primitive stories by means of 
 picture-writing before his descendants learned 
 the use of letters; and as the childhood of the 
 individual is a counterpart of the childhood of 
 the race, the child to-day expects the picture 
 to tell his story also, before the text is open to 
 him. 
 
 If we grant the importance of pictures in 
 fixing the child's impressions and forming his 
 tastes, we must see to it that he has good pic- 
 tures — pictures, first of all, that will attract 
 him, for if they do not attract they will not in- 
 fluence him, unless it be n^atively. Then, 
 177
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 while they attract they must also cultivate his 
 ideals of beauty and his appreciation of art; 
 for how is he to learn what good art is unless it 
 is often before him? And, finally, while it is 
 not the function of children's pictures, as it is 
 not the function of art in the large, to teach 
 moraUty, they should teach nothing that is low, 
 cruel, or debasing. 
 
 Having stated, then, as the first requisite of 
 good juvenile pictures that they must attract the 
 child, the question arises. What sort of pic- 
 ture does the child prefer? This is not easily 
 answered. I have experimented with children 
 in different grades of the public schools, and 
 with others who have never attended school. 
 The experiment has shown that the tastes of 
 children vary almost as much as those of adults, 
 and that they change as the child develops. 
 There are, however, several well-defined likes 
 that belong to every normal child. 
 
 The child likes color. The normal, un- 
 trained child likes bright color. A red hat 
 attracts the infant, while a black hat does not. 
 But as the child grows, he comes to see beauty 
 also in subdued, Jbcmes, and his training helps 
 him to do this. He should never be taught, 
 178
 
 ILLUSTRATING CHILDREN'S BOOKS 
 
 however, to despise pure, bright color. The 
 love of it is the natural heritage of the child, and 
 he should never outgrow it. All that we need 
 concern ourselves about is to show him the 
 beauty of harmonious combinations, and he 
 will soon come to disUke those that are inhar- 
 monious. 
 
 Again, the child naturally likes a broad, 
 simple treatment, whether in color or in black 
 and white. This fondness for simplicity is 
 somewhat modified, as he grows older, by an 
 interest in detail, but it may safely be affirmed 
 that a child of two years or less does not want 
 detail in a picture. He wants only a distinct 
 impression. My little girl, at the age of two, 
 preferred a series of simple outline drawings in 
 a First Reader to all her other pictures. There 
 was a cat which she could see at a glance, and a 
 cup which she instantly recognized as a familiar 
 friend. This stage was passed in due season, 
 and she began to show interest in a cat with a 
 bell around her neck, and a cup with figures on 
 it ; but it was not until the perceptive faculties 
 had developed that the love of detail came to 
 her, and even when it did come, it did not 
 supplant the fondness for simple treatment 
 179
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 and clear images. It does not do this in 
 any normal child. 
 
 This outUne drawing, combined with broad, 
 flat color, is exemplified in the popular " poster 
 style " of illustrating. It seems to be a sug- 
 gestion from the Japanese, who have surprised 
 the world by the eflFectiveness and the rare 
 decorative quality of their art. This poster 
 style has the elements which appeal to children. 
 It may be regarded as the child's own method 
 of expressing his ideas of form, as he draws 
 his outline with a pencil and fills it in with the 
 colors from his paint-box. But it is adapted 
 only to the simplest subjects, and many modem 
 illustrators make the mistake of trying to show 
 by means of it all the details of a complex 
 story. Figures in the foreground, background, 
 and middle distance are hopelessly entangled, 
 perspective is ignored, and the effect is dire con- 
 fusion. When the illustrations are reproduced 
 in line, without the aid of color, as in Howard 
 Pyle's Robin Hood illustrations, the result is 
 often absolutely chaotic. 
 
 Another mistake which is being made by 
 modem illustrators for children is an affectation 
 of the antique and the conventional. The" 
 180
 
 ILLUSTRATING CHILDREN'S BOOKS 
 
 child is confronted with archaic line-drawings 
 suggestive of Diirer and the early German 
 wood-engravers. All the life and dramatic 
 interest of a situation are conventionalized out 
 of it, and the dead remains are set forth in faded 
 colors, with a decorative framework of historic 
 ornament. Walter^ Crane is perhaps the best h^ 
 known exponent of this style, though the in- 
 fluence of it may be seen in the work of many 
 others of our most popular illustrators. This 
 conventional insanity appears in concentric . 
 spirals of hair and beard and in ellipsoid clouds 
 lying on a sky of parallel lines. Now a child 
 does not want to see his Crusoe or his Sindbad 
 stiffened into a Knave of Spades. He does not 
 care for the decorative. What he wants is life. 
 A boy of eight made a fair criticism on one 
 of these crowded, flat, ultra-conventional 
 illustrations when he gave as his reason for not 
 liking it, that it was "all muggled up." The 
 illustration was one of Charles Robinson's, but 
 was in that artist's most involved manner. No 
 modem illustrator perhaps possesses more 
 sympathy than he with children, or can make 
 more delightful figures of little folks when he 
 keeps to the simple treatment, but he often 
 181
 
 / 
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 attempts more than the method which he has 
 chosen will allow. What is true of Robinson 
 is true also of Crane, Pyle, Heywood, Sumner, 
 the Rhead brothers, and other illustrators 
 whose skill and whose artistic sense is unques- 
 tioned, but who have become so wedded to this 
 particular method as to refuse to recognize its 
 hmitations. 
 
 One of the best exponents of the legitimate 
 use of line-drawing is the French illustrator, 
 Boutet de Monvel, who appreciates the beauty 
 of simplicity and who possesses, moreover, that 
 rare sympathy with child nature which is so 
 essential in the drawing of pictures for children. 
 Jessie Wilcox Smith shows in her work the 
 same characteristics and is probably the most 
 successful delineator of child life and child 
 character whom we have in this country. 
 
 Another quality which is almost a sine qua 
 non in pictures for children is action. Children 
 like to see things go, and the figures which 
 appeal to them are those which are doing some- 
 thing. A boy in the second grade chose a 
 spirited picture, "A is for archer," by^tuart 
 Hardy, in preference to a decorative treatment 
 of Grimm's girl at the well, by Crane. When 
 182
 
 ILLUSTRATING CHILDREN'S BOOKS 
 
 asked why, he replied, "Because I like to 
 shoot." The picture must tell a story in order 
 to interest the average child, and the story must 
 be such as he can appreciate. This leads me to 
 say that Hardy^is one of the most satisfactory 
 of modern ilhistrators for children. He is 
 known mainly through his black and white 
 pictures in the Nister book s, — Mother Goose, 
 Andersen's and Grimm's stories, and a few 
 other volumes of the same class. His figures 
 are drawn with a few strong strokes of the pen, 
 and depict beautiful and lovable children. 
 Abbey, Reinhardt, a nd others of that class of 
 standard illustrators whose work is not particu- 
 larly for juvenile books, need not be men- 
 tioned here. What they have done for the 
 young people has been done with the same 
 fidelity to truth and artistic feeling which 
 mark their other work. F annie Y. Cory has 
 done some excellent juvenile illustrating, and 
 is yearly gaining in strength and vigor. Lufi^ 
 Fitch Per kins shows in her later work the true 
 artist's touch, and her graceful, airy figures are 
 a distinct contribution to the work of the field 
 which has she chosen. 
 
 Beauty is a quality which children are not 
 183
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 slow to discover and appreciate in a picture. 
 They like pictures of beautiful children. Maud, 
 Humphrey's little doll-faced cherubs are per- 
 haps a shade too pretty. Certain boys, upon 
 arriving at the superior age of twelve to fourteen 
 years, affect to scoff at them, but it is doubtful, 
 after all, whether their contempt is not directed 
 mainly toward the elaborate frills and ruffles 
 which encircle them, — at their artificiality, in a 
 word, rather than at their prettiness. Kate„ 
 Greenaway's quaint little figures are particularly 
 attractive, and though the fitful aesthetic impulse 
 which gave them birth has passed away, there 
 is something too sweet and artistic in them to 
 let them grow old. Reginald Birch's children 
 are always popular. True, they are idealized 
 children; if they were not, they would lose 
 much of their charm, for children themselves 
 are idealists. Their admiration goes out toward 
 the things that are different from the every-day, 
 and an ideal face appeals to them when an ordi- 
 nary face does not. The tendency of modern 
 art is to despise beauty and to strive for in- 
 dividuality. It is unfortunate that more have 
 not attempted to combine the two. 
 As to the grotesque, it does not appeal
 
 ILLUSTRATING CHILDREN'S BOOKS 
 
 equally to all children. Young children usually 
 dislike it, though they are sometimes fascinated 
 by it, as animals are charmed by a serpent. 
 There is in most children a stage which begins at 
 the age of about six or seven and lasts for several 
 years, during which this desire for the extrava- 
 gant, the uncouth, and the terrible^ sometimes 
 becomes a passion. To fail to recognize the 
 craving is usually to drive your children to satisfy 
 it surreptitiously with the worst possible mate- 
 rial. There is the grotesquely fearful and the 
 grotesquely comic, and both have their fascina- 
 tion at tETs perio3. Your child will probably try 
 your soul by discarding the artistic picture books 
 which you have bought him, and by showing a 
 decided preference for the adventures of 
 " Buster Brown " and "the Katzenjammer 
 Bdds" as depicted in vivid red, blue, and 
 yellow on the pages of the Sunday newspaper. 
 D iscourage these pictur es ^b^g^jaJl^eans, but 
 give him something good to take their place 
 — something that is comical without being 
 vulgar. Kemble and Peter Newell have given 
 the children some exquisitely funny things — 
 mostly in black and white. Denslow has done 
 some good work in color, thougfine often comes 
 185
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 perilously near the line of vulgarity. An expur- 
 gated edition of his "Father Goose^" which 
 should omit about one picture in ten, would 
 make an excellent nonsense book. Of modem 
 illustrators who handle grotesque subjects, 
 Frederick Richardson perhaps shows as much 
 delicacy and artistic appreciation as any. 
 
 As to the grotesquely terrible, the child 
 must have a little of it if he insists, but don't 
 let him have it at night if you value either 
 his comfort or your own. He must be 
 treated tenderly at this period, and the imagi- 
 native nature, which is then most intense, 
 must be so trained as to lead him to enjoy the 
 fanciful in beauty rather than in ugUness. 
 Fairies are better than hobgoblins, and he 
 should be allowed all the fairies he wants, until 
 he outgrows them and asks for something 
 more substantial. 
 
 Children like animal pictures in almost any 
 form — dictionary and geography animals in- 
 cluded. The most delicately fanciful treat- 
 ment that has perhaps ever been given to the 
 animal creation is that of F. S. C hurchy 
 Church's animals combine the imaginative, 
 the poetic, the grotesque, — all with the most 
 186
 
 ILLUSTRATING CHILDREN'S BOOKS 
 
 delicate sense of humor, and with a sympa- 
 thetic touch that makes the child at one with 
 them. 
 
 So much for what the child likes. But his 
 pictures should not only give him what he 
 likes: they should give it to him in the best 
 possible way. The touch of the true artist 
 should be manifest in them. The child will 
 find color in the vivid pictures of the Sunday 
 newspaper already referred to, and at first he 
 will appreciate it in that form quite as much 
 as in the most artistic color plates which 
 can be obtained. He will find a broad and 
 attractive treatment in the advertisements in 
 the street cars, and will be quite pleased with 
 them. He will find action in the scrawls 
 which he makes upon his slate, and will satisfy 
 his craving for the grotesque with the crudest 
 of caricatures. But here is where he needs 
 careful and discriminating guidance. Let 
 his books be illustrated by a master hand, 
 and accustom him to the best art. It will not 
 be long before he will recognize and appre- 
 ciate it. By the best art, I do not mean neces- 
 sarily that of Botticelli or of Raphael, though 
 he should know some of the world's great art 
 187
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 works as soon as he is old enough to under- 
 stand them. I mean simply true art, whether 
 the drawing be that of a cathedral or of a tin 
 cup. There are too many illustrators who 
 try to atone for poor draughtsmanship by 
 a wealth of carefully wrought details — tex- 
 tures, shadows, and all that. Scores of ama- 
 teurs have found a market for their work in 
 the multipUcity of modem books, but their 
 touch is readily discernible. Their figures 
 are wooden, and their faces are expressionless. 
 They are not artists; they are apprentices. 
 
 The child naturally assumes that the pic- 
 tures which adorn his books are right pictures, 
 and from them he gets his ideas of drawing — 
 his first impression of what art is. There is 
 no harm in giving him such entirely natural 
 and enjoyable scrawls as those which illus- 
 trate Lear's Nonsense Books. He is not 
 deceived by them. He takes them as a joke, 
 and the joke is healthful and stimulating. 
 These pictures of Lear's, with all their crudity, 
 are far more expressive than many finished 
 pictures which the child finds in his books, 
 and which he supposes to be in some sort a 
 standard of artistic excellence because they 
 188
 
 ILLUSTRATING CHILDREN'S BOOKS 
 
 pretend to be something. Do not buy him 
 books which are falsely or poorly illustrated. 
 Better give him no pictures at all than wrong 
 ones. Should he not be taught good art as 
 well as good Uterature ? Many a parent con- 
 fesses with regret that he does not know the 
 difference between a good and a poor picture. 
 If he does not, he should see to it that his chil- 
 dren know more about such matters than he 
 knows himself; and if he cannot trust him- 
 self to select their picture books, he should ask 
 the assistance of some friend in whose discrim- 
 ination he has confidence. The well illus- 
 trated book costs a litttle more, sometimes, 
 than the poorly illustrated book, and if it 
 costs more it is worth more. Often it does not 
 cost more, but only requires a little care and 
 judgment in its selection. 
 
 We come now to the moral effect of pictures. 
 While they are not to be considered primarily 
 as a vehicle for teaching morality, they should 
 never by inference or example teach immoral- 
 ity — and by immorality we mean anything that 
 is mean or degrading. I have before me a 
 child's book in which several boys are pictured 
 as having tied a tin can to a dog's tail, and to be 
 189
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 immensely amused at the struggles of the poor 
 beast to rid himself of it. The accompanying 
 story ends with the moral that this was a very 
 wrong thing for the boys to do, but the artist 
 has not expressed this saving conclusion. Both 
 story and picture are bad, for while one boy will 
 pity the dog, another will think it a good joke 
 and will perhaps decide to try the experiment 
 on the next unfortunate canine that crosses 
 his path. 
 
 A small boy of my acquaintance became 
 highly interested not long ago in the adven- 
 tures of a naughty youth presented in the comic 
 supplement of a well-known newspaper. The 
 youth in the newspaper shampooed his sister's 
 hair and anointed the poodle with a mixture 
 of ink, glue, and the family hair tonic, leaving 
 the remainder of the compound in the bottle 
 for the use of his father and mother. The 
 results as pictorially set forth were so intensely 
 amusing that the small observer immediately 
 took steps to repeat them in real life. Much 
 mischief is suggested in such ways as this, and 
 the suggestions come from' artists who have 
 little sympathy with children — knowing them 
 mainly as a theme to make jokes about. 
 190
 
 ILLUSTRATING CHILDREN'S BOOKS 
 
 Analyze the humor in the funny pictures of 
 our newspapers, and you will find that in nine 
 cases out of ten it rests upon somebody's mis-l 
 fortune,-/- an apple- woman upset by an auto- '^ 
 mobile, a sleeping tramp annoyed by small i 
 boys, an absent-minded old gentleman walk- 1 
 ing into a tank of water.\ Such are the sub- > 
 jects that are given to our children to make 
 them laugh, — while we are trying to teach them 
 to be thoughtful of the comfort of others, 
 genuinely polite, and considerate of every one. 
 
 All this emphasizes the point that the true 
 artist for children must have sympathy for his 
 audience as well as experience with them, must 
 know what is good for them, and must love 
 them too much to offer anything that is not of 
 his best. The artist shows his character in his 
 work. Let it be a good character, and the chil- 
 dren will unconsciously imbibe from his pictures 
 heroism, gentleness, and nobility. Let it be 
 a mean character, and its influence will be . 
 mean. Fortunately there are plenty of good 
 men and women who are illustrating children's 
 books, and who are putting into their work 
 not only skill and genius, but also good judg- 
 ment, sympathy, and love. 
 191
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 Let the parents and teachers — those who 
 buy books for the children of the present gener- 
 ation — but discriminate in their choice, real- 
 izing that the picture is as important as the 
 printed page in forming taste and influenc- 
 ing character, and they will soon see in their 
 children the results of this powerful educative 
 influence. They will see, too, an improve- 
 ment in the illustrations of the books which 
 are being offered to the young. Publishers 
 will not issue poorly illustrated books if it is 
 found that well-illustrated books are in demand. 
 It is thus in the power of book-buyers to rais i 
 the character of all books by demanding what 
 is best, not what is most expensive, but what 
 is elevating both to the taste and to the morals. 
 
 192
 
 CHAPTER X 
 MOTHER GOOSE 
 
 IN these twentieth-century days, Mother 
 Goose needs no advocate to establish her 
 claim to a place in literature. The time is past 
 when she could be pooh-poohed into oblivion, 
 or her glory dimmed by slighting reference to 
 her audience. The children have spoken for 
 her, and as it is the children to whom she 
 addresses herself, they should be her jury. 
 Adult judgment of juvenile literature is often 
 faulty. It is hard for the grown-up to divest 
 himself of the wisdom that the years have 
 brought him, to become, for the time, simple 
 and artless, to look out once more through 
 the clear eyes of childhood, and judge a child's 
 rhyme or story frankly by what it means to the 
 child. But we are now coming to recognize 
 that childhood has a literature of its own, and 
 that though we may be too wise to fully ap- 
 preciate it, it is quite as important in the mental 
 development as is the hterature of matiirer 
 years. 
 
 103
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 Mother Goose is the starting point from 
 which mankind begins its knowledge of books. 
 The noveUst whose latest volume is in its hun- 
 dreds of thousands, and whose name is in the 
 mouths of the multitude, probably gained his 
 first notion of fiction on his mother's knee, 
 from the somewhat highly colored story of the 
 old woman who swept the cobwebs out of the 
 sky; the poet's first pastoral was "Little Bo 
 Peep," his first tragedy, "Ding, Dong, Bell." 
 These nursery rhymes have trained the ear and 
 stirred the imagination of generations of chil- 
 dren, and are worthy of adult consideration not 
 only because of their venerable antiquity, but 
 also because of their peculiar fascination for 
 the child mind. 
 
 As for Mother Goose, the author, we must 
 consign her to the realm of myths, for she 
 appears to be even less substantial than Homer 
 and of that mystic company of Cynewulf and 
 Saemund the Wise, who personify the story- 
 telling spirit that produced our earliest folk- 
 lore. Some forty years ago an ingenious gentle- 
 man of Boston claimed to have identified her 
 as Mistress Elizabeth Goose, or Vergoose, who 
 flourished in that city between the years 1712 
 194
 
 MOTHER GOOSE 
 
 and 1720; and this effort to give her a local hab- 
 itation was at once accepted with joy by a 
 large part of that reading public which expects 
 of its authors concrete and absolute existence. 
 The Vergoose story stated that our nursery 
 laureate was the mother-in-law of one Thomas 
 Fleet, a printer; that she lived with his family 
 over his shop in Pudding Lane (now Devon- 
 shire Street); that she habitually repeated 
 nursery rhymes and songs for the delectation 
 of Fleet's children, and that said verses became 
 so popular in Pudding Lane, that Fleet, think- 
 ing to turn an honest penny, published them 
 in 1719, under the now famous title, " Mother 
 Goose's Melodies." The story was uncon- 
 tradicted for years, but at last the higher 
 critics got hold of it and exploded it. It all 
 seems now to have originated in a clever news- 
 paper article written by a certain John Fleet 
 Eliot, great-grandson of T. Fleet, the printer, 
 who desired to embellish his family tree and 
 make readable history. No one ever saw this 
 edition of the " Melodies " printed by Fleet in 
 1719, and all the evidence we have is Mr. 
 Eliot's word that another gentleman named 
 Crowninshield — then deceased — had men- 
 195
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 tioned having once encountered a copy in the 
 library of the American Antiquarian Society 
 at Worcester, Mass , which, however, subse- 
 quent search failed to discover. 
 
 Mother Goose's grave was also pointed out 
 in the old Granary Burying Ground, and is 
 still visited by an occasional deluded pilgrim 
 But the grave is marked with the name of 
 "Mary Goose, wife to Isaac Goose," who 
 "dec'd October ye 19th, 1690," thus dividing 
 the honors of Goosehood; for Mary, wife to 
 Isaac, is clearly not Elizabeth, mother-in-law 
 to Fleet, whose fictitious singing of nursery 
 jingles in Pudding Lane dates twenty-five 
 years after Mary's interment. An English 
 writer in "The Spectator" several years ago, 
 discussing this Pudding Lane story, facetiously 
 suggested that the name Goose might be a 
 corruption of Gosse, and that his distinguished 
 compatriot, Mr. Edmund — of that name — 
 was probably a lineal descendant of the ancient 
 lady for whose ditties he has shown so deep a 
 regard. 
 
 If we are to seek the genesis of Mother 
 Goose, we must go farther than Boston and 
 earUer than 1719. Mr. Andrew Lang has dis- 
 196
 
 MOTHER GOOSE 
 
 covered in Loret's "La Muse Historique," pub- 
 lished in France in 1650, the following verses : 
 
 Mais le cher motif de leur joye, 
 Comme tin conte de la Mere Oye, 
 Se trouvant fabuleux et faux 
 lis d^viendront tous bien p^nauts. 
 
 The second line is the significant one; "Like 
 a Mother Goose story," — which, in the next 
 line, is shown to be " fabuleux et faux.' ' Clearly, 
 then. Mother Goose was known to the French 
 more than two hundred fifty years ago as the 
 typical teller of extraordinary and fanciful tales. 
 
 Some think they can find the origin of the 
 name in " Queen Goosefoot" — (Reine Pi- 
 dauque)y a nickname given to the mother of 
 Charlemagne because she was said to be web- 
 footed. But this requires of the imagination 
 almost too great a strain. 
 
 The earliest date at which Mother Goose 
 appears as the author of children's stories is 
 1697, when Charles Perrault, a distinguished 
 French littirateur, published in Paris a little 
 book of tales which he had during that and the 
 preceding year contributed to a magazine known 
 as " Moetjen's Recueil," printed at The Hague. 
 This book is entitled " Histoires ou Contes du 
 197
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 Temps Pass6, avec des Moralit^s," and has a 
 frontispiece in which an old woman is pictured, 
 telling stories to a family group by the fireside, 
 while in the background are the words in large 
 characters "Conies de maMhre VOye" — ^Tales 
 of my Mother Goose. 
 
 These tales were eight in number, consisting 
 of the children's classics: Little Red Riding 
 Hood, The Sisters who Dropped from their 
 Mouths Diamonds and Toads, Bluebeard, The 
 Sleeping Beauty, Puss in Boots, Cinderella, 
 Riquet with the Tuft, and Tom Thumb — or 
 Little Thumb {Petit Poucet), as he is here 
 called. Riquet with the Tuft is the only one of 
 the collection which seems not to have main- 
 tained its popularity in English and American 
 collections. 
 
 Perrault himself was a man of some impor- 
 tance in his day — an advocate, a pubUc officer 
 under Colbert, and a member of the French 
 Academy. Yet, though he wrote an ambitious 
 series of biographies and a hfe of himself, 
 in which he recounts his public services, his 
 claim to a place in hterature to-day rests upon 
 this little volume of "Mother Goose Stories," 
 which he gathered from various sources and 
 198
 
 MOTHER GOOSE 
 
 retold, using the name of his son because he 
 thought them too insignificant to own, himself. 
 The earUest mention of an English version of 
 these tales seems to be an advertisement in a 
 London paper of 1729, referring to "Tales of 
 Passed Times," translated by a Mr. Samber, 
 and published by J. Pote. 
 
 It is thus clear that Mother Goose was of 
 French extraction, and of at least respectable 
 antiquity. But thus far nothing has been 
 heard of her Melodies. She began her 
 existence as the raconteuse of fairy tales, not as 
 the nursery poetess. 
 
 The idea of collecting well-known rhymes 
 for children and of attributing them to this' 
 fabulous story-teller seems to have originated 
 with John Newbery, the London pubUsher, 
 who has been justly styled the father of chil- 
 dren's literature in England, and it is more 
 than probable that OUver Goldsmith edited the 
 first collection. This book, which was entitled 
 " Mother Goose's Melody," appeared not much 
 later than 1760. We know that Goldsmith did 
 hack-work for Newbery during five or six 
 years at about this period, that he wrote the 
 child's story of "Goody Two Shoes," which 
 199
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 Newbery published in 1765, and that he was 
 interested in children's literature. Certain ear- 
 marks, too, are to be found in the preface to the 
 "Melody" which suggest his authorship. 
 
 The full title of the book is " Mother Goose's 
 Melody: or. Sonnets for the Cradle. In two 
 Parts. Part I contains the most celebrated 
 Songs and Lullabies of the old British Nurses, 
 calculated to amuse Children and to excite them 
 to Sleep. Part II, Those of that sweet Songster 
 and Muse of Wit and Humour, Master WilUam 
 Shakespeare. EmbelUshed with Cuts, and 
 illustrated with Notes and Maxims, Historical, 
 Philosophical and Critical." 
 
 The collocation of nursery rhymes and 
 Shakespeare seems at first thought illogical 
 and displeasing, but when it is noted that the 
 Shakespearian selections include simply such 
 songs as " Where the Bee sucks," " You Spotted 
 Snakes," and "When Daffodils begin to 'pear," 
 it shows that the collection was made by one 
 who loved good Uterature and who felt that a 
 child's book of poetry would be enriched by 
 having in it these little gems of verse, which 
 we of to-day are beginning anew to repeat to 
 our children. 
 
 200
 
 MOTHER GOOSE 
 
 The selections embrace many of the familiar 
 old nursery rhymes, together with some which 
 have been omitted from modem collections on 
 account of their coarseness, and others which 
 seem to have been simply overlooked. Each 
 selection is accompanied by a foot-note or 
 comment satirizing the heavy Johnsonian 
 scholarship of that day, and the constant efforts 
 of editors to point a moral. 
 
 Most of us remember the melancholy rhyme 
 
 here called "A Dirge," which relates how 
 
 ** Little Betty Winckle she had a pig," — the 
 
 same being " a little pig, — not very big," who 
 
 " when he was alive lived in clover. But now 
 
 he's dead and that's all over." In the New- 
 
 bery collection this rhyme is accompanied by 
 
 the following scholarly note : 
 
 "A Dirge is a song made for the Dead; but whether this 
 was made for Betty Winckle or her Pig is uncertain; no 
 Notice being taken of it by Cambden, or any of the famous 
 Antiquarians. — WalTs System of Sense.^' 
 
 The rhyme regarding the old woman who 
 
 lived under a hill, is followed by this note : 
 
 "This is a self evident Proposition which is the very 
 Essence of Truth. She lived under the Hilly and if she is 
 noi gone, she lives there still. Nobody will presume to con- 
 tradict this. — Crofuw." 
 
 aoi
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 Following the familiar " Little Tom Tucker," 
 who, it will be remembered, sang for his supper, 
 and finally was overwhelmed by the problem 
 of getting married "without e'er a wife," the 
 scholarly editor remarks : 
 
 "To be married without a wife is a terrible Thing; and 
 to be married with a bad Wife is something worse; however 
 a good Wife that sings well is the best musical Instrument in 
 the Worid.— Puffendorff. " 
 
 Enough of this old book has been quoted to 
 show its quaintness. If Goldsmith did not 
 have a hand in it, Newbery at least published 
 it, and it was exceedingly popular in its day. 
 Probably no original copy of the Newbery 
 Mother Goose is now in existence, but the book 
 was reprinted by Isaiah Thomas of Worcester, 
 Mass., about 1785, and several copies of the 
 Worcester edition are preserved, one of which 
 has been photographed and reproduced in fac- 
 simile by Mr. W. H. Whitmore of Boston. The 
 illustrations are as quaint as the text, and are of 
 the same grade of excellence as those of the 
 New England Primer, which appeared at 
 about the same time, and which may have been 
 engraved by the same hand. 
 
 Another collection of nursery rhjnnes which 
 202
 
 MOTHER GOOSE 
 
 was published during this period, perhaps the 
 first American issue of its kind, was "The 
 Famous Tommy Thumb's Little Story-Book; 
 containing his Life and Surprising Adventures, 
 To which are added Tommy Thumb's Fables, 
 with Morals, and at the end, pretty stories, 
 that may be sung or told. Adorned with many 
 curious Pictures. Printed and sold at the 
 Printing Office in Mariborough Street 1771." 
 A copy of this is to be found in the Boston Pub- 
 lic Library. It contains the story of Tom 
 Thumb, seven fables, and nine nursery rhymes, 
 all but two of the rhymes — namely. Little 
 Boy Blue and Who did kill Cock Robin ? — 
 having appeared in the Newbery Mother Goose. 
 This Boston Tommy Thumb book was prob- 
 ably a reprint of another English collection. 
 
 The work of Newbery and his successors 
 forms an important and interesting chapter in 
 the history of children's literature. The story 
 of it has been well told by Charles Welsh in a 
 little book entitled " A Bookseller of the Last 
 Century," published in London some twenty 
 years ago. 
 
 But we must leave Newbery and follow the 
 development of Mother Goose. Her popularity 
 203
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 was not without its drawbacks. Other pub- 
 Hshers, seeing that she was bringing many a 
 shiUing into Newbery's till, cast covetous eyes 
 upon her, and soon John Marshall of Alder- 
 mary Churchyard, Bow Lane, London, being 
 seized with a spirit of high-handed piracy, 
 appropriated the "Melody" almost verbatim, 
 making only a few changes in the arrangement 
 of the selections. A copy of the Marshall 
 edition is still extant in the Bodleian Library 
 at Oxford. It was probably this that led 
 Thomas Caman, Newbery's stepson and 
 successor, to copyright in 1780 the original 
 "Mother Goose's Melody," which had been 
 published several years without copjnright. 
 
 In 1797 a quaint satirical booklet was printed 
 in London, entitled "Infant Institutes." This 
 seems to have been an essay on nursery liter- 
 ature, written in a mock-scholarly style, with 
 comments on a number of jingles then evidently 
 current, intended probably as a burlesque 
 upon the work of the Shakespearian commen- 
 tators of that day. The pamphlet was written 
 by the Rev. Baptist Noel Turner, Rector of 
 Denton, though its authorship was unknown 
 until after the writer's death. "Infant Insti-
 
 MOTHER GOOSE 
 
 tutes " contained a number of nursery rhymes, 
 some of which had not been printed in " Mother 
 Goose," — but we hear of no other general 
 collection until 1810. In that year appeared 
 "Gammer Gurton's Gariand, or the Nursery 
 Parnassus, a choice collection of pretty songs 
 and verses for the amusement of all httle good 
 children who can neither read nor run. Lon- 
 don: printed for R. Triphook, 37 St. James 
 Street by Harding and Wright, St. John's 
 Square." It was edited by Joseph Ritson, an 
 eminent scholar, critic, and antiquary, who 
 gave much attention to the origin and develop- 
 ment of English ballad poetry. 
 
 Gammer Gurton was evidently put forward 
 as a rival of Mother Goose. The name was a 
 famiUar one, found originally in the old comedy, 
 "Gammer Gurton's Needle," but used as a 
 type of the ancient grandmother. This alliter- 
 ative Garland contained nearly all of " Mother 
 Goose's Melody," and about as much more ma- 
 terial of the same sort, collected by Ritson from 
 all available sources. Gammer Gurton's reign 
 was, however, short, and it is to a Boston pub- 
 Usher that we look for the final estabUshment 
 of Mother Goose as the autocrat of the nursery. 
 205
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 At some time between 1824 and 1827, Mun- 
 roe and Francis, a firm of Boston booksellers, 
 doing business at what is now the comer of 
 Washington and Water streets, published a 
 book called " Mother Goose's Quarto, or Melo- 
 dies Complete," and in 1833 their successors, 
 C. S. Francis & Co., brought out a much larger 
 book, the title-page of which reads "Mother 
 Goose's Melodies: The only Pure Edition" 
 Though this is advertised as "pure" Mother 
 Goose, and though it contains all but three of 
 the original rhymes of Newbery's edition, there 
 is a plentiful alloy of Gammer Gurton, and of 
 other rhymes which had escaped both authori- 
 ties. In fact. Gammer Gurton is at this point 
 absorbed and loses her identity in Mother 
 Goose. The Munroe and Francis edition has 
 been reprinted in fac-simile, with an intro- 
 duction by Dr. Edward Everett Hale. 
 
 The last notable addition to nursery literature 
 was made in England in 1842, when Halliwell, 
 the well-known British scholar and Shake- 
 spearian critic, pubHshed "The Nursery 
 Rhymes of England," which his title announced 
 were "collected principally from oral tradition," 
 but which contained nearly all of Mother Goose, 
 a06
 
 MOTHER GOOSE 
 
 Gammer Gurton, and the American consoli- 
 dated Mother Goose, besides much new material 
 which the collector might well have allowed to 
 remain oral tradition. It is the most complete 
 collection of nursery rhymes ever published, 
 and is interesting to the student of folk-lore, 
 though not altogether profitable to the child. 
 Much of it is coarse, a great deal of it is silly, 
 and unfortunately the coarsest and silliest of it 
 has been repeated ad nauseam in modem 
 editions, to the lasting shame and humiliation 
 of the mystic dame to whom it is now attri- 
 buted. 
 
 The fact is worthy of note that among col- 
 lectors and editors of nursery rhymes are to be 
 found the brightest of scholars and litteraieurs. 
 Goldsmith, Ritson, HaUiwell, Andrew Lang, 
 who edited in 1884 perhaps the best children's 
 collection of jingles now obtainable; Dr. 
 Charles Eliot Norton, who made the collection 
 contained in Book I of the "Heart of Oak 
 Books"; Professor Saintsbury, editor of the 
 English volume, "National Rhymes of the 
 Nursery"; and Charles Welsh, one of the best 
 authorities on children's literature in this 
 country to-day. 
 
 207
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 Thus far we have traced simply the printed 
 existence of these rhymes, — the editorial history 
 of them. But when we go back of all that, and 
 attempt to discuss when and where and how 
 they first came into being, we open a wide field 
 of exploration, — as wide as the world itself, and 
 as old as history. Take, for example, "The 
 House that Jack Built." This and the story 
 of the old woman who bought a pig (in older 
 versions, kid) and found difficulty in inducing it 
 to jump over the stile and " get home to-night," 
 came from the same source. They both origi- 
 nated in an old accumulative bit of verse 
 found in the Chaldee and also in the Hebrew. 
 This verse proceeded step by step from the 
 phrase : 
 
 "A kid, a kid, my father bought 
 For two pieces of money, — 
 
 A kid, a kid." 
 
 Then appears a cat and eats the kid ; following 
 this, a dog that bites the cat; then a staff which 
 beats the dog; then a fire which bums tlie staff; 
 water which quenches the fire; an ox which 
 drinks the water; a butcher who slays the ox; 
 the angel of death who kills the butcher; 
 and finally the Holy One who kills the angel 
 208
 
 MOTHER GOOSE 
 
 of death. The last verse, translated, reads 
 
 thus: 
 
 " Then came the Holy One, blessed be He, 
 And killed the angel of death 
 That killed the butcher 
 That slew the ox 
 That drank the water 
 That quenched the fire 
 That burned the staff 
 That beat the dog 
 That bit the cat 
 That ate the kid 
 That my father bought 
 For two pieces of money, — 
 
 A kid, a kid." 
 
 To the Jews of the Middle Ages this quaint 
 old verse had a religious symbolism. It was 
 called the Haggadah, and was sung to the music 
 of a rude sort of chant, as a part of the " home 
 service" of the Passover. Its earliest appear- 
 ance in type, so far as I have been able to learn, 
 was in 1590, in a book issued at Prague. In 
 1731, a German scholar named Leberecht 
 published in Leipzig the interpretation. The 
 kid, an animal emblematic of purity, he claimed 
 represented the Hebrews; the father who 
 bought the kid, Jehovah; the two pieces of 
 money, Moses and Aaron, through whom the 
 Hebrews were brought out of Egypt; the cat, 
 • 209
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 the Assyrians; the dog, the Babylonians; the 
 staflF, the Persians; the fire, the Greeks under 
 Alexander; the water, the Romans; the ox, the 
 Saracens who subdued Palestine; the butcher, 
 the Crusaders, who conquered the Saracens; 
 the angel of death, the Turks, who succeeded to 
 the possession of the land; the whole closing 
 with a prophecy that the Holy One would in 
 the end wipe out the Turks and restore the 
 promised land to his children, the IsraeUtes. 
 Both the song and the interpretation are still 
 retained in the Jewish manual for the Passover 
 service. 
 
 The rhjnnes, "Hush-a-bye, baby, upon the 
 tree top " (orginally " Sing lullaby, baby," etc.) 
 and "Rock-a-bye, baby, thy cradle is green," 
 both suggest a pastoral, out-of-door life, and are 
 of great antiquity. The first is quoted in a song 
 called "The London Medley," printed in 1744. 
 The same song also contains "Old Obadiah 
 sings Ave Maria," and "There was an old 
 woman sold puddings and pies." Old King 
 Cole was an historical character, who ruled the 
 Britons in the third century A, D. Robert of 
 Gloucester says he was the father of St. Helena, 
 and hence the grandfather of Constantine. 
 210 .
 
 MOTHER GOOSE 
 
 "Jack and Jill" is drawn from Icelandic 
 mythology. The two children were supposed 
 to have been stolen and taken up into the moon, 
 where they still stand with the pail of water 
 between them; and the Scandinavian peasant 
 will point them out to you on a clear night when 
 the moon is at the full, as we point out to our 
 children "the man in the moon." A myih. 
 almost identical with this is found in the San- 
 skrit. 
 
 " When Good King Arthur ruled the land," 
 and stole " three pecks of barley meal to make 
 a bag pudding," the event is supposed to have 
 been commemorated in verse, though I believe 
 no one has ever found any details of the seizure 
 beyond those given by Mother Goose. 
 
 "Thirty days hath September," appears in 
 Grafton's Chronicle (1570), in a form slightly 
 different from that to which we are accustomed. 
 It there reads : 
 
 ' ' TTiirty days hath November, 
 April, June and September, 
 February hath twenty-eight alone 
 And all the rest have thirty-one" 
 
 Another variation is found in Winde*s 
 Almanac for 1636, printed at Cambridge : 
 211
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 "April, Jiine, and September 
 Thirty days have, as November. 
 Each month else doth never vary 
 From thirty-one, save February, 
 Which twenty-eight doth still confine 
 Save on leap year, — then twenty-nine." 
 
 Still another version is quoted in an old play 
 called "The Retume from Parnassus," pub- 
 lished in London in 1606. 
 
 The first line of "Sing a song of sixpence" 
 is quoted in Beaumont and Fletcher's "Bon- 
 duca" (about 1615); "A duck and a drake 
 and a half-penny cake" appears in Junius's 
 " Nomenclator," London, 1585; "When a 
 twister, a-twisting will twist him in a twist'* 
 is in Dr. WalUs's " Grammatica Linguae Angli- 
 canae," Oxon, 1674; "Three Blind Mice" is 
 in a book called "The DeuteromeUa," pub- 
 lished in London in 1609, with music accom- 
 panying; "Handy-dandy, Jack-a-dandy" is a 
 rhyme the repeating of which was part of an 
 old game — centuries old. It is referred to in 
 "Piers Ploughman" (1362) in the Unes: 
 
 * ' Thanne wowede wrong 
 
 Wisdom fill yeme 
 To maken pees with his pens. 
 Handy-dandy played." 
 
 212
 
 MOTHER GOOSE 
 
 To play the game, a small object was con- 
 cealed in one of the two hands, which were 
 tightly closed and placed one upon the other, 
 with the question : 
 
 ' Bbindy-dandy, Jack-ardandy, 
 Which good hand will you have ?" 
 
 or, as a variation, 
 
 " Handy-dandy, riddledy ro, — 
 Which will you have, high or low?" 
 
 Children to-day still play the game, though 
 the rhyme is no longer connected with it. 
 
 " Three children, sUding on the ice, all on a 
 summer's day," is found in a book of " Choyce 
 Poems," published in London in 1662, and 
 later in a volume figuratively entitled " Pills to 
 Purge Melancholy, " dated 1719. 
 
 Many of the popular nursery rhymes are 
 historical. Several of these have already been 
 referred to. 
 
 "Over the water and over the sea 
 And over the water to Charley," 
 
 was an old Jacobite song, sung many a time in 
 Scotland at midnight meetings in the alehouses 
 while waiting for "Bonnie Prince Charley." 
 " CharUe loves good ale and wine " was another 
 SOS
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 drinking-song of the same period, — some say a 
 part of the same song, though that is doubtful. 
 It also refers to the Young Pretender. 
 
 "Bessy Bell and Mary Gray" is an old 
 Scotch ballad, well-known before the end of the 
 seventeenth century. It refers to two young 
 women of Perth, who fled to the country during 
 the Plague of 1645. There the lover of one 
 visited them, carried the contagion, and they 
 both, if not all three, died. The second verse, 
 found in nursery collections, in which Bessy is 
 represented as keeping the garden gate while 
 Mary kept the pantry, is a comparatively 
 modem corruption. The original ballad has 
 four verses. It is a Uttle gem of its kind : 
 
 " O Bessie Bell and Mary Gray 
 They war twa bonnie lasses. 
 They biggit a bower on yon bum-brae, 
 And theekit it o'er wi' rashes. 
 
 " They theekit it o'er wi' rashes green, 
 
 They theekit it o'er wi' heather; 
 But the pest cam f rae the burrows-town 
 And slew them baith thegither. 
 
 " They thought to he in Methven kirkyard 
 Amang their noble kin; 
 But they maun lye in Stronach haugh. 
 To biek forenent the sin. 
 
 214
 
 MOTHER GOOSE 
 
 " And Bessie Bell and Mary Gray 
 
 They war twa bonnie lasses; 
 They biggit a bower on yon bum-brae, 
 And theekit it o'er wi' rashes.'' 
 
 " Little Jack Homer " is said by Mr. Andrew- 
 Lang to have lived in Wells, Somersetshire, in 
 the reign of Henry the Eighth, and the plum that 
 he pulled out of the Christmas pie was an estate 
 formerly belonging to the Church, which was 
 given him by the crown upon the dissolution 
 of the English monasteries. 
 
 " TaflFy was a Welshman, TaflFy was a thief," 
 is supposed to refer to the Welsh uprising early 
 in the fifteenth century, when Owen Glendower 
 descended upon the EngUsh border and made 
 trouble, for which he afterward paid dearly. 
 
 The familiar rhyme which narrates how the 
 King of France went up the hill with twenty 
 thousand men, and subsequently came down 
 again, appeared in a little pamphlet called 
 " Pigg^s Corantoe, or Newes from the North," 
 pubUshed in London in 1642. It is there 
 called Tarlton's Song. As Tarlton died in 
 1588, it must be quite old. No one seems to 
 have discovered what particular military move- 
 ment it celebrates. It may have suggested that 
 215
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 series of self-evident propositions beginning 
 
 *' There was a crow sat on a stone, " which closes 
 
 with the couplet, 
 
 "There was a navy went to Spain, 
 When it returned, it came again." 
 
 The latter is known to have reference to the 
 
 failure of the English fleet against Cadiz in 
 
 1625. 
 
 References to these historical rhymes might 
 
 be multiplied indefinitely. There is "Please 
 
 to remember the Fifth of November," referring 
 
 to the Gunpowder Plot; there is the "black 
 
 man upon the black horse," which was Charles 
 
 the First; there is "Hector Protector, dressed 
 
 all in green"; there is "The Parliament 
 
 soldiers," who are said to have "gone to the 
 
 King"; and there is 
 
 " Queen Anne, Queen Anne, you sit in the sun. 
 As white as a lily, as fair as a wand." 
 
 Then there is the rhyme, "London Bridge 
 is falling down," which celebrates an event 
 in the early part of the eleventh century, when 
 King Olaf, the Norseman, went to England 
 and broke down London Bridge after a battle 
 with King Ethelred. The victory found a 
 place in the Norse sagas, and the following 
 216
 
 MOTHER GOOSE 
 
 lines from the "Heimskringla" evidently fonned 
 the basis of the nursery rhyme : 
 
 "London Bridge is broken down. 
 Gold is won and bright renown. 
 Shields resoimding, 
 War horns sounding, 
 Hildur shouting in the din; 
 Arrows singing, 
 Mail coats ringing, 
 Odin makes our Olaf win." 
 
 As one looks back over the history of these 
 old rhymes, he is filled with wonder at their 
 vitality. Century after century has passed 
 over them and they still find a place in every 
 nursery, a comer in the heart of every child. 
 Many verses for children have been written 
 in modem times, which to the adult mind 
 seem more melodious and attractive, but the 
 child looks upon them with more or less of cold- 
 ness. They may amuse him for a time, but 
 after all, it is his Mother Goose that he takes 
 to bed with him. He knows nothing of its 
 antiquity nor of its history. He does not 
 know why he Hkes it; he simply likes it. 
 
 A story is told of the daughter of Horace 
 Mann, who during the tender years of baby- 
 hood was studiously kept away from the cor- 
 217
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 rupting influence of all nursery nonsense, and 
 brought up in an eminently proper intellectual 
 environment. When she had become quite 
 a large girl, she heard one day for the first 
 time, "High diddle diddle," and was so fas- 
 cinated by it, that she begged to have it re- 
 peated to her until she could learn it. This 
 story proves not only the futility of keeping 
 children in a strait-jacket, but also the inherent 
 attraction of Mother Goose aside from all 
 possibilities of association or training. 
 
 What is the secret of this ever-fresn and 
 ever-enduring popularity? Some thoughtful 
 persons have claimed to find in the old rhymes 
 hints of profound philosophy which they 
 think is the preservative principle that has kept 
 them through the centuries. Mrs. Whitney, 
 in her deliciously extravagant " Mother Goose 
 for Grown Folks," has found them fairly bris- 
 tling with morals. She sees in "Little Boy 
 Blue" an exhortation to youth to shake oflF 
 indolence and apply itself to duty; "Little 
 Jack Homer" she conceives to be a satire on 
 the egotism of the successful man; "Little Bo 
 Peep" oflFers comfort to the disappointed; 
 "Solomon Grundy" is the epitome of Ufe — a 
 218
 
 MOTHER GOOSE 
 
 simpler and more direct form of Shakespeare's 
 "Seven Ages"; "The Old Woman who hved 
 upon Nothing but Victuals and Drink" shows 
 the longing of the unsatisfied soul after things 
 spiritual; " Jack Sprat and his Wife" illustrates 
 the complementary character of human endow- 
 ments, — each being fitted to its place in the 
 economy of nature. One of her interpreta- 
 tions, "SimiHa Similibus," affects to show the 
 meaning of "The Man who jumped into the 
 Bramble Bush." She says: 
 
 " Old Dr. Hahnemann read the tale 
 
 (And he was wondrous wise) 
 Of the man who, in the bramble bush. 
 Had scratched out both his eyes. 
 
 " And the fancy tickled mightily 
 
 His misty German brain. 
 That, by jumping in another bush. 
 He got them back again. 
 
 *' So he called it * homo-hop-aihy* 
 
 And soon it came about 
 That a curious crowd among the thorns 
 Was hopping in and out. " 
 
 Mrs. Whitney's corollaries are drawn more 
 in jest than in earnest, but other commenta- 
 tors have made a ridiculously serious matter of 
 it. We must remember that the popularity 
 219
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 of Mother Goose springs from the child him- 
 self, — and what child has any vital concern 
 as to the lesson in "Little Boy Blue" ? If he 
 suspected that there is a lesson in it, he would 
 lose interest at once. 
 
 Neither is it the wit or humor that appeals 
 to the child. Professor Saintsbury tells of an 
 acquaintance who used to be mightily amused 
 at the line, "Hotum, potum, paradise tantum, 
 peri-meri-dictum, domine," in which he said 
 the phrase, " paradise ton^ww," — only paradise 
 
 — was the nicest thing he knew. It is proba- 
 ble that whoever first evolved this choice pig- 
 Latin had no thought of doing a particularly 
 nice thing, but perhaps wanted to burlesque 
 some old Latin formula used by the priests. 
 At all events, the child sees nothing witty in 
 it, — the jingle is what attracts him. 
 
 The child takes little thought as to what any 
 of these verses mean. There are perhaps four 
 elements in them that appeal to him, — first, 
 the jingle, and with it that peculiar cadence 
 which modem writers of children's poetry 
 strive in vain to imitate; second, the nonsense, 
 
 — with just enough of sense in it to connect the 
 nonsense with the child's thinkable world; 
 
 220
 
 MOTHER GOOSE 
 
 third, the action, — for the stories are quite 
 dramatic in their way; and fourth, the quaint- 
 ness. Many of the objects which are referred 
 to are entirely uninteresting to him in them- 
 selves, many of them entirely strange and 
 beyond his horizon — and perhaps this quality 
 of mystery also adds to them a certain charm. 
 No child knows exactly what it was that Little 
 Miss Muffet sat on, — and it is an interesting 
 experiment to get from a dozen average chil- 
 dren their ideas on this subject. The concep- 
 tions range all the way from a rocking-chair 
 to a mushroom, and I have observed that the 
 artists who illustrate Mother Goose are as 
 far apart in their views as the children. Nor 
 does the child have a very distinct idea of what 
 Miss Muflfet was eating. "Curds and whey" 
 mean nothing to him. He suspects that 
 the combination is something nice, — perhaps 
 something resembling ice-cream, which is his 
 most exalted conception of things eatable. 
 What does interest him is the rhyme and the 
 swing of the metre. " Spider " and " beside her " 
 fall on his ear quite pleasantly. Then he has 
 a vague feeling of sympathy or of contemf>- 
 tuous pity for the heroine, conditioned upon 
 221
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 his own relations with spiders in general. I 
 remember, in my childhood, passing through 
 both the sympathetic and contemptuous 
 stages ; the first, a quite delightful sort of terror, 
 which made me half fear to hear the story; 
 the second, a complacent pleasure which grew 
 out of the consciousness of weakness over- 
 come. 
 
 What was it that so attracted Horace 
 Mann's daughter in " High diddle diddle " ? 
 First, undoubtedly, the metre, which is a waltz 
 movement, suggesting all the abandon of the 
 unusual scene which it celebrates, — this em- 
 phasized by the alliteration in the first two 
 lines, Uke the beat of some barbaric tom-tom. 
 There is, too, an excellent set of rhymes, except 
 in the emasculated modem version, which 
 substitutes "sport" for the good old English 
 word " craft," — meaning skill, strength, and 
 courage, — and thereby destroys the verse, 
 and the idea as well. Then there is the very 
 intoxication of movement. Every one is doing 
 something. And, finally, there is the absolute 
 nonsense of it all. I do not wonder that the 
 verse has lasted three hundred years or so; 
 it is good for at least three hundred more, 
 222
 
 MOTHER GOOSE 
 
 unless children grow too wise to love absurdi- 
 ties and too proper to feel the swing of a half- 
 sa^'age melody. 
 
 Many good people have tried to improve 
 Mother Goose. A familiar story is that of 
 the Quaker who revised " High diddle diddle " 
 for his little Mary, — making the cow to jump 
 under the moon, the little dog to bark, rather 
 than laugh, and the cat to run after the spoon, 
 the dish being debarred from such action on 
 account of the manifest impossibiUty of run- 
 ning without legs. It is not recorded how 
 little Mary received the emendations, but it 
 may be inferred that she did not highly ap- 
 prove of them. 
 
 Every attempt to alter Mother Goose for 
 the better has resulted in failure. To try to 
 make her sensible is to destroy a large element 
 of her charm. To modernize her is to lose 
 that quaint flavor of things half-understood 
 and wholly unusual, which appeals to every 
 child. To expurgate her and try to make of 
 her a moral teacher is to relegate her to the 
 dust-bin. Some things there are in the old 
 editions whch are coarse to modem ears, and 
 judicious editors wisely omit them, but on the 
 223
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 whole, there is little danger that the rising 
 generation will have its morals or its taste de- 
 based by this old classic. To trifle with Mother 
 Goose is Uke trifling with Shakespeare. We 
 have no men or women living nowadays who 
 can improve upon her. 
 
 224
 
 APPENDIX
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 LISTS OF BOOKS SUITABLE FOR SCHOOL AND 
 SUNDAY-SCHOOL LIBRARIES 
 
 [The flgrures indicate school grades fl-om primary through high 
 School.] 
 
 FOLK-LORE, FAIRY AND WONDER TALES, 
 FABLES. MYTHS. AND LEGENDS 
 
 OBADBS 
 
 . . . Fables 3 to 4 O 
 
 Fairy Tales 3 to 6 
 
 , Arabian Nights 6 to 12 O 
 
 Fairy Stories and Fables . . . 2 to 4 O 
 
 Fifty Famous Stories Retold . 3 to 
 
 Old Greek Stories 4 to 
 
 iEsop . . 
 
 Andersen . 
 
 Arabian 
 
 Baldwin 
 
 Baldwin 
 
 Baldwin 
 
 Baldwin 
 
 Baldwin 
 
 Baldwin 
 
 Baldwin 
 
 Baring-Gould 
 
 Beckwith 
 Besant . 
 Blumenthal 
 Brown . 
 Bunyan 
 Carroll . 
 Carroll . 
 Carryl . 
 Chamisso 
 Chandler 
 Church . 
 
 Old Stories of the East ... 4 to 
 
 The Story of the Golden Age . 4 to 
 
 The Story of Roland .... 6 to 10 
 
 The Story of Siegfried . . . 6 to 10 
 Curious Myths of the Middle 
 
 Ages 6 to 10 
 
 In Mythland 4 to 6 
 
 The Story of King Arthur . . 6 to 10 
 
 Folkr Tales from the Russian . 4 to 8 
 
 In the Days of the Giants . . 3 to 6 
 
 Pilgrim's Progress 5 to 12 
 
 Alice in Wonderland .... 5 to 8 
 
 Through the Looking-Glass . . 5 to 8 
 
 Davy and the Goblin .... 5 to 8 
 
 Peter Schlemihl 6 to 8 
 
 In the Reign of Coyote . . . 5 to 8 
 Stories from the Greek Trage- 
 dians 6 to 10 
 
 227 
 
 c>
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 GRADES 
 
 Church . . . Stories from Homer . . . . 6 to 10 
 
 Church. . . The Story of the Iliad . . . 6 to 10 
 
 Church . . . Stories of the Magicians 6 to 10 
 
 O Church. . . Stories of the Old World . . 5 to 10 
 
 Church . . . Stories from Virgil . . 6 to 10 
 
 Q Collodi . . . Pinocchio: The Adventures of 
 
 a Marionette 3 to 6 
 
 Cranch . . Translation of Virgil's ^neid . 8 to 12 
 
 Fouqu6 . . Undine 6 to 8 
 
 Frandllon . Gods and Heroes . . . . 3 to 8 
 
 O Grimm . . Fairy Tales (Selected) . . . 3 to 6 
 
 O Grover . . Folk-Lore Stories .... 1 to 2 
 
 Guerber . . Myths of Greece and Rome 6 to 8 
 
 O Harris . . Uncle Remus and his Friends . 5 to 8 
 
 Harris . . Nights with Uncle Remus . . 5 to 8 
 
 Harris . . Mr. Rabbit at Home . 5 to 8 
 
 Harris . . Little Mr. Thimblefinger and 
 
 his Queer Country . 6 to 8 
 
 C> Hawthorne . Wonder Book 6 to 8 
 
 Hawthorne . Tanglewood Tales . . . . 6 to 8 
 
 (See also Fiction.) 
 
 OHolbrook , . Book of Nature Myths . . . 2 to 3 
 
 ^Horner . The Odyssey (Pahner's trans.) . 6 to 12 
 
 O Homer . . The Iliad (Lang's trans.) . . 7 to 12 
 
 Ingelow . Mopsa the Fairy . . . 4 to 6 
 
 O Irving . . Rip Van Winkle 6 to 12 
 
 C Jacobs (Ed.) . Reynard the Fox 3 to 4 
 
 Kingsley . . Water Babies 5 to 8 
 
 Kingsley . . Greek Heroes 5 to 8 
 
 Kipling . Just So Stories 5 to 8 
 
 (See also Fiction, and Nature.) 
 
 ij LaFontaine . Fables 3 to 6 
 
 Lamb . . . The Adventures of LHysses . 6 to 8 
 
 228
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 Lang . 
 
 . . Blue Fairy Book .... 
 
 OBA.DE8 
 
 3 to 6 
 
 Lang . 
 
 . Green Fairy Book . 
 
 
 3 to 6 
 
 Lang . 
 
 . . Red Fairy Book . . . 
 
 
 3 to 6 
 
 Lang . 
 
 . . Yellow Fairy Book . . 
 
 
 3 to 6 
 
 Ijanier 
 
 The Boy's King Arthur . 
 
 
 6 to 12 D 
 
 Lanier 
 
 . The Boy's Mabinogion . 
 
 
 6 to 12 
 
 Lanier 
 
 The Boy's Percy 
 
 
 6 to 12 
 
 McMurry 
 
 . Classic Stories for the Little 
 
 
 
 Ones 
 
 2 to 4 
 
 Mabie 
 
 Norse Stories Retold from the 
 
 
 
 Eddas 
 
 6 to 12 O 
 
 Macdonak 
 
 1 . At the Back of the North 
 
 
 
 Wind 
 
 5 to 8 «^ 
 
 MacdonaU 
 
 1 The Princess and the Goblin 
 
 5 to 8 
 
 Macdonal< 
 
 i . The Princess and Curdie . 
 
 5 to 8 
 
 Menefee 
 
 Child Stories from the Mas- 
 
 
 
 ters 
 
 5 to 8 
 
 Mulock-Ci 
 
 •aik The Adventiu-es of a Brownie . 
 
 4 to 8C) 
 
 Pratt . 
 
 , Legends of the Red Children . 
 
 4 to 8 
 
 Pyle . 
 
 . King Arthur and his Knights . 
 
 6 to 10 
 
 Pyle . 
 
 The Merry Adventures of Robin 
 
 
 
 Hood 
 
 6 to 10 
 
 pyle . 
 
 , The Wonder Clock .... 
 
 5 to 8 
 
 Ruskin 
 
 . The King of the Golden River 
 
 5to 8 ^ 
 
 Schoolcraf 
 
 : . Algic Researches .... 
 
 7 to 12 
 
 Scudder 
 
 . The Book of Legends 
 
 5 to 8 O 
 
 Shaw . 
 
 . Stories of the Ancient Greeks . 
 
 5to 8 O 
 
 Steel . . 
 
 . Tales of the Punjab .... 
 
 6 to 8 
 
 StcxJcton 
 
 . Fanciful Tales 
 
 5 to 8 
 
 Swift . 
 
 . Gulliver's Travels .... 
 
 5 to 8 
 
 WOson 
 
 . The Faery Queen (from Spen- 
 
 
 
 ser) 
 
 6 to 10 
 
 Zitkala-Sa 
 
 . Old Indian Legends . . 
 
 4to 8 
 
 
 229 
 

 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 
 FICTION 
 
 QBADES 
 
 Abbott 
 
 . . Malleville 
 
 . 6to 8 
 
 OAlcott . 
 
 . . Little Women . . . 
 
 . 6 to 12 
 
 OAIcott . 
 
 . Little Men .... 
 
 . 6 to 12 
 
 OAlcott. 
 
 Jo's Boys .... 
 
 . . 6 to 12 
 
 (J Alcott. 
 OAlcott. 
 
 . An 01d-Fa.shioned Girl . 
 
 . 6 to 12 
 
 Jack and Jill .... 
 
 . 6 to 12 
 
 Alcott. 
 
 . Spinning- Wheel Stories . 
 
 . 6 to 12 
 
 Alcott. 
 
 . . Jimmie's Cruise in the Pinafore 6 to 12 
 
 d Alcott . 
 
 . . Under the Lilacs 
 
 . 6 to 12 
 
 • Alcott. 
 
 . An Old-Fashioned Thanks- 
 
 
 giving 
 
 . 6 to 12 
 
 Alden . 
 
 . The Cruise of the Canoe Club . 6 to 8 
 
 Aldrich 
 
 . Marjorie Daw and Other People 5 to 12 
 
 Aldrich 
 
 . The Story of a Bad Boy 
 
 . 5to 8 
 
 AUen . 
 
 . . A Kentucky Cardinal 
 
 . 6 to 12 
 
 Auerbach 
 
 . Edelweiss 
 
 . 6 to 12 
 
 Austen 
 
 . Pride and Prejudice . . 
 
 . . 8 to 12 
 
 Austen 
 
 Sense and Sensibility 
 
 . 8 to 12 
 
 Austen 
 
 Emma 
 
 . 8 to 12 
 
 d Austin 
 
 . Standish of Standish 
 
 . 7 to 12 
 
 Barbour 
 
 . For the Honor of the Schoo 
 
 . 6 to 10 
 
 Barbour 
 
 . TheHalf-Back . . . 
 
 . 6 to 10 
 
 Barbour . 
 
 . Behind the Line .... 
 
 . 6 to 10 
 
 Barr . 
 
 . A Border Shepherdess . 
 
 . 6 to 9 
 
 Barr . 
 
 , A Daughter of Fife . . 
 
 . 6 to 9 
 
 C>Bame 
 
 . The Little Minister . . 
 
 . 8 to 12 
 
 Barrie 
 
 . Margaret Ogilvy . . 
 
 . 8 to 12 
 
 CBarrie 
 
 . Sentimental Tommie 
 
 . 8 to 12 
 
 Barrie 
 
 . A Window in Thrums . 
 
 . 8 to 12 
 
 Bennett 
 
 . Master Skylark . 
 
 . 6 to 10 
 
 Besant 
 
 . For Faith and Freedom 
 
 . 8 to 12 
 
 6 Black . 
 
 . The Four Macnicols 
 
 . 6 to 12 
 
 230
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 GBAOm 
 
 Black . . . Macleod of Dare .... 6 to 12 
 
 Black ... A Princess of Thule . . . . 6 to 12 
 
 Blackmore . Loma Doone 7 to 12 
 
 Bouvet . Bernardo and Laurette . . 6 to 10 
 
 Bouvet . . Pierrette 6 to 10 
 
 Bouvet . . A Child of Tuscany . . . . 6 to 10 
 
 Bouvet . . Sweet William 6 to 10 
 
 Bouvet . . Prince Tip-Top 6 to 10 
 
 Boyesen . Against Heavy Odds . . 7 to 12 
 
 Boyesen . . Norseland Tales 6 to 10 
 
 Boyesen . Boyhood in Norway . . 6 to 10 
 
 Boyesen . Gunnar 8 to 12 
 
 Bronte . . The Professor 8 to 12 
 
 Bronte . . Shirley 8 to 12 
 
 Bryant . . The Christmas Cat . . . . 5 to 7 
 
 Bidwer-Lytton The Last Days of Pompeii . . 7 to 12 
 
 Bulwer-Lytton Rienzi 7 to 12 
 
 Bulwer-Lytton Harold 7 to 12 
 
 Bulwer-Lytton The Last of the Barons . . 7 to 12 
 
 Bulwer-Lytton Zanoni 7 to 12 
 
 Burnett Little Ijord Fauntleroy . . 5 to 8 
 
 Burnett . Little Saint Elizabeth . 5 to 8 
 
 Burnett . . The Little Princess ( Sara Crewe) 5 to 8 
 
 Burnett That Lass o' Lowrie's . 8 to 12 
 
 Bumey . . Evelina 8 to 12 
 
 Butterworth . Log Schoolhouse on the Colum- 
 bia 5 to 8 
 
 Butterworth . A Knight of Liberty . 5 to 8 
 
 Butterworth . The Pilot of the Mayflower . 5 to 8 
 
 Butterworth . The Patriot Schoolmaster . . 5 to 8 
 
 Cable . Bonaventure 8 to 12 
 
 Cable ... Dr. Sevier 8 to 12C> 
 
 Cable . . . The Grandissimes .... 8 to 12 
 
 231
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 O Cervantes 
 Clemens 
 Clemens 
 
 O Clemens 
 Coffin . 
 Connor 
 Connor 
 Connor 
 Connor 
 Coolidge 
 Coolidge 
 Coolidge 
 Coolidge 
 Coolidge 
 
 O Cooper 
 Cooper 
 Cooper 
 . Cooper 
 Cooper 
 Cooper 
 
 O Cooper 
 Cooper 
 Cooper 
 Craddock 
 Craddock 
 
 Craddock 
 Craddock 
 Craddock 
 Craddock 
 Crane (Ed.) 
 Crockett . 
 Crockett . 
 
 GRADES 
 
 Don Quixote 6 to 12 
 
 Prince and Pauper . . . 6 to 12 
 
 Old Times on the Mississippi . 7 to 12 
 
 The Adventures of Tom Sawyer 6 to 12 
 
 Dan of Millbrook . . . . 7 to 12 
 
 The Sky Pilot 8 to 12 
 
 The Man from Glengarry . . 8 to 12 
 
 Glengarry School Days . . 6 to 8 
 
 Black Rock 8 to 12 
 
 What Katy Did 6 to 10 
 
 What Katy Did at School . . 6 to 10 
 
 Clover 6 to 10 
 
 In the High Valley . . . . 6 to 10 
 
 A New Year's Bargain . . 6 to 10 
 
 The Last of the Mohicans . 7 to 12 
 
 The Pathfinder 7 to 12 
 
 The Deerslayer 7 to 12 
 
 The Pioneers 7 tol2 
 
 The Prairie 7tol2 
 
 The Redskin 7 to 12 
 
 The Spy 7 to 12 
 
 The Pilot 7 to 12 
 
 The Water Witch . . . . 7 to 12 
 
 In the Tennessee Mountains 6 to 12 
 The Prophet of the Great Smoky 
 
 Mountains 6 tol2 
 
 The Story of Keedon Bluffs . 6 to 12 
 
 The Young Moimtaineers . 6 to 12 
 
 Down the Ravine 6 to 12 
 
 The Story of Old Fort Loudon . 6 to 12 
 
 Italian Popular Tales . . . 7 to 10 
 
 Kit Kennedy, Country Boy 6 to 12 
 
 The Stickit Minister . . . 7 to 12
 
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 
 
 - 
 
 
 
 OBADE0 
 
 
 Cummins 
 
 The Lamplighter .... 8 to 12 
 
 
 Dana . 
 
 Two Years Before the Mast 
 
 6 to 12 
 
 
 Daniel 
 
 Andree Theuriette 
 
 6 to 12 
 
 
 Daskam . 
 
 The Imp and the Angel 
 
 6 to 12 
 
 
 Daskam . 
 
 The Madness of Philip . . 
 
 6 to 12 
 
 
 De Amicis 
 
 Cuore: An Italian Schoolboy'. 
 
 i 
 
 
 
 Journal 
 
 6 to 12 
 
 
 Defoe. . 
 
 Robinson Crusoe . . 
 
 4 to 12 
 
 O 
 
 De la Ramee 
 
 Findelkind 
 
 4 to 8 
 
 
 De la Ram^e 
 
 The ChUd of Urbino . . 
 
 4 to 8 
 
 
 De la Ramee 
 
 The Niirnberg Stove . . 
 
 4 to 8 
 
 
 Diaz . 
 
 Polly Cologne .... 
 
 3 to 6 
 
 O 
 
 Diaz . . 
 
 The William Henry Letters 
 
 5 to 10 
 
 
 Diaz . . 
 
 William Henry and his Friends 
 
 5 to 10 
 
 
 Dickens . 
 
 The Pickwick Papers 
 
 7 to 12 
 
 
 Dickens . 
 
 A Tale of Two Cities 
 
 
 
 8 to 12 
 
 O 
 
 Dickens 
 
 David Copperfield . 
 
 
 
 7 to 12 
 
 O 
 
 Dickens . 
 
 Dombey and Son 
 
 
 
 7 to 12 
 
 
 Dickens . 
 
 Nicholas Nickleby . 
 
 
 
 7 to 12 
 
 
 Dickens . 
 
 Oliver Twist . . . 
 
 
 
 7 to 12 
 
 o 
 
 Dickens . 
 
 Martin Chuzzlewit . 
 
 
 
 7 to 12 
 
 
 Dickens . 
 
 The Old Curiosity Shop 
 
 
 
 7 to 12 
 
 o 
 
 Dickens . 
 
 Bleak House . 
 
 
 
 7 to 12 
 
 
 Dickens . 
 
 Little Dorrit . . . 
 
 
 
 7 to 12 
 
 o 
 
 Dickens 
 
 Bamaby Rudge . 
 
 
 
 7 to 12 
 
 
 Dickens . 
 
 Our Mutual Friend . 
 
 
 
 7 to 12 
 
 
 Dickens . 
 
 Great Expectations . 
 
 
 
 7 to 12 
 
 
 Dickens 
 
 Christmas Books 
 
 
 
 6 to 12 
 
 
 Dodge 
 
 Hans Brinker 
 
 
 
 6 to 10 
 
 
 
 Dodge 
 
 The Land of Pluck . 
 
 
 
 6 to 10 
 
 
 Dodge 
 
 Donald and Dorothy 
 
 
 
 6 to 10 
 
 
 Dodge (Ed.) 
 
 New Baby World 
 
 
 
 3 to 6 
 
 
 Doyle . . 
 
 Micah Clarke . . 
 
 
 
 8 to 12 
 
 
 233
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 Dumas 
 Dumas 
 Duncan 
 Ebers . 
 Ebers . 
 Ebers . 
 Ebers . 
 Edgeworth 
 Edgeworth 
 Edgeworth 
 Edgeworth 
 EgglestoQ 
 E^leston 
 Eliot, George 
 O Eliot, George 
 ^ Eliot, George 
 Eliot, George 
 Eliot, George 
 Eliot, George 
 Eliot, George 
 Eliot, George 
 Erckmann- 
 Chatrian 
 Ewing 
 
 Ewing 
 Ewing 
 
 6Ewing 
 Ewing 
 Ewing 
 
 OEwing 
 Ewing 
 
 d Field . 
 
 GRADES 
 
 The Three Musketeers . . . 8 to 12 
 
 Twenty Years After . . . . 8 to 12 
 
 Dr. Luke of the Labrador . 8 to 12 
 
 An Egyptian Princess . . . 8 to 12 
 
 The Emperor 8 to 12 
 
 Uarda 8 to 12 
 
 Joshua 8 to 12 
 
 Early Lessons 6 to 8 
 
 Moral Tales 6 to 8 
 
 Parent's Assistant . . . . 6 to 8 
 
 Popular Tales 6 to 8 
 
 The Hoosier Schoolmaster . . 8 to 12 
 
 The Hoosier Schoolboy . . . 6 to 12 
 
 Romola 8 to 12 
 
 Silas Marner 8 to 12 
 
 Middlemarch 8 to 12 
 
 Daniel Deronda 8 to 12 
 
 Adam Bede 8 to 12 
 
 The Mill on the Floss . . . 8 to 12 
 
 Scenes of Clerical Life . . 8 to 12 
 
 Felix Holt 8 to 12 
 
 Madame Theresa 6 to 12 
 
 Brothers of Pity, and Other 
 
 Tales of Beasts and Men 5 to 10 
 
 Daddy Darwin's Dovecote . 5 to 10 
 
 A Flatiron for a Farthing . . 5 to 10 
 
 Jackanapes 5 to 10 
 
 Jan of the Windmill . . . 5 to 10 
 
 Mary's Meadow 5 to 10 
 
 Six to Sixteen 5 to 10 
 
 Story of a Short Life . . 5 to 10 
 
 A Little Book of Profitable Tales 6 to 12 
 
 234
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 Fletcher . 
 Frederic . 
 Gaskell . 
 Goldsmith 
 Hale . . 
 Hale . . 
 Hale . . 
 Hale . . 
 Hale . . 
 Hale, L. P. 
 Hale, L. P. 
 Harris 
 Harrison . 
 Hawthorne 
 Hawthorne 
 Hawthorne 
 Hawthorne 
 
 Holland 
 Holland 
 Holland 
 Hopkins 
 Hopkins 
 
 Housekeeper 
 
 Howells 
 
 Howells 
 
 Howells 
 
 Hughes 
 
 Hughes 
 
 Hugo . 
 
 Hugo . 
 
 Marjorie and her Papa 
 
 In the Valley . 
 
 Cranford .... 
 
 The Vicar of Wakefield 
 
 The Man without a Country 
 
 Philip Nolan's Friends 
 
 In His Name 
 
 His Level Best 
 
 Ten Times One is Ten 
 
 The Peterkin Papers 
 
 Last of the Peterkins 
 
 Plantation Pageants . 
 
 In Storyland . 
 
 The Marble Faun 
 
 The House of the Seven Gables 
 
 Twice-Told Tales .... 
 
 Mosses from an Old Manse 
 
 (See also Folk-Lore, etc.) 
 
 Arthur Bonnicastle .... 
 
 Sevenoaks 
 
 Nicholas Mintiu^n .... 
 The Sandman: His Farm Stories 
 The Sandman: More Farm 
 
 Stories 
 
 Hermit of Livry 
 
 A Boy's Town 
 
 The Flight of Pony Baker 
 The Rise of Silas Lapham . 
 Tom Brown at Rugby . 
 Tom Brown at Oxford . 
 Jean Valjean (Abridged from 
 
 Les Miserables) .... 
 Ninety-Three 
 
 235 
 
 6BAOC8 
 
 2to 5 
 
 8 to 12 
 8 to 12 
 8 to 12 O 
 6 to 12 O 
 6 to 12 L> 
 6 to 12 
 6 to 12 
 6 to 12 
 6 to 8 
 
 5 to 8 
 
 6 to 12 
 
 5 to 8 
 
 8 to 12(0 
 8 to 12 
 
 6 to 12 
 8 to 12 
 
 6 to 12 
 
 6 to 12 
 
 7 to 12 
 3to 6 -O 
 
 3 to 6 
 6 to 12 
 6 to 10 
 6 to 10 
 
 8 to 12 
 
 6 to 12 
 
 7 to 12 
 
 8 to 12 O 
 8 to 12
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 Ingelow . . Stories Told to a Child (2 vols.) 
 
 ^Irving . The Legend of Sleepy Hollow 
 
 ^Irving . , The Alhambra .... 
 
 Irving . Tales of a Traveller . 
 
 Irving Bracebride:e Hall 
 
 (See also Folk-Lore, etc.) 
 
 Jackson Ramona 
 
 O Jackson Nelly's Silver Mine . 
 
 Jewett . . Betty Leicester's Christmas 
 
 Jewett . Play Days 
 
 Johnson . . Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia 
 
 O Johnston . . The Little Colonel . . . 
 
 Johnston . . Two Little Knights of Kentucky 
 
 Kellogg . . Lion Ben of Elm Island. 
 
 Kellogg . . Charlie Bell of Elm Island . 
 
 Kellogg . . The Ark of Elm Island . . 
 
 Kellogg . . The Boy Farmers of Elm Island 
 
 Kellogg . . The Young Shipbuilders of Elm 
 
 Island 
 
 Kellogg. . Hardscrabble of Elm Island 
 
 Kingsley . Hereward the Wake 
 
 Kingsley . . Hypatia 
 
 Kingsley . . Westward-Ho 
 
 O Kipling . . Captains Courageous . 
 
 O Kipling . . Soldiers Three 
 
 Kipling . . Wee Willie Winkie .... 
 
 Kipling . . Puck of Pook's Hill ... . 
 (See also Folk-Lore, Natxire, etc.) 
 
 Laboulaye . Abdallah 
 
 t^ Lamb . . Tales from Shakespeare 
 
 Liljencrantz . The Thrall of I^eif the Lucky . 
 
 Longfellow . Hyperion 
 
 Loti . . . The Romance of a Child . . 
 
 236 
 
 GRADES 
 
 4 to 6 
 
 7 to 12 
 
 8 to 12 
 8 to 12 
 8 to 12 
 
 8 to 12 
 
 5 to 8 
 
 6 to 10 
 4 to 8 
 8 to 12 
 6 to 8 
 6 to 
 6 to 
 6 to 
 6 to 
 6 to 
 
 6 to 8 
 6 to 8 
 8 to 12 
 8 to 12 
 8 to 12 
 6 to 12 
 6 to 12 
 5 to 8 
 
 5 to 8 
 
 6 to 12 
 6 to 10 
 6 to 12 
 8 to 12 
 8 to 12
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 MacDonald . 
 
 MacDonald 
 
 MacDonald 
 
 MacDonald 
 
 MacDonald 
 
 Maclaren . 
 
 Maclaren . 
 
 Martineau 
 
 Martineau 
 
 Mitchell . 
 
 Molesworth 
 
 Molesworth 
 
 Morris 
 
 Mulock-Craik 
 
 Mulock-Craik 
 
 Page . . 
 
 Page . . 
 
 Page . . 
 
 Perry . 
 
 Phelps-Ward 
 
 Rielps-Ward 
 
 Hielps-Ward 
 
 Plympton 
 
 Poe 
 
 Poe . 
 
 POTter 
 
 Porter 
 
 Prentiss 
 
 Pyle . 
 
 Pyle . 
 
 Ray . 
 
 Annals of a Quiet Neighbor- 
 hood 8 to 12 
 
 Malcobn 8 to 12 
 
 Robert Falconer 8 to 12 
 
 SirGibbie 8 to 12 
 
 Warlock o' Glen Warlock . . 8 to 12 
 
 Beside the Bonnie Brier Bush . 8 to 12 
 
 Kate Carnegie 8 to 12 
 
 The Crofton Boys . . . . 6 to 12 
 
 The Peasant and the Prince . 7 to 12 
 
 Hugh WjTinc, Free Quaker. . 8 to 12 
 
 The Cuckoo Clock . . . . 6 to 12 
 
 Christmas Tree Land . . . 6 to 12 
 
 Sigurd the Volsung . . . . 6 to 12 
 
 John Halifax, Gentleman . 8 to 12 
 
 The Little Lame Prince . 5 to 8 
 
 Two Little Confederates 5 to 8 
 
 In Ole Virginia 7 to 12 
 
 A Captured Santa Claus . 6 to 8 
 
 Three Little Daughters of the 
 
 Revolution 6 to 8 
 
 A Ijost Hero 8 to 12 
 
 The Trotty Book .... 4 to 6 
 
 Gypsy Breynton . . . 6 to 10 
 
 Dear Daughter Dorothy 6 to 10 
 
 The Fall of the House of Usher 8 to 12 
 
 The Gold Bug 8 to 12 
 
 Scottish Chiefs 6 to 12 
 
 Thaddeus of Warsaw . . . 6 to 12 
 
 Little Susy Stories . . 6 to 8 
 
 Otto of the Silver Hand . . 6 to 8 
 
 Men of Iron 6 to 8 
 
 Rinaultree 8 to 12 
 
 237 
 
 
 
 o 
 
 o 
 o 
 
 o
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 Reade 
 
 Reade 
 
 Reade 
 ORichards 
 
 Richards 
 ^^^chards 
 
 Richards 
 QRichards 
 ORichards 
 QRichards 
 
 Richardson 
 
 Saintine 
 
 Saintine 
 
 Saint-Pierre 
 <^ott . 
 
 Scott . 
 OScott . 
 
 Scott . 
 
 Scott . 
 oScott . 
 
 Scott . 
 
 Scott . 
 
 Scott . 
 
 Scott . 
 Scott . 
 ^iScott . 
 
 Scott . 
 
 Scott . 
 
 Scott . 
 
 Scott . 
 
 Scott . 
 
 Seawell 
 
 Segur . 
 
 OBADES 
 
 The Cloister and the Hearth . 8 to 12 
 
 Put Yourself in his Place . . 8 to 12 
 
 It 's Never Too Late to Mend . 8 to 12 
 
 Queen Hildegarde . . . 6 to 10 
 
 Melody 6 to 10 
 
 The Golden Windows . . . 6 to 10 
 
 Captain January , . . . 6 to 10 
 
 Five-Minute Stories . . . . 3 to 6 
 
 More Five-Minute Stories . . 4 to 6 
 
 Quicksilver Sue 4 to 6 
 
 Stories from Old English Poetry 8 to 12 
 
 Picciola 6 to 12 
 
 Alone 6 to 12 
 
 Paul and Virginia . . . . 7 to 12 
 
 Ivanhoe 7 to 12 
 
 Guy Mannering 7 to 12 
 
 The Talisman 7 to 12 
 
 Rob Roy 7 to 12 
 
 Quentin Durward . . . . 7 to 12 
 
 Kenilworth 7 to 12 
 
 Old Mortality 7 to 12 
 
 Waverley 7 to 12 
 
 Woodstock 7 to 12 
 
 The Monastery 7 to 12 
 
 The Abbot 7 to 12 
 
 The Antiquary 7 to 12 
 
 The Heart of Mid-Lothian . . 7 to 12 
 
 Redgauntlet 7 to 12 
 
 PeverU of the Peak . . . . 7 to 12 
 
 The Pirate 7 to 12 
 
 The Bride of Lammermoor 7 to 12 
 
 The Rock of the Lion . . . 6 to 10 
 
 Sophie 6 to 8
 
 .APPENDIX 
 
 GBADfBS 
 
 Sharp . . . The Other Boy 7 to 10 
 
 Sharp . . . The Youngest Girl in School . 7 to 10 
 
 Shaw . . . Castle Blair 7 to 10 
 
 Shaw . . . Hector 7 to 10 
 
 Smith . . . Arabella and Araminta . . . 1 to 3 
 
 Smith . . . Roggie and Reggie .... 1 to 3 
 
 Spyri . . . Heidi 4 to 8 
 
 Stevenson Treasure Island 6 to 12 6^ 
 
 Stevenson The Black Arrow . . . . 6 to 12 
 
 Stevenson . Kidnapped 6 to 12 ^ 
 
 Stevenson . The Master of Ballantrae . 8 to 12 
 
 Stowe . . . Uncle Tom's Cabin .... 7 to 12 
 
 Stowe . . , Oldtown Folks 8 to 12 
 
 Stowe ... A Dog's Mission .... 6 to 8 
 Stowe . . . Queer Little People . . . . 6 to 8 
 Stowe . . . Little Pussy Willow . . . . 6 to 10 
 Stuart . Solomon Crow's Christmas Pock- 
 ets, and Other Tales . . . 6 to 10 
 Taylor . . Hannah Thurston . . . . 6 to 12 
 Taylor . . The Story of Kennett . . . 6 to 12 
 
 Thackeray Henry Esmond 8 to 12 
 
 Thackeray . Vanity Fair ft to 12 
 
 Thackeray Pendennis 8 to 12 
 
 Thackeray The Newcomes 8 to 12 
 
 Thackeray . The Virginians 8 to 12 O 
 
 Thackeray . The Rose and the Ring . . . 6 to 8 O 
 
 Thanet . . We All 6 to 12 
 
 Thaxter . Stories and Poems for Children 5 to 8 
 
 Tonalinsoh A Jersey Boy in the Revolution 6 to 8 
 
 Tomlinson Three Colonial Boys . . . 6 to 8 
 
 Tomlinson Three Young Continentals . . 6 to 8 
 
 Trowbridge . Cudjo's Cave 6 to 10 ^ 
 
 Trowbridge . A Start in Life 6 to 10 
 
 239
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 (See 
 
 Trowbridge 
 Trowbridge 
 Trowbridge 
 Trowbridge 
 Trowbridge 
 Trowbridge 
 Trowbridge 
 
 Van Dyke 
 
 C^allace 
 
 O Wallace 
 
 Warner 
 
 <^ Waterloo 
 Weaver 
 Whitaker 
 Whitaker 
 Whitaker 
 Whitaker 
 Whitaker 
 White . 
 White . 
 White. 
 Whitney 
 Whitney 
 Whitney 
 Whitney 
 
 Whittier 
 Wiggin 
 '^ Wiggin 
 OWiggin 
 
 For- 
 
 Biding his Time . 
 The Kelp Gatherers 
 The Scarlet Tanager 
 The lottery Ticket . . 
 Two Biddicut Boys . 
 His One Fault . . . 
 Jack Hazard and his 
 
 tunes 
 
 The Other Wise Man . . . 
 (See also Essays, etc.) 
 
 The Fair God 
 
 Ben Hur 
 
 Being a Boy 
 
 also Nature, Travel, and Essays.) 
 
 The Story of Ab 
 
 My Lady Nell 
 
 Zoe 
 
 Tip Cat 
 
 M. orN 
 
 LU 
 
 Miss Toosey's Mission . 
 A Little Girl of Ijong Ago . 
 Ednah and her Brothers 
 When Molly was Six 
 
 We Girls 
 
 Homespun Yams .... 
 
 Faith Gartney's Girlhood 
 
 A Summer in Ijeslie Gold- 
 
 thwaite's Life 
 
 Child Life in Prose (Selections) 
 Timothy's Quest .... 
 Polly Oliver's Problem . 
 The Story of Patsy . . . . 
 
 240 
 
 GRADES 
 
 6 to 10 
 6 to 10 
 6 to 10 
 6 to 10 
 6 to 10 
 6 to 10 
 
 6 to 10 
 
 6 to 12 
 
 8 to 12 
 
 7 to 12 
 6 to 12 
 
 6 to 12 
 6 to 12 
 6 to 12 
 6 to 12 
 6 to 12 
 6 to 12 
 6 to 12 
 6 to 8 
 6 to 8 
 3to 6 
 6 to 10 
 6 to 10 
 6 to 10 
 
 6 to 10 
 
 5 to 12 
 
 6 to 10 
 6 to 10 
 6 to 10
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 Wiggin 
 Wiggin . . 
 Wiggin . . 
 Wilkins-Free- 
 
 man 
 Wilkias-Free- 
 
 man 
 
 Wilkins-Free- 
 man 
 
 Wilkins-Free- 
 
 maa 
 Wister 
 Woods 
 Woods 
 Wyss . 
 Yonge 
 Yonge 
 Yonge 
 Yonge 
 
 Zollinger 
 Zollinger 
 
 The Story Hour 
 
 The Birds' Christmas Carol 
 Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm . 
 
 The Jamesons . . . ... 
 
 A New England Nun, and Other 
 Stories 
 
 The Pot of Gold, and Other 
 Stories 
 
 In Colonial Times , . . 
 
 The Virginian 
 
 Six Little Rebels .... 
 
 Dr. Dick 
 
 Swiss Family Robinson . 
 
 The Heir of Redclyffe . . . 
 
 Daisy Chain 
 
 Trial 
 
 The Pillars of the House (2 
 
 vols.) 
 
 Maggie McLanehan 
 
 The Widow O'Callaghan's Boys 
 
 POETRY 
 
 The Ballad Book . . . . 
 
 The Light of Asia . , . . . 
 
 The Light of the World . . 
 
 Sohrab and Rustiun 
 
 Golden Poems 
 
 OBASES 
 
 5to 8 O 
 6 to 10 O 
 
 6 to 12 O 
 
 7 to 12 
 
 7 to 12 
 
 7 to 12 
 
 7 to 12 
 7 to 12 O 
 
 7 to 12 
 6 to 10 
 6 to 10 O 
 6 to 12 
 6 to 12 
 6 to 12 
 
 6 to 12 
 6 to 12 
 6 to 12 ^ 
 
 Allingham 
 
 Arnold 
 
 Arnold 
 
 Arnold 
 
 Browne (Ed.) 
 
 Browning, E. B. Poems 
 
 Browning, Robt. Poems 
 
 Browning, Robt Narrative Poems 
 
 2a 
 
 6 to 12 
 9 to 12 
 9 to 12 
 
 7 to 12 
 5 to 12 
 7 to 12 
 0tol2 
 6tol2 
 
 O
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 OBADES 
 
 Bryant . . Poems 8 to 12 
 
 Burns . Selected Poems 8 to 12 
 
 Byron . . . The Prisoner of Chillon, and 
 
 Childe Harold's Pilgrimage . 9 to 12 
 
 Gary . . . Poems 6 to 12 
 
 Chaucer . Prologue, and Knight's Tale 9 to 12 
 
 Child's Treasury of Lyrics . . .... 5 to 8 
 
 Cody (Ed.) . The Great English Poets' . . 6 to 12 
 Coleridge . Rime of the Ancient Mari- 
 ner 8 to 12 
 
 Dante . Divine Comedy (Longfellow's 
 
 Translation) 9 to 12 
 
 Emerson . . Poems 8 to 12 
 
 Emerson (Ed.) Parnassus (Selections) . . . 6 to 12 
 
 Field . . . Lullaby Land 4 to 6 
 
 Gayley and 
 
 Flaherty (Eds.)Poetry of the People . . . 6 to 12 
 ^[)Goethe Faust (Trans, by Bayard 
 
 Taylor) 9 to 12 
 
 OGoldsmith . The Deserted Village, The 
 
 Traveller, etc 9 to 12 
 
 "^ Gray . . . Elegy in a Country Church- 
 yard 8 to 12 
 
 Holland . . Kathrina 8 to 12 
 
 Holmes . Poems 8 to 12 
 
 Homer . , The Odyssey (Bryant's Trans.) 8 to 12 
 
 Homer . . The Iliad (Bryant's Trans.) . 8 to 12 
 
 Ingelow Poems 7 to 12 
 
 Ingoldsby . Ingoldsby Legends . . . . 6 to 12 
 
 Lanier Poems 7 to 12 
 
 Longfellow Poems 3 to 12 
 
 Longfellow (Ed.) Poems of Places (Selections) . 5 to 12 
 
 Lowell . Poems 5 to 12 
 
 242
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 OBADES 
 
 Macaulay Lays of Ancient Rome . 6 to 12 
 
 Meredith . . Lucile 8 to 12 
 
 Milton Paradise Lost 8 to 12 
 
 Milton . . Shorter Poems 8 to 12 
 
 Palgrave (Ed.) Golden Treasury of Songs and 
 
 Lyrics 8 to 12 
 
 Patmore . . The Children's Garland . . 6 to 12 
 
 Poe . . . Selected Poems 8 to 12 
 
 Pope . Selected Poems 8 to 12 
 
 Schiller . . Selected Poems 9 to 12 
 
 Scott . . . Poems 7 to 12 
 
 Shakespeare . Complete Works 6 to 12 
 
 Shelley . . Selected Poems 9 to 12 
 
 Spenser Britomart (From Faery Queen) 6 to 12 
 
 Stevenson A Child's Garden of Verses . . 4 to 6 
 
 Tennyson Selected Poems 9 to 12 
 
 Virgil . . . The iEneid(Conington's Trans.) 8 to 12 
 
 Whittier . . Poems 5 to 12 
 
 Whittier (Ed.) Child Life in Poetry (Selec- 
 tions) 3 to 12 
 
 Whittier (Ed.) Songs of Three Centuries . . 6 to 12 
 Wiggin and 
 
 Smith (Eds.) ITie Posy Ring (Selections) . 3 to 8 
 
 Wordsworth . Poems 8 to 12 
 
 ESSAYS. LETTERS. AND ADDRESSES 
 
 Addison . Sir Roger de Coverley Papers . 9 to 12 
 
 Burke . Speech on Conciliation . 8 to 12 
 
 Carlyle Heroes and Hero- Worship . 9 to 12 
 
 Carlyle Sartor Resartus 9 to 12 
 
 Chesterfield . Letters (Selected) . . . . 8 to 12 
 
 Clark . . . Self-Culture 8 to 12 
 
 Crowest . . The Story of the Art of Music . 8 to 12 
 
 Curtia . . Prue and I 9 to 12 
 
 243
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 Emerson 
 
 Essays (1st and 2d series) . . 
 
 Emerson 
 
 Representative Men 
 
 Everett 
 
 . . Ethics for Young People . . 
 
 Harrison 
 
 . . The Choice of Books . . . 
 
 Holmes 
 
 . The Autocrat of the Breakfast 
 
 
 Table 
 
 Holmes 
 
 . The Professor at the Breakfast 
 
 
 Table 
 
 Holmes 
 
 . The Poet at the Breakfast Table 
 
 Irving 
 
 . The Sketch Book . . . . 
 
 Lamb . 
 
 . Essays of Elia 
 
 Lang . 
 
 . Old Friends 
 
 Lincoln 
 
 . Addresses and Letters . 
 
 Lowell 
 
 . Among my Books .... 
 
 Lowell 
 
 . Fireside Travels 
 
 Lowell 
 
 . My Study Windows ( 2 vols.) 
 
 Lowell 
 
 . Letters 
 
 Lubbock 
 
 . Pleasures of Life .... 
 
 Mabie 
 
 . Books and Culture .... 
 
 Macaulay 
 
 Essay on Warren Hastings . 
 
 Marcus Au 
 
 irelius Thoughts 
 
 Mathews 
 
 . Getting On in the World . . 
 
 Mitchell 
 
 . About Old Story-Tellers . . 
 
 Mitchell 
 
 . Reveries of a Bachelor . 
 
 Mitchell 
 
 . Dream Life 
 
 Munger 
 
 . On the Threshold . . . . 
 
 Porter 
 
 . Books and Reading .... 
 
 Roosevelt 
 
 . American Ideals 
 
 Ruskin 
 
 . Sesame and Lilies .... 
 
 Ruskin 
 
 . Athena: The Queen of the Air 
 
 Ruskin 
 
 . Crown of Wild Olive . . . 
 
 Ruskin 
 
 . Ethics of the Dust . . . . 
 
 Smiles 
 
 . Self-Help 
 
 
 214
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 Smiles 
 Spalding . 
 Starrett 
 Van Dyke, H. 
 Van Dyke, J. C. 
 Wagner . 
 Warner 
 Washington . 
 
 Webster . 
 
 Wilson 
 
 
 QRADES 
 
 Thrift 
 
 8 to 12 
 
 Education and the Higher Life 
 
 8 to 12 
 
 Letters to a Daughter 
 
 8 to 12 
 
 The Blue Flower . . . . 
 
 8 to 12 
 
 Nature for its Own Sake . . 
 
 9 to 12 
 
 The Simple Life 
 
 9 to 12 
 
 Backlog Studies 
 
 9 to 12 
 
 Rules of Conduct; Letters and 
 
 
 Addresses 
 
 8 to 12 
 
 Bunker Hill Address; Adams 
 
 
 and Jefferson 
 
 8 to 12 
 
 Making the Most of Ourselves . 
 
 8 to 12 
 
 BIOGRAPHY AND HISTORY 
 ANCIENT 
 
 Church . . Pictures from Greek Life and 
 
 Story 
 
 Church . . Stories from Herodotus . 
 Church . Pictures from Roman Life and 
 
 Story 
 
 Church . . The Story of Carthage . 
 Church . . Stories from Livy .... 
 Church . . Roman Life in the Days of Cicero 
 Church . Two Thousand Years Ago . 
 
 Froude . Life of Caesar 
 
 Gilman . . The Story of Rome .... 
 Guerber . . Story of the Chosen People 
 Hosmer . . The Story of the Jews ' . . 
 Mahaffy . . The Story of Alexander's Empire 
 Rawlinson The Story of Ancient Egypt 
 
 Shumway . . A Day in Ancient Rome 
 Smith . . Carthage and the Carthaginians 
 
 White . . . Boys' and Girls' Plutarch . 
 245 
 
 6 to 12 
 
 6 to 12 
 
 6 to 12 
 
 6 to 12 
 
 6 to 12 
 
 6 to 12 
 
 6 to 12 
 
 8 to 12 
 
 7 to 12 
 
 5 to 8,0 
 
 7 to 12 
 
 8 to 12 
 
 8 to 12 
 
 7 to 12 
 
 8 to 12 
 
 7 to 12
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 MKDLSVAL AND MODEBN EUROPEAN 
 
 GRADES 
 
 Ainsworth The Tower of London . . , 7 to 12 
 
 Atherton . . Marco Polo 6 to 12 
 
 Blaisdell . . Stories from English History . 5 to 8 
 
 Boswell . Life of Johnson 8 to 12 
 
 Boyesen . Story of Norway 8 to 12 
 
 Carlyle . . The French Revolution , . . 9 to 12 
 
 Carlyle . . Life of Cromwell . . . . 9 to 12 
 
 Carjjenter Joan of Arc . . . . . 6 to 8 
 
 Church . . Stories from English History . 7 to 12 
 
 Church . . With the King at Oxford . . 7 to 12 
 
 Clemens . . The Prince and the Pauper . . 5 to 8 
 
 Dickens . . A Child's History of England . 6 to 10 
 
 Gilman . . The Story of the Saracens . . 8 to 12 
 
 Gould . . The Story of Germany . . . 8 to 12 
 Green . . Short History of the English 
 
 People 8 to 12 
 
 Griffis . . Brave Little Holland and What 
 
 She Taught Us .... 8 to 12 
 GriflBs . . Young People's History of Hol- 
 land 7 to 10 
 
 Guizot . . Life of Oliver Cromwell. . . 9 to 12 
 
 Hale . . . The Story of Spain .... 8 to 12 
 
 Headley . Napoleon and his Marshals . . 8 to 12 
 
 Henning . . Maid of Orleans (Upton's Trans.) 6 to 8 
 
 Kirkland . . Short History of France . 7 to 12 
 
 K^uhn . . . Barbarossa (Upton's Trans.) . 6 to 8 
 
 Lanier. . . The Boy's Froissart . . . . 7 to 12 
 
 Lockhart . . Life of Scott 8 to 12 
 
 Markham Heroes of Chivalry . . . 7 to 10 
 
 Motley . . Rise of the Dutch Republic . 8 to 12 
 
 Mulock-Craik Goethe and Schiller . . . . 9 to 12 
 
 Oliphant . . Royal Edinburgh . . . . 9 tol2 
 
 246
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 OBADES 
 
 Olipbant . . Jeanne d'Are to 12 
 
 Oliphant . , . Makers of Florence . . . . 9 to 12 
 
 Oliphant . Makers of Venice . . . 9 to 12 
 
 Oliphant . Makers of Modern Rome . 9 to 12 
 
 Pitman . . Stories of Old France . . . 6 to 10 t> 
 
 Prescott . Ferdinand and Isabella . 8 to 12 
 
 Schiller . . The Thirty Years' War . . 9 to 12 
 
 Scott . . . Tales of a Grandfather . . . 6 to 10 O 
 
 Southey . . Life of Nelson 6 to 12 
 
 Strickland . Life of Queen Elizabeth . . 6 to 12 
 
 Tappan England's Story 6 to 12 
 
 Tappan . . In the Days of Alfred the Great 6 to 12 O 
 Tappan In the Days of William the Con- 
 queror 6 to 12 O 
 
 Tappan . . In the Days of Queen Elizabeth 6 to 12 
 
 Tappan In the Days of Queen Victoria 6 to 12 
 
 Thackeray . The Four Georges . . . . 8 to 12 
 Temple England's History as Pictured 
 
 by Famous Painters . . 6 to 12 
 Yonge . . Christians and Moors of Spain 7 to 12 
 Yonge . . Young Folks' History of Ger- 
 many 7 to 12 
 
 YoDge . . Young Folks' History of France 7 to 12 
 
 AMERICAN 
 
 Abbott . . Columbus 7 to 12 
 
 Abbott . . DeSoto 7 to 12 
 
 Abbott . . La Salle 7 to 12 
 
 Abbott . . Miles Standish 7 to 12 
 
 Abbott . . Peter Stuyvesant .... 7 to 12 
 
 Abbott . . Daniel Boone 7 to 12 
 
 Abbott . . David Crockett 7 to 12 
 
 Abbott . . Kit Carson 7 to 12 
 
 247
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 GRADES 
 
 Adams . . Christopher Columbus . 7 to 12 
 O Baldwin . Discovery of the Old North- 
 west 5 to 10 
 
 Baldwin . Conquest of the Old Northwest 5 to 10 
 
 O Baldwin . Four Great Americans . . 5 to 8 
 
 Baldwin . Abraham Lincoln . 5 to 8 
 
 Beebe . Foiu" American Naval Heroes . 6 to 8 
 
 Bigelow . . William CuUen Bryant . . . 8 to 12 
 Blaisdell . . Short Stories from American 
 
 History 4 to 8 
 
 Blaisdell-Ball . Hero Stories from American 
 
 History 6 to 8 
 
 Brooks, E. S. Century Book for Young Ameri- 
 cans 6 to 10 
 
 Brooks, E. S. Century Book of Famous Ameri- 
 cans 6 to 10 
 
 Brooks, E. S. Century Book of the American 
 
 Colonies 6 to 10 
 
 Brooks, E. S, Centiuy Book of the American 
 
 Revolution 6 to 10 
 
 Brooks, E.S. Stories of the Old Bay State . 6 to 10 
 Brooks, E. S. The True Stray of Abraham 
 
 Lincoln 6 to 10 
 
 Brooks, E. S. The True Story of La Fayette . 6 to 10 
 
 Brooks, E. S. The True Story of U. S. Grant 6 to 10 
 
 Brooks, Noah First Across the Continent . 6 to 10 
 
 Burton Four American Patriots 5 to 8 
 
 Burton The Story of La Fayette . 5 to 8 
 
 Butterworth . The Boyhood of Lincoln . 5 to 8 
 
 Butterworth . Story of Magellan . . 5 to 8 
 
 Catherwood . Heroes of the Middle West 7 to 12 
 
 Catherwood . The Story of Tonty . . . . 7 to 12 
 
 Cody . . Four American Poets . . . 6 to 8 
 
 2i8
 
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 GBADES 
 
 Coffin. 
 
 Old Times in the Colonies . 
 
 6 to 10 
 
 Coffin . 
 
 . The Boys of '76 .... 
 
 6 to 10 D 
 
 Coffin. 
 
 . Building the Nation . . 
 
 6 to 10 
 
 Coffin . 
 
 . Drum Beat of the Nation . 
 
 6 to 10 
 
 Coffin. 
 
 , Marching to Victory . . 
 
 6 to 10 
 
 Coffin. 
 
 . Redeeming the Republic 
 
 6 to 10 
 
 Coffin. 
 
 . Freedom Triumphant . 
 
 6 to 10 
 
 Coffin. 
 
 . The Boys of '61 .... 
 
 6 to 10 
 
 Cooke . 
 
 . Stories of the Old Dominion 
 
 6 to 10 
 
 Drake 
 
 . Making of New England 
 
 7 to 10 
 
 Drake 
 
 . Making of tlie Great West . 
 
 7 to 10 
 
 Drake 
 
 , Making of Virginia . 
 
 7 to 10 
 
 Drake 
 
 . Making of the Ohio Valley States 7 to 10 
 
 Dye . . 
 
 . The Conquest: The True Story 
 
 
 
 of Lewis and Clark 
 
 7 to 12 
 
 Earle . 
 
 . Child Life in Colonial Days 
 
 7 to 12 ^ 
 
 Earle . 
 
 . Colonial Days in Old New York 7 to 12 
 
 Earle . 
 
 . Stage Coach and Tavern Days 
 
 7 to 12 
 
 Eggleston 
 
 . Stories of Great Americans for 
 
 
 
 Little Americans . . . 
 
 3 to 6 
 
 Eggleston 
 
 . . Stories of American Life and 
 
 
 
 Adventure 
 
 4 to 8 
 
 Fiske . 
 
 . Discovery of America 
 
 . 8 to 12 
 
 Fiske . 
 
 . Old Virginia and Her Neighbors 8 to 12 
 
 Fiske . 
 
 . The War of Indef>endence . 
 
 8 to 12 
 
 Fiske . 
 
 . Critical Period in American 
 
 
 
 History 
 
 . 8 to 12 
 
 Franklin 
 
 . Autobiography .... 
 
 . 7 to 12 
 
 Griffis 
 
 . The Romance of American Col- 
 
 
 
 onization 
 
 . 7 to 12 
 
 Hart . 
 
 . . Romance of the Civil War . 
 
 . 7 to 12 
 
 Hart . 
 
 Source Readers in American His- 
 
 tory (4 vols.) 
 2i9 
 
 7 to 12
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 GRADES 
 
 Hart-Chapman How Our Grandfathers Lived . 7 to 12 
 Hawthorne . Grandfather's Chair 6 to 10 
 Headley . ■ . Washington and His Generals . 8 to 12 
 Higginson . . Henry W. Longfellow . 9 to 12 
 Higginson . . History of the United States 7 to 12 
 Holmes . . Ralph Waldo Emerson . . . 8 to 12 
 Hosmer A Short History of the Missis- 
 sippi Valley 8 to 12 
 
 Howells . . Stories of Ohio 7 to 12 
 
 Lrving . Knickerbocker's History of New 
 
 York 8 to 12 
 
 Irving Life of Coluinbus . 8 to 12 
 
 Irving-Fiske . Washington and His Coimtry . 7 to 12 
 
 Jewett . . Story of New England . . . 7 to 12 
 Kieffer Recollections of a Driunmer 
 
 Boy 7 to 12 
 
 McMurry . . Pioneer Stories of the Missis- 
 sippi Valley 7 to 10 
 
 Montgomery . Beginner's American History . 5 to 8 
 
 Moore-Tiffany Pilgrims and Puritans . 5 to 8 
 
 Parkman . California and Oregon Trail 7 to 12 
 
 Parkman . . Conspiracy of Pontiac . . . 8 to 12 
 Parkman . Count Frontenac and New 
 
 France 8 to 12 
 
 Parkman . . Half Century of Conflict . . 8 to 12 
 
 Parkman . , Jesuits in North America . . 8 to 12 
 Parkman . . La Salle and the Discovery of 
 
 the Great Wesjt . . . . 8 to 12 
 Parkman . Pioneers of France in the New 
 
 World 8 to 12 
 
 Parkman . . Montcalm and Wolfe . . . 8 to 12 
 Parkman . . The Old Regime in Canada 
 
 under Louis XIV . . . . 8 to 12 
 250
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 Parrish 
 Perry 
 Pratt . 
 Pratt . 
 Pratt . 
 Prescott 
 Prescott 
 
 Roosevelt 
 
 Scudder 
 
 Seawell 
 
 Seawell 
 
 Seawell 
 
 Seawell 
 
 Seawell 
 
 Seelye 
 
 Soley . 
 
 Soley . 
 Sparka 
 
 Stockton 
 
 Thompson 
 
 Thwaites 
 
 Tomlinson 
 
 Towle 
 Towle 
 Towle 
 Towle 
 
 OBADES 
 
 Historic Illinois 7 to 12 
 
 Four American Pioneers . 5 to 8 
 American History Stories . 4 to 6 
 Stories of Colonial Children . 4 to 6 
 Stories of Massachusetts . . 4 to 6 
 Conquest of Mexico . . . 8 to 12 
 Conquest of Peru 8 to 12 
 Roosevelt-Lodge Hero Tales from American His- 
 tory 7 to 12 
 
 Episodes from the Winning of the 
 
 West 7 to 12 
 
 George Washington . . . . 7 to 12 
 
 Decatxir and Somers . . . 7 to 12 
 
 Twelve Naval Captains . , . 7 to 12 
 
 Midshipman Paulding . . . 7 to 12 
 
 Little Jarvis 7 to 12 
 
 Paul Jones 7 to 12 
 
 Story of Columbus . 7 to 10 
 The Boys of 1812 and Other 
 
 Naval Heroes 7 to 10 
 
 The Sailor Boys of '61 . . . 7 to 10 
 The Expansion of the American 
 
 People 8 to 12 
 
 Stories of New Jersey . . . 7 to 12 
 
 Stories of Indiana 7 to 12 
 How George Rogers Clark Won 
 
 the Northwest 7 to 12 
 
 A Short History of the Revolu- 
 tion 7 to 12 
 
 Magellan 7 to 12 
 
 Pizarro 7 to 12- 
 
 Raleigh 7 to 12 
 
 Sir Prancis Drake . . . . 7 to 12 
 
 251
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 GBADES 
 
 Towle . . Vasco da Gama 7 to 12 
 
 Warner Washington Irving . 8 to 12 
 
 Winterbum . The Spanish in the Southwest . 7 to 12 
 
 Woodberry . Nathaniel Hawthorne 8 to 12 
 
 C> Andrews 
 
 b Bolton. 
 
 ^Bolton. 
 Bolton. 
 Brooks, E 
 Brooks, E 
 Brooks, E 
 
 Creasy 
 
 Hale . 
 
 Hale . 
 
 Hale . 
 OHale . 
 
 Hale . 
 OLang . 
 
 Lang . 
 
 Parton 
 ORiis • 
 OWashingtoi 
 OYonge 
 
 Yonge 
 
 Allen . 
 
 O Andrews 
 ^Andrews 
 
 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS 
 
 . Ten Boys Who Lived on the 
 
 Road from Long Ago to Now 6 to 8 
 
 Poor Boys Who Became Famous 7 to 12 
 
 Girls Who Became Famous 7 to 12 
 
 . Famous Leaders Among Men . 7 to 12 
 
 S. Chivalric Days 6 to 12 
 
 S. Historic Boys 6 to 12 
 
 S. Historic Girls 6 to 12 
 
 Fifteen Decisive Battles of the 
 
 World 7 to 12 
 
 . Stories of Adventure . . . 6 to 12 
 
 . Stories of Discovery . . . . 6 to 12 
 
 . Stories of Invention . . . . 6 to 12 
 
 Stories of the Sea . . . 6 to 12 
 
 . Stories of War 6 to 12 
 
 . The True Story Book ... 6 to 8 
 
 , The Red True Story Book . . 6 to 8 
 
 . Captains of Industry 7 to 12 
 
 . The Making of an American 8 to 12 
 
 n,B.T. Up From Slavery . . . . 8 to 12 
 
 A Book of Golden Deeds . . 6 to 12 
 
 A Book of Worthies . . . . 6 to 12 
 
 GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL 
 
 . Paris 8 to 12 
 
 . Seven Little Sisters ... . 4 to 8 
 , Each and All 4 to 8 
 
 252
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 Ayrton 
 
 Bacon 
 
 Ballou 
 
 Bayliss 
 
 Besant 
 
 Boyesen 
 
 Brassey 
 
 Brooks 
 
 Brooks 
 
 Brooks 
 
 Butterworth 
 
 Butterworth 
 
 Butterworth 
 
 Butterworth 
 Butterworth 
 Butterworth 
 Butterworth 
 Butterworth 
 
 Carpenter 
 
 Clemens . 
 Cook, Capt. 
 Crawford . 
 Curtis 
 Dana . 
 Darwin 
 
 Deming 
 
 OBADES 
 
 Child Life in Japan . . . 5 to 8 
 
 Japanese Girls and Women . 8 to 12 
 
 Footprints of Travel . . . 7 to 12 
 
 In Brook and Bayou . . . 8 to 12 
 
 London 9 to 12 
 
 Boyhood in Norway . . . 7 to 12 
 
 Voyage in the Sunbeam . . . 7 to 12 
 
 Story of the Indian . . . . 7 to 10 
 
 The Boy Emigrants . . . . 6 to 10 
 
 The Boy Settlers . . , . 6 to 10 
 Zig-zag Journeys in the British . 
 
 Isles 7 to 12 
 
 Zig-zag Journeys in the Great 
 
 Northwest 7 to 12 O 
 
 Zig-zag Journeys in Acadia and 
 
 New France 7 to 12 
 
 Zig-zag Joiu-neys in Classic Lands 7 to 12 
 
 Zig-zag Journeys in India . 7 to 12 CJ 
 
 Zig-zag Journeys in Europe 7 to 12 
 
 Zig-zag Journeys in the Levant 7 to 12 
 Zig-zag Journeys around the 
 
 World 7tol2 
 
 Geographical Readers (5 vols.): 
 
 North America, South Ameri- 
 ca, Eiu-opCjAsia, and Australia 5 to 8 <^ 
 Innocents Abroad 7 to 12 ^ 
 Three Voyages around the World 7 to 12 
 Ave Roma Immortalis . 9 to 12 
 Nile Notes of a Howadji 9 to 12 
 Two Years before the Mast . 7 to 12 '^ 
 What Mr. Darwin Saw in His 
 
 Voyage round the World . . 7 to 12 
 
 Indian Child Life . . . . 2to 4 
 
 253
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 Du ChaUlu 
 Du Chaillu 
 Du Chaaiu 
 Du Chaaiu 
 Du Chaillu 
 ^DuChaUlu 
 Eastman 
 Field . 
 Frere . 
 Frye . 
 Griffis 
 Grinnell 
 Hale . 
 
 Hale . 
 Hale . 
 Hale . 
 
 Hay . 
 Headland 
 <:Headland 
 Holden 
 Hough 
 Howells 
 Howells 
 Irving 
 IngersoU 
 Irving 
 Jackson 
 James 
 Jenks . 
 
 QBADES 
 
 TheCountry of the Dwarfs. . 5 to 12 
 
 Stories of the Gorilla Country . 5 to 12 
 
 Lost in the Jungle . . . . 5 to 12 
 
 My Apingi Kingdom . . . 5 to 12 
 
 Under the Equator . . 5 to 12 
 
 The Land of the Long Night . 5 to 12 
 
 An Indian Boyhood . . . . 7 to 12 
 
 Rome 8 to 12 
 
 Old Deccan Days . . . . 7 to 12 
 Brooks and Brook Basins . . 3 to 6 
 In the Mikado's Service . . 8 to 12 
 The Story of the Indian . . 7 to 12 
 A Family Flight through France, 
 Germany, Norway, and Swit- 
 zerland 7 to 12 
 
 A Family Flight through Mexico 7 to 1 2 
 
 A Family Flight through Spain 7 to 12 
 A Family Flight through Egypt 
 
 and Syria 7 to 12 
 
 Castilian Days 9 to 12 
 
 Chinese Boy and Girl . . , 5 to 8 
 
 Our Little Chinese Cousin . . 4 to 8 
 
 Along the Florida Reef . . . 7 to 12 
 
 The Story of the Cowboy . . 7 to 12 
 
 Tuscan Cities 8 to 12 
 
 Venetian Life 8 to 12 
 
 Bonneville 8 to 12 
 
 Knocking 'round the Rockies . 7 to 12 
 
 Tales of a Traveller . . , . 7 to 12 
 
 Bits of Travels 7 to 12 
 
 A Little Tour in France. . . 8 to 12 
 The Childhood of Ji-Shib, the 
 
 Ojibway 5 to 8 
 
 254
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 OBASBfl 
 
 Jewett . . Land of the Pointed Fir. . . 7 to 12 O 
 
 Kennan . Tent Ijife in Siberia . 7 to 12 o 
 
 Knox . . . Travels of Marco Polo . . . 5 to 12 O 
 
 Knox . . Boy Travellers in Australasia . 7 to 12 cJ 
 
 Knox . Boy Travellers in Great Britain 
 
 and Ireland 7 to 12 ^ 
 
 Knox . . . Boy Travellers in Southern 
 
 Europe 7 to 12 £> 
 
 Knox . Boy Travellers in Egypt and the 
 
 Holy Land 7 to 12 
 
 Knox . . . Boy Travellers in Central 
 
 Europe 7 to 12 O 
 
 Knox . Boy Travellers in Northern 
 
 Europe 7 to 12 ^ 
 
 Knox . Boy Travellers in Japan and 
 
 China 7 to 12 
 
 Knox . Boy Travellers in Mexico . 7 to 12 Q 
 Knox . Boy Travellers in South Ameri- 
 ca 7 to 12 ^ 
 
 Krout . . . Two Girls in China . . . . 4 to 8 O 
 Krout . Alice's Visit to the Hawaiian 
 
 Islands 4 to 8 <^ 
 
 Lee, Yan Phou When I was a Boy in China . 5 to 8 ^ 
 
 Livingstone . Last Journals 7 to 12 
 
 Longfellow Outre Mer 7 to 12 
 
 Lummis . The Enchanted Burro ... 7 to 12 
 
 Lyman . . Hawaiian Yesterdays . . 7 to 12 
 
 Martineau . Feats on the Fiord . 7 to 12 
 
 Meriwether . A Tramp Trip through Europe 7 to 12 
 
 Miller . . Child Life in Jafuin . . . . 5 to 8 
 
 J^Iillet ... The Danube 8 to 12 
 
 Nansen . . Farthest North 7 to 12 
 
 Ober . . . The Silver City 6 to 12 
 
 255
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 ) Peary . 
 DVeaiy . 
 Reid . 
 Rdd . 
 Reid . 
 Roberts 
 Sanford 
 
 Schwatka 
 o Schwatka 
 
 Scidmore 
 ^Scudder 
 
 Scudder 
 
 Scudder 
 
 Scudder 
 ^ Stanley 
 O Stanley 
 
 Starr . 
 
 Starr . 
 b Stevens 
 OStevenson 
 
 Stevenson 
 ^ Stockton 
 
 Stockton 
 
 Taylor 
 
 Taylor 
 
 Taylor 
 
 Thompson 
 
 Thwaites . 
 Thwaites . 
 
 GRADES 
 
 Children of the Arctic . 6 to 8 
 
 A Snow Baby 5 to 8 
 
 Boy Hunters (North America) . 6 to 12 
 Bush Boys (South Africa) . . 6 to 12 
 Young Voyageurs (Canada) 6 to 12 
 Around the Camp Fire . . 6 to 12 
 The Wandering Twins (Labra- 
 dor) 6 to 12 
 
 Children of the Cold. . . . 6 to 8 
 Land <rf the Cave and Cliff 
 
 Dwellers 6 to 12 
 
 Jinrikisha Days in Japan . 7 to 12 
 Docas, the Indian Boy of Santa 
 
 Clara 5 to 8 
 
 Doings of the Bodley Family . 7 to 10 
 
 The Bodleys on Wheels . . 7 to 10 
 
 Mr. Bodley Abroad . . 7 to 10 
 
 How I Found Livingstone . 7 to 12 
 
 Through the Dark Continent . 7 to 12 
 
 American Indians . . 7 to 12 
 
 Strange Peoples 7 to 12 
 
 Around the World on a Bicycle 7 to 12 
 
 Across the Plains . . . 7 to 12 
 
 An Inland Voyage . . . . 7 to 12 
 
 Personally Conducted . . . 7 to 12 
 
 Jolly Fellowship 6 to 10 
 
 Boys of Other Countries . . 6 to 10 
 
 By- Ways of Europe . . . . 7 to 12 
 
 Views Afoot 7 to 12 
 
 Gold Seeking on the Dalton 
 
 Trail 7 to 12 
 
 Down Historic Water Ways 7 to 12 
 
 On the Storied Ohio . . . 7 to 12 
 
 256
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 Wade . 
 Wade . 
 Wade . 
 Wade . 
 Warner 
 Warner 
 Warner 
 Wiggin 
 
 Wiggin 
 
 Wiggin 
 
 Winter 
 
 Yonge 
 
 Young 
 
 Young 
 
 Young 
 
 Youth's Com- 
 panion . 
 
 Youth's Com 
 panion . 
 
 Youth's Com' 
 panion . 
 
 Youth's Com 
 panion . 
 
 Youth's Com- 
 panion . 
 
 Abbott . . 
 Aiken and Bar- 
 
 bauld . 
 Allen . . . 
 
 Our Ijittle Cuban Cousin 
 Our Little Japanese Cousin 
 Our Little Norwegian Cousin . 
 Our Little Russian Cousin . 
 
 In the Levant 
 
 My Winter on the Nile . 
 
 Saunterings 
 
 A Cathedral Courtship; Penel- 
 ope's English Experiences 
 Penelope's Irish Experiences 
 Penelope's Progress (Scotland) 
 Shakespeare's England . 
 Little Lucy's Wonderful Globe 
 By Canoe and Dog Train . 
 My Dogs in the Northland 
 Three Boys in the Wild North 
 Land .... 
 
 The Wide World . 
 Northern Europe 
 Under Sunny Skies . 
 Toward the Rising Sun 
 Strange Lands Near Home 
 
 NATURE AND SCIENCE 
 A Boy on a Fann 
 
 Eyes and No Eyes . 
 The Story of the Plants . 
 
 257 
 
 GRADES 
 
 
 6to 8 O 
 
 6 to 8 
 
 o 
 
 6 to 8 
 
 
 
 6 to 8 
 
 O 
 
 8 to 12 
 
 
 8 to 12 
 
 
 8 to 12 
 
 
 7 to 12 O 
 
 7 to 12 
 
 
 7 to 12 
 
 
 8 to 12 
 
 
 5to 8 
 
 7 to 12 
 
 
 7 to 12 
 
 
 7 to 12 
 
 
 5 to 12 
 
 o 
 
 5 to 12 
 
 o 
 
 5 to 12 
 
 O 
 
 5 to 12 
 
 O 
 
 5 to 12 
 
 o 
 
 4to 8 
 
 5 to 8 
 
 6 to 10
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 Allen . . Flashlights on Nature . 
 Andrews . Stories Mother Nature Told 
 her Children 
 
 Stories of my Four Friends 
 
 The Story of the Mine . . . 
 
 Starland . . ^ 
 
 Animals at Home .... 
 
 The Story of the Birds . 
 
 The Story of the Fishes . . 
 
 Curious Homes and their Ten- 
 ants 
 
 Glimpses at the Plant World 
 
 Bird Neighbors 
 
 Birds that Hunt and are Hunted 
 
 How to Attract the Birds 
 
 Nature's Garden 
 
 Rab and his Friends . . 
 
 Fairyland of Science 
 
 Life and her Children . 
 
 Through Magic Glasses 
 
 Winners in Life's Race . 
 Burkett, Stevens, 
 and Hill Agriculture for Beginners . 
 
 Birds and Bees 
 
 Sharp Eyes 
 
 Squirrels and Other Fur Bearers 
 
 Locusts and Wild Honey 
 
 Wake Robin 
 
 Winter Sunshine 
 
 Pepacton 
 
 Fresh Fields 
 
 The Story without an End . 
 
 The Story of the Eclipses . . 
 
 258 
 
 Andrews 
 
 Baldwin 
 
 Ball . 
 
 Bartlett 
 
 Baskett 
 
 Baskett 
 
 Beard . 
 
 Bergen 
 Blanchan 
 Blanchan 
 Blanchan 
 Blanchan 
 O Brown 
 Buckley 
 Buckley 
 Buckley 
 Buckley 
 
 Burroughs 
 
 Burroughs 
 
 Burroughs 
 
 Burroughs 
 
 Burroughs 
 
 Burroughs 
 
 Burroughs 
 
 Burroughs 
 
 Carove 
 
 Chambers 
 
 GRADES 
 
 7 to 10 
 
 3 to 7 
 
 3 to 6 
 
 8 to 12 
 
 8 to 12 
 
 8 to 12 
 
 8 to 12 
 
 8 to 12 
 
 5 to 8 
 
 5 to 8 
 
 7 to 12 
 
 7 to 12 
 
 7 to 12 
 
 7 to 12 
 
 5 to 8 
 
 6 to 8 
 
 6 to 8 
 
 6 to 8 
 
 6to 8 
 
 6 to 12 
 
 6 to 12 
 
 6 to 12 
 
 7 to 12 
 
 8 to 12 
 
 8 to 12 
 
 8 to 12 
 
 8 to 12 
 
 8 to 12 
 
 7 to 12 
 
 8tol2
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 GRADES 
 
 Chambers The Story of the Solar System 8 to 12 
 
 Chambers . The Story of the Stars . . . 8 to 12 
 
 Chapman . Birds of Eastern North America 7 to 12 
 
 Clodd . . . The Story of Primitive Man . 8 to 12 
 
 Comstock Manual of Insects . . . 7 to 12 
 
 Conn . . . The Story of Germ Life . . 8 to 12 
 
 Conn . . . The Story of the Living Machine 8 to 12 
 
 Dana . . How to Know the Wild Flowers 7 to 12 
 
 Dana . How to Know the Ferns 7 to 12 
 
 Darwin . Origin of Sf>ecies . . . . 9 to 12 
 
 Darwin . Descent of Man 9 to 12 
 
 De la Ram^ A Dog of Flanders . . . . 4 to 12 O 
 
 Dickerson Moths and Butterflies . 5 to 12 
 
 Dopp . . . The Tree Dwellers . . . . 3 to 6 
 
 Drummond . The Monkey that would not Kill 8 to 12 
 
 Eddy . Friends and Helpers 4 to 8 O 
 Ensign Lady Lee, and Other Animal 
 
 Stories 4 to 6 
 
 Gatty . . . Parables from Nature . . . 6 to 12 
 
 Gibson . . Eye Spy 7 to 12 
 
 Gibson . . Sharp Eyes 7 to 12 
 
 Gould . . Mother Nature's Children . . 8 to 6 
 
 Grinnell . . Oiu* Feathered Friends . . 7 to 12 O 
 
 Guyot . . Earth and Man 9 to 12 
 
 Hamerton Chapters on Animals . . . 7 to 12 
 
 Hardy . . Sea Stories for Wonder Eyes 8 to 6 
 
 Harrington About the Weather . . 8 to 12 
 
 Herrick Chapters on Plant Life . . . 8 to 12 
 
 Herrick . . The Earth in Past Ages . . 8 to 12 
 
 Hodge . Nature Study and lafe . . 7 to 12 
 
 Holden . . The Earth and Sky .... 8 to 12 
 
 Holden . . The Family of the Sun . . . 8 to 12 
 
 Holden . . The Sciences 6 to 8 
 
 259
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 QBADES 
 
 Holland . . The Butterfly Book . . . . 7 to 12 
 
 HoUand . . The Moth Book 7 to 12 
 
 Howard . . The Insect Book 7 to 12 
 
 Ingersoll . . The Book of the Ocean . . 7 to 12 
 
 Ingersoll . . Wild Neighbors 7 to 12 
 
 Jackson . . Cat Stories 5 to 8 
 
 Jefferies . . Sir Bevis: A Tale of the Fields 4 to 10 
 
 DJohonnot • . Friends in Feathers and Fur . 8 to 6 
 
 Johonnot . Neighbors with Wings and Fins 4 to 6 
 
 Jordan Matka and Kotik . 6 to 10 
 
 Jordan . . True Tales of Birds and Beasts 7 to 12 
 
 Jordan . . Science Sketches 8 to 12 
 
 Kelly . . . Short Stories of Shy Neighbors 3 to 6 
 
 Keyser . . In Birdland 5 to 12 
 
 Keyser . . Birds of the Rockies . . 7 to 12 
 
 Kingsley . . Madam How and Lady Why . 6 to 8 
 
 Kingsley . . Town Geology 7 to 12 
 
 ^ Kipling . . Jungle Book 5 to 8 
 
 V) Kipling . . Second Jungle Book . . . 5 to 8 
 
 C^irby . . . Aunt Martha's Comer Cupboard 5 to 8 
 
 Lindsay . . The Story of Animal Life . 8 to 12 
 
 Long . . . Beasts of the Field . . . . 5 to 12 
 
 Long . . . Fowls of the Air 5 to 12 
 
 Long . . . Following the Deer . . . 5 to 12 
 
 Long . . . School of the Woods . 5 to 12 
 
 Long ... A Little Brother to the Bear 5 to 12 
 
 Long . . . Northern Trails 6 to 12 
 
 Lounsberry . A Guide to the Wild Flowers . 7 to 12 
 
 Lounsberry . A Guide to the Trees 7 to 12 
 
 Martin . . The Story of a Piece of Coal . 6 to 12 
 
 Merriam . . Birds through an Opera Glass . 8 to 12 
 
 Merriam . . Birds of Village and Field . . 8 to 12 
 
 Miller . . Bird Ways 5 to 12 
 
 260
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 GBADES 
 
 Miller . . . First Book of Birds .... 5 to 12 
 
 Miller . . . Second Book of Birds . . . 5 to 12 
 
 Miller , . Four-handed Folk .... 5 to 12 
 
 Miller. . . True Bird Stories . . . . 4 to 8 
 
 Morley . . Insect Folk 5 to 8 
 
 Morley . . Butterflies and Bees . . . . 5 to 8 
 
 Morley . . A Song of Life 5 to 8 
 
 Morley . . Little Mitchell 5 to 8 
 
 Morley . . Bee People 5 to 8 
 
 Morley . . Grasshopper Land . . . . 7 to 12 
 
 Munro . . The Story of Electricity . . 8 to 12 
 
 Noel . . . Buz: The Life and Adventures 
 
 • of a Honey Bee .... 5 to 8 
 
 Patterson . . The Spinner Family 5 to 8 
 
 Pierson . . Among the Meadow People 5 to 8 
 
 Pierson . . Among the Pond People . . 5 to 8 
 
 Pierson . . Among the Night People . 5 to 8 
 
 Proctor . . The Expanse of Heaven . 8 to 12 
 
 Roberts . . The Kindred of the Wild . . 7 to 12 
 
 Scudder . . Frail Children of the Air . . 5 to 12 
 
 Seeley . . . The Story of the Earth . . . 8 to 12 
 
 Seton . . . The Biography of a Grizzly 5 to 12 
 
 Seton . . . Lives of the Hunted . . . 5 to 12 ^ 
 
 Scton ... The Trail of the Sand Hill Stag 5 to 12 <^ 
 
 Seton . . . Wild Animals I have Known 5 to 12 
 
 Sewell . . Black Beauty 5 to 10^ 
 
 Thoreau . . Walden 9 to 12 
 
 Thoreau . . A Week on the Concord and 
 
 Merrimac Rivers . . . . 9 to 12 
 
 Thoreau . . The Maine Woods . . . . 9 to 12 
 
 Torr^ . . Everyday Birds 6 to 12 
 
 Torrey Rambler's Lease 8 to 12 
 
 Trimmer . . The History of the Robms . . 6 to 12 
 
 261
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 Tyndall 
 
 Tyndall 
 
 Vincent 
 
 Vincent 
 
 Warner 
 
 Weed . 
 
 Weed . 
 
 Wheelock 
 
 White . 
 
 Wilkinson 
 
 Wright 
 
 Forms of Water . 
 Floating Matter in the Air 
 The Animal World . . 
 The Plant World . . 
 A-Hunting of the Deer . 
 The Insect World . . 
 Life Histories of Americanlnsects 
 Nestlings of Forest and Marsh 
 Natural History of Selborne 
 The Story of the Cotton Plant 
 Citizen Bird 
 
 GBADES 
 
 9 to 12 
 9 to 12 
 8 to 12 
 8 to 12 
 8 to 12 
 7 to 12 
 7 to 12 
 7 to 12 
 
 7 to 12 
 
 8 to 12 
 6 to 8 
 
 INDUSTRIES AND MANUAL TRAINING 
 
 <;;^aker . 
 ^ Baker . 
 
 Beard . 
 
 Beard . 
 
 Beard . 
 
 Beard . 
 
 Black . 
 
 Goss . 
 
 Hill . 
 OKirby . 
 
 Pearson 
 
 Rocheleau 
 
 Shinn . 
 St. John . 
 
 St. John . 
 
 Story . . 
 
 Boys' Book of Inventions 
 
 Boys' Second Book of Inventions 
 
 American Boys' Handy Book 
 
 American Girls' Handy Book 
 
 Outdoor Handy Book 
 
 Jack of All Trades . 
 
 Captain Kodak . 
 
 Bench Work in Wood 
 
 Fighting a Fire 
 
 Amit Martha's Comer Cupboard 
 
 Gutenberg; or. The Art of Print- 
 ing 
 
 Great American Industries 
 (3 vols.) 
 
 The Story of the Mine . . . 
 
 How Two Boys Made their Own 
 Electrical Apparatus . 
 
 Things a Boy should Know 
 about Electricity .... 
 
 The Story of Photography . 
 
 262 
 
 7 to 12 
 7 to 12 
 6 to 12 
 6 to 12 
 6 to 12 
 
 6 to 12 
 
 7 to 12 
 
 8 to 12 
 7 to 12 
 
 6 to 12 
 
 7 to 12 
 
 7 to 12 
 
 8 to 12 
 
 7 to 12 
 
 7 to 12 
 
 8 to 12
 
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 OBADES 
 
 Waterhouse . 
 
 The Story of the Art of Building 8 to 12 
 
 White . . . 
 
 How to Make Baskets . 
 
 7 to 12 
 
 White . . . 
 
 More Baskets, and How to Make 
 
 
 Them 
 
 7 to 12 
 
 Williams . . 
 
 The Romance of Modern Inven 
 
 . 
 
 
 tions 
 
 8 to 12 <^ 
 
 Wyman . . 
 
 The Story of the RaUroad . 
 
 8 to 12 
 
 Youth's Com- 
 
 
 
 panion . . 
 
 Industries of To-day. . 
 
 8 to 12 
 
 Youth's Com- 
 
 
 
 panion . . 
 
 Triiunphs of Science . . , 
 GOVERNMENT 
 
 8 to 12 
 
 Alton . . . 
 
 Among the Law Makers . . 
 
 7 to 10 
 
 Austin . . 
 
 Uncle Sam's Secrets .... 
 
 7 to 10 
 
 Austin 
 
 Uncle Sam's Soldiers 
 
 7 to 10 
 
 Hill . . . 
 
 Lessons for Junior Citizens 
 
 5 to 10 
 
 Nordhoff . . 
 
 Politics for Young Americans . 
 
 8 to 12 
 
 Roosevelt and 
 
 
 
 Others . . 
 
 The Ship of State .... 
 ART 
 
 6to 8 
 
 Bates-Guild . 
 
 Masters in Art (5 vols.) . . . 
 
 8 to 12 
 
 Binns . . . 
 
 Story of the Potter .... 
 
 8 to 12 
 
 Clement . 
 
 Painters, Sculptors, Architects 
 
 
 
 and Engravers .... 
 
 9 to 12 
 
 Clement and 
 
 
 
 Hutton . 
 
 Artists of the Nineteenth Cen- 
 
 
 
 tury and their Works. . . 
 
 9 to 12 
 
 Ilome-Scobey 
 
 Stories of Great Artists . 
 
 4to 6 
 
 Hoyt . . . 
 
 The World's Painters and theii 
 
 
 
 Pictures 
 
 8 to 12 
 
 Huril . . . 
 
 Greek Sculpture .... 
 263 
 
 7 to 12
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 Hurll . 
 
 . Tuscan Sculpture .... 
 
 QRADES 
 
 8 to 12 
 
 HurU . 
 
 Raphael 
 
 8 to 12 
 
 Hurll . 
 
 . Michelangelo 
 
 8 to 12 
 
 HurU . 
 
 . Rembrandt 
 
 8 to 12 
 
 HurU . 
 
 . Jean Francois Millet . . . 
 
 8 to 12 
 
 HurU . 
 
 . . Sir Joshua Reynolds . . 
 
 8 to 12 
 
 HurU . 
 
 . MuriUo 
 
 8 to 12 
 
 HurU . 
 
 . Titian 
 
 8 to 12 
 
 HurU . 
 
 . Landseer 
 
 8 to 12 
 
 HurU . 
 
 . Correggio 
 
 8 to 12 
 
 HurU . 
 
 . Van Dyck 
 
 8 to 12 
 
 Jameson 
 
 . Legends of the Madonna . . 
 
 8 to 12 
 
 Mathew 
 
 . The Story of Architecture 
 
 8 to 12 
 
 Ramee 
 
 . . Child of Urbino (Raphael) . . 
 
 5 to 8 
 
 Ruskin 
 
 . Mornings in Florence . , 
 
 8 to 12 
 
 Ruskln 
 
 . Stones of Venice 
 
 8 to 12 
 
 Singleton 
 
 . Great Pictures Described by 
 
 
 
 Great Writers 
 
 8 to 12 
 
 Singleton 
 
 . Turrets, Towers, and Temples . 
 
 8 to 12 
 
 Van Dyke, 
 
 J. C. How to Judge of a Picture . . 
 
 8 to 12 
 
 Van Dyke, 
 
 J. C. The Meaning of Pictures 
 
 9 to 12 
 
 Wherry 
 Williamsor 
 
 . Stories of the Tuscan Artists . 
 
 i,(Ed.)Great Masters in Painting and 
 
 Sculpture (a number of vol- 
 
 8 to 12 
 
 
 umes) 
 
 9 to 12 
 
 
 BCX)KS FOR TEACHERS 
 
 
 Adler . . 
 
 . The Moral Instruction of Children. 
 
 Arnold 
 
 . Reading: How to Teach It. 
 
 
 Arnold 
 
 . Waymarks for Teachers. 
 
 
 Babcock . 
 
 . Bird Day. 
 
 
 Baldwin . 
 
 . Fifty Famous Stories Retold. 
 
 
 Baldwin . 
 
 . The Book Lover. 
 264 

 
 APPENDIX 
 
 Beebe . . First School Year. 
 Boston Collection of Kindergarten Stories. 
 
 Brigham . 
 
 Geographic Influences in American His- 
 
 
 tory. 
 
 Biyan . . . 
 
 Practical Basis of Teaching. 
 
 Bryant . . 
 
 How to Tell Stories to Children. c> 
 
 Bulfinch . . 
 
 The Age of Fable. 
 
 Bulfinch . . 
 
 The Age of Chivalry. 
 
 Burrage . . 
 
 Teaching of History and Civics. 
 
 CaU . . . 
 
 Power through Repose. 
 
 Chubb. . . 
 
 Teaching of English. 
 
 Clark . . . 
 
 How to Teach Reading. 
 
 Cody (Ed.) . 
 
 A Selection from the Great English Poets. 
 
 Comenius 
 
 The School of Infancy. 
 
 Compayre 
 
 Lectures on Pedagogy. 
 
 Cramer 
 
 Notes to Students on the Art of Study. 
 
 Cumnock 
 
 School Speaker. 
 
 Du Bois . . 
 
 The Point of Contact in Teaching. 
 
 Du Bois . 
 
 Reckonings from Little Hands. 
 
 De Garmo 
 
 Herbart and Herbartians. 
 
 Dutton . . 
 
 Social Phases of Education in the School 
 
 
 and in the Home. 
 
 Dye . . . 
 
 The Story-Teller's Art 
 
 Eliot . . . 
 
 Poetry for Children. 
 
 Emerson . 
 
 Essays. 
 
 Field, Eugene 
 
 With Trumpet and Dnun. 
 
 Field, Eugene 
 
 Love Songs of Childhood. 
 
 Froebel 
 
 The Education of Man. 
 
 Gayley 
 
 Classic Myths in English Literature. 
 
 Gillan . . . 
 
 Riffle Creek Papers. 
 
 Hailmann 
 
 History of Pedagogy. 
 
 Harrison . 
 
 Study of Child Nature. 
 
 Hemenway . 
 
 How to Make School Gardens. 
 
 Henderson 
 
 Education and the Larger Life. 
 
 
 265
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 Hinsdale . 
 
 Horace Mann. 
 
 Hodge 
 
 Nature Study and Life. 
 
 Howe . . 
 
 Physical Nature of the Child 
 
 HoweUs . 
 
 A Boy's Town. 
 
 Hyde . . 
 
 Speaker and Reader. 
 
 James . . 
 
 . Talks to Teachers, on Psychology. 
 
 Jordan 
 
 . Science Sketches. 
 
 KeUy . . 
 
 Little Citizens. 
 
 Eenyon . 
 
 . First Years in Handicraft 
 
 Kern . . 
 
 . Among Country Schools. 
 
 Krusi . . 
 
 . Life of Pestalozzi. 
 
 Lanier. . 
 
 . The Boy's King Arthur. 
 
 Locke 
 
 . Thoughts on Education. 
 
 Lowell 
 
 . Books and Libraries. 
 
 McMiury . 
 
 . The Method of the Recitation. 
 
 McMurry . 
 
 . Special Method in Natural Science. 
 
 McMurry . 
 
 . Special Method in Primary Reading. 
 
 McMuny . 
 
 . Special Method in the English Classics. 
 
 Mabie 
 
 . Books and Cultm-e. 
 
 OMabie 
 
 . Norse Stories Retold from the Eddas. 
 
 Malleson . 
 
 . Early Training of Children. 
 
 Martin 
 
 . Emmy Lou: Her Book and Heart. 
 
 ' Menefee . 
 
 . Child Stories from the Masters. 
 
 Moulton . 
 
 . Bibhcal Masterpieces. 
 
 Oppeaheim 
 
 . Development of the Child. 
 
 Page . . 
 
 . Theory and Practice. 
 
 Parker. . 
 
 How to Study Geography. 
 
 Perdue and Gris- 
 
 wold 
 
 • Language through Nature, Literatiwe, 
 
 
 and Art. 
 
 Poulsson . 
 
 . In the Child's World. 
 
 Quick . . 
 
 . Educational Reformers. 
 
 Rabb . . 
 
 . National Epics. 
 
 Rice . . 
 
 . History and Literature. 
 
 
 266
 
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 Rousseau . . 
 
 Emile. 
 
 O Ruskin . . 
 
 Sesame and Lilies. 
 
 Scudder . . 
 
 Literature in Schools. 
 
 Scudder . . 
 
 Childhood in Ijiterature and Art. 
 
 Shairp . . 
 
 Poetic Interpretation of Nature. 
 
 Sherman . 
 
 Little Folks' Lyrics. 
 
 Skinner . . 
 
 Readings in Folk-Lore. 
 
 Skinner . . 
 
 The Schoolmaster in Literature. 
 
 Skinner . 
 
 The Schoolmaster in Comedy and Satire. 
 
 Q Smith . . . 
 
 Evolution of Dodd. 
 
 Spalding . . 
 
 Education and the Higher Life. 
 
 Spencer . . 
 
 Education. 
 
 Sully . . . 
 
 Studies of Childhood. 
 
 Thatcher . . 
 
 The Listening Child. 
 
 Thompson 
 
 Day Dreams of a Schoolmaster. 
 
 Tompkins 
 
 Philosophy of Teaching. 
 
 Tompkins 
 
 Philosophy of School Management. 
 
 Tracy . . . 
 
 Psychology of Childhood. 
 
 Van Dyke. . 
 
 Counsel upon the Reading of Books. 
 
 Warner, C. D. 
 
 Being a Boy. 
 
 Warner, Francis Nervous System of the Child. 
 
 White . . . 
 
 Court of Boyville. 
 
 Wiggin . . 
 
 Children's Rights. 
 
 Wiltse . . 
 
 Kindergarten Stories and Morning Talks. 
 
 WUtse . . 
 
 Place of the Story in Early Education. 
 
 Wray . . . 
 
 Jean Mitchell's School. 
 
 O Yonge . . 
 
 Little Lucy's Wonderful Globe. 
 
 REFERENCE BOOKS FOR SCHOOL UBRA- 
 
 
 RIES 
 
 (Reference Books in History are included in tlie list begin- 
 
 
 nmg on page 245.) 
 
 Adams . . 
 
 Text-Book of Commercial Geography. 
 
 Baldwin . . 
 
 The Book Ix)ver. 
 
 
 267
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 Bartlett . . 
 
 Familiar Quotations. 
 
 Bigelow 
 
 Punctuation. 
 
 Brewer . . 
 
 Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 
 
 Brewer . , 
 
 Reader's Handbook. 
 
 Brookings and 
 
 
 Ringwalt 
 
 Briefs for Debate. 
 
 Browne 
 
 Golden Poems. 
 
 Bulfinch . 
 
 Age of Chivalry. 
 
 Bulfinch . 
 
 Age of Fable. 
 
 Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia. 
 
 Champlin . . 
 
 Young Folks' Cyclopedia of Common 
 
 
 Things. 
 
 Champlin 
 
 Young Folks' Cyclopedia of Literature 
 
 
 and Art. 
 
 Champlin 
 
 Young Folks' Cyclopedia of Persons and 
 
 
 Places. 
 
 Clark . . . 
 
 A Study of the English Prose Writers. 
 
 Clement . . 
 
 Handbook of Legendary and Mjlhologi- 
 
 
 calArt. 
 
 Cody (Ed.) . 
 
 The Great English Poets. 
 
 Cody (Ed.) . 
 
 The World's Greatest Short Stories. 
 
 Cody (Ed.) . 
 
 The Best English Essays. 
 
 Cody (Ed.) . 
 
 The World's Great Orations. 
 
 Crabbe 
 
 EngUsh Synonymes. 
 
 Cnmnock 
 
 School Speaker. 
 
 Dana . . . 
 
 How to Know the Ferns. 
 
 c> Gayley . , 
 
 Classic Myths in English Literature. 
 
 Gayley and 
 
 
 Flaherty . 
 
 Poetry of the People. 
 
 Guerber . 
 
 Myths of Greece and Rome. 
 
 Harper's Dictionary of Classical Jjiterature and Antiquities. 
 Haydn . . Dictionary of Dates. 
 Hodge . . Natm-e Study and Life. 
 Hoyt . . . The World's Painters and their Pictures. 
 268
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 Hyde . . . School Speaker and Reader. 
 Imperial Atlas of the World (latest edition). 
 International Encyclopedia. 
 Kiepfert . . Atlas Antiquus. 
 Lippincott . Biographical Dictionary. 
 Ijppincott . Gazetteer of the World. 
 Longmans . Atlas. (Chisholm and Leete.) 
 Lounsberry . A Guide to the Wild Flowers. 
 Lounsberry . A Guide to the Trees. 
 MacCoun , Historical Geography of the United 
 States. 
 
 International Geography. 
 
 American Lands and Letters. 
 
 Golden Treasury. 
 
 Introduction to American Literature. 
 
 Introduction to English Literature. 
 
 History of English Literature. 
 
 Parliamentary Rules. 
 
 Familiar Talks on English Literature. 
 
 Rules of Order. 
 
 Thesaurus of English Words. 
 
 An Introduction to the Study of Society. 
 
 MiU . 
 
 Mitchell 
 
 Palgrave 
 
 Pancoast 
 
 Pancoast 
 
 Painter 
 
 Reed . 
 
 Richardson 
 
 Robert 
 
 Roget . 
 
 Small-Vincent 
 
 Standard Dictionary. 
 
 Statesman's Year Book. 
 
 Webster . International Dictionary. 
 
 Webster . . Imperial Dictionary. 
 
 Wendell . . English Composition. 
 
 Wheeler . . Dictionary of Noted Names of Fiction. 
 
 Wheeler . . Familiar Allusions. 
 
 White . . . Money and Banking. 
 
 Who's Who in America (latest edition). 
 
 Who's Who (English) (latest edition). 
 
 Woodbum American Politics. 
 
 World Almanac. 
 
 269
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 A REFERENCE LIBRARY FOR SUNDAY 
 SCHOOLS 
 
 Abbott . . 
 Andrews . 
 Banks 
 
 Bartlett . . 
 Bennett-Adeny 
 Bowne . . 
 Breasted . 
 Bridgman . . 
 Briggs . . . 
 Broadus . 
 Brown. 
 Brumbaugh . 
 Burton 
 Burton 
 Burton and 
 
 Mathews . 
 Burton and 
 
 Mathews . 
 Burton and 
 
 Stevens 
 Butler . . . 
 Cadman . 
 Coe . •. . 
 Coe . . . 
 Conybeare and 
 
 Howson 
 Cragin 
 
 Cressey . 
 Davis . 
 Davis . 
 
 Life and Times of Paul. 
 
 Life of Christ. 
 
 Hero Tales from Sacred Story, 
 
 Apostolic Age. 
 
 Biblical Introduction. 
 
 The Immanence of God. 
 
 History of the Egyptians. 
 
 Steps Christward. 
 
 The Ethical Teaching of Jesus. 
 
 Jesus of Nazareth. 
 
 Sunday School Movements in America. 
 
 The Making of a Teacher. 
 
 Records of the Apostolic Age. 
 
 Short Introduction to the Gospels. 
 
 Principles and Ideals in the Sunday School. 
 
 Constructive Studies in the Life of Christ. 
 
 A Harmony of the Gospels. 
 How to Study the Life of Christ. 
 Christ in the Gospels. 
 The Religion of a Mature Mind. 
 Education in Religion and Morals. 
 
 life and Epistles of St. Paul. 
 Kindergarten Stories for Sunday School 
 
 and Home. 
 The Church and Young Men. 
 Dictionary of the Bible. 
 Outline History of the Life of Christ. 
 270
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 Dawson 
 
 . Life of Christ. 
 
 Dods . 
 
 The Bible: Its Origin and Nature. 
 
 Dods . 
 
 . The Parables of Our Lord. 
 
 DuBois 
 
 The Natural Way in Moral Training. 
 
 Du Bois 
 
 The Point of Contact in Sunday School 
 
 
 Teaching. 
 
 Edersheim 
 
 . Life of Christ. 
 
 Edersheim 
 
 In the Days of Christ: Sketches of Jewish 
 
 
 Social Life. 
 
 Falleylove 
 
 and 
 
 Kelman 
 
 . The Holy Land. 
 
 Farrar 
 
 . Life of Christ. 
 
 Farrar 
 
 . Messages of the Books. 
 
 Forbush 
 
 . Travel Lessons on the Old Testament. 
 
 
 (With Stereoscope.) 
 
 Forbush 
 
 . Travel Lessons on the Life of Jesus. 
 
 
 (With Stereoscope.) 
 
 Forbush 
 
 . The Boy Problem. 
 
 Forbush 
 
 . The Boys' Life of Christ. 
 
 Foster 
 
 . Poetical Illustrations of the Bible, Vol. II. 
 
 Fowler 
 
 The Prophets as Statesmen and Preachers. 
 
 Geikie 
 
 . Hours with the Bible. 
 
 Gladden 
 
 . Applied Christianity. 
 
 Goodspeet 
 
 . History of the Babylonians and Assyrians. 
 
 
 ("Historical Series for Bible Students.") 
 
 Gore . 
 
 The Sermon on the Mount. 
 
 Gregory 
 
 Seven Laws of Teaching 
 
 Hanus 
 
 A Modem School. 
 
 Harrison 
 
 Some Silent Teachers. 
 
 Harrison 
 
 . A Study of Child Nature. 
 
 Haslett 
 
 Pedagogical Bible School. 
 
 Hastings 
 
 . Bible Dictionary (5 vols.). 
 
 Haven 
 
 Bible Lessons for I^ittle Beginners. 
 
 Houghton 
 
 . Telling Bible Stories. 
 
 271
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 Houghton 
 Hunter 
 Hyde . . 
 Inglis . . 
 Jttlicher . 
 Kent . . 
 
 Kent . 
 
 Kent . . 
 
 Kent . . 
 
 King . . 
 
 King . . 
 
 Lewin 
 
 Longman 
 
 McCurdy 
 
 McFadyen 
 
 McGiffert 
 MacCoun 
 
 Mackie . 
 Mathews . 
 
 Mathews . 
 
 Mathews . 
 Mathewson 
 Mead . . 
 
 The life of Christ in Picture and Story. 
 
 After the Exile- 
 Practical Ethics. 
 
 Bible Text Cyclopedia. 
 
 Introduction to the New Testament. 
 
 History of the Hebrew People — The 
 United Eongdom. (" Historical Series 
 for Bible Students.") 
 
 History of the Hebrew People — The Di- 
 vided Kingdom. ("Historical Series 
 for Bible Students.") 
 
 History of the Jewish People — Baby- 
 lonian, Persian, and Greek Periods. 
 ("Historical Series for BibleStudents.") 
 
 Wise Men of Ancient Israel and their 
 Proverbs. 
 
 Rational Living. 
 
 Letters to a Simday School Teacher. 
 
 Fasti Sacra. 
 
 The Principles of Religious Education. 
 
 History, Prophecy, and the Moniunents. 
 
 Introduction to the Literature of the Old 
 Testament. 
 
 The Apostolic Age. 
 
 The Holy Land in Geography and His- 
 tory (2 vols.). 
 
 Bible Manners and Customs. 
 
 History of New Testament Times in 
 Palestine. 
 
 The Messianic Hope in the New Testa- 
 ment. 
 
 The Social Teachings of Jesus, 
 
 Spiritual Development of Paul. 
 
 Modem Methods in Sunday School Work. 
 272
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 Menzie . . History of Religion. 
 
 Moore . The New Testament in the Christian 
 
 Church. 
 
 Moulton . Literary Study of the Bible. 
 
 Moulton . Books of the Bible. 
 
 Ottley . . The Religion of Israel. 
 
 Oxford Bible Cyclopedia Concordance. 
 
 Paton . . Early History of Palestine and Syria. 
 
 Peabody . Jesus Christ and the Social Question. 
 
 Peabody . . Jesus Christ and the Christian Character. 
 
 Peloubet . . The Front Line of the Sunday School 
 Movement. 
 
 Pinch . . . The Old Testament in the Light of His- 
 torical Records. 
 
 Poet's Bible. 
 
 Price . . . The Moniunents and the Old Testament. 
 
 Purves The Apostolic Age. 
 
 Ramsay . .St. Paul, the Traveller and the Roman 
 Citizen. 
 
 Ramsay . . The Church in the Roman Empire. 
 
 Rhees . . . The Life of Jesus. (" Historical Series for 
 Bible Students.") 
 
 Riggs . . History of the Jewish People — Macca- 
 
 bean and Roman Periods. ("Histori- 
 cal Series for Bible Students.") 
 
 Salmond . . Parables of Our Lord. 
 
 Sanday . . Sacred Sites of the Gosp»els. 
 
 Sanday . . Outlines of the Life of Christ. 
 
 Sanders . . Outlines of the Study of Biblical History 
 and Literature — From the Earliest 
 Times to the Captivity. 
 
 Sanders . . Outlines for the Study of Biblical His- 
 tory and Literature — From the Exile 
 to 200 A. D. 
 273
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 Schaff 
 
 . Bible Dictionary. 
 
 Sheldon 
 
 . An Ethical Sunday School. 
 
 Smith. 
 
 . Sunday School Teaching. 
 
 Smith . 
 
 . Historical Geography of the Holy Land. 
 
 Staffer 
 
 . Palestine in the Time of Christ. 
 
 Stalker 
 
 . . The Trial and Death of Jesus. 
 
 Stanley 
 
 . . History of the Jewish Church. 
 
 Starbuck 
 
 . Psychology of Religion. 
 
 Stevens 
 
 . The Teaching of Jesus. 
 
 Stewart 
 
 . . The Land of Israel. 
 
 Sully . 
 
 . . Studies in Childhood. 
 
 Thomson 
 
 . The Land and the Book. (New Edition.) 
 
 Tissot (illi 
 
 ist.) The Old Testament. (The illustrations 
 
 
 also issued in a set, mounted on cards.) 
 
 Torrey 
 
 . New Topical Text-Book. 
 
 Trumbdl 
 
 . Studies in Oriental Social Life. 
 
 Trumbull 
 
 Teaching and Teachers. 
 
 Twentieth Century Bible. 
 
 Vaughan 
 
 . The Prayers of Jesus Christ. 
 
 Wade. . 
 
 . Old Testament History. 
 
 Walker 
 
 . Comprehensive Concordance. 
 
 Walker 
 
 . Kings of Israel. 
 
 Weiss . 
 
 . Manual of Introduction to the New 
 
 
 Testament. 
 
 Wells . 
 
 . Sunday School Success. 
 
 Wendt . 
 
 . The Teaching of Jesus. 
 
 Wood and 
 
 Hall Adult Bible Qasses. 
 
 Worcester 
 
 On Holy Ground. 
 
 
 MISSIONS 
 
 Bacon 
 
 . Japanese Girls and Women. 
 
 Barnes 
 
 . Two Thousand Years of Missions before 
 
 Carey. 
 Barrows . . The Christian Conquest of Asia. 
 274
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 Beach 
 
 . Geography and Atlas of Protestant Mis- 
 
 
 sions (2 vols.). 
 
 Beach 
 
 . The Cross in the Land of the Trident. 
 
 Beach 
 
 . Dawn on the Hills of T'Ang :Missions in 
 
 
 China. 
 
 Beach 
 
 . Princely Men of the Heavenly Kingdom. 
 
 Bishop 
 
 . Among the Thibetans. 
 
 Bishop 
 
 Korea and her Neighbors. 
 
 Blaikie . 
 
 . Personal Life of David Livingstone. 
 
 Bliss . . 
 
 . Concise History of Missions. 
 
 Brain . 
 
 . Fifty Missionary Stories. 
 
 Brain . 
 
 The Transformation of Hawaii. 
 
 Chalmers . 
 
 Autobiography and Letters. 
 
 Clark . . 
 
 . Leavening the Nation. 
 
 Clarke 
 
 . A Study of Christian Missioas. 
 
 Clement . 
 
 Christianity in Modem Japan. 
 
 Creegan . 
 
 . Great Missionaries of the Church. 
 
 Curtis 
 
 Modem India. 
 
 Dawson . 
 
 . Life of James Hannington. 
 
 De Forest 
 
 Sunrise in the Sunrise Kingdom. 
 
 Dennis 
 
 . Foreign Missions after a Century. 
 
 Dennis 
 
 Christian Missions and Social Progress 
 
 
 (3 vols.). 
 
 Ecumenical Conference Report (2 vols.). 
 
 Gracey . 
 
 . China in Outline (pamphlet). 
 
 GriflSs 
 
 . Dux Chri.stus: A Study of Missions in 
 
 
 Japan. 
 
 GriflSs . 
 
 . The Mikado's Empire. 
 
 Guernsey . 
 
 . Under our Flag. 
 
 Gulick . 
 
 . The Evolution of the Japanese. 
 
 Gulick , 
 
 . The Growth of the Kingdom of God. 
 
 Gulick . 
 
 . The White Peril in the Far East. 
 
 Hamlin . 
 
 . My Life and Times. 
 
 Hardy . 
 
 . Life oi Ncesima. 
 
 
 275
 
 CHILDREN'S READING 
 
 Hodgkins 
 
 Via Christi : A Study of Missions before 
 
 
 Carey. 
 
 Hume 
 
 . Missions from the Modern View. 
 
 Jones . 
 
 . India's Problem: Krishna or Christ. , 
 
 Leonard 
 
 . A Hundred Years of Missions. 
 
 McLean 
 
 . Handbook of Missions. 
 
 Mason 
 
 . Lux Christi: A Study of Missions in 
 
 
 India. 
 
 Miner 
 
 . China's Book of Martyrs. 
 
 Miner 
 
 . Two Heroes of Cathay. 
 
 Morris 
 
 At oiu" Own Door. 
 
 Naylor 
 
 . Daybreak in the Dark Continent. 
 
 Noble . 
 
 . The Redemption of Africa (2 vols.). 
 
 Page . . 
 
 . Life of Bishop Patteson. 
 
 Parsons 
 
 . Christus liberator: A Study of Missions 
 
 
 in Africa. 
 
 Paton . 
 
 . . The Story of J. G. Paton. 
 
 Peery . 
 
 . . The Gist of Japan. 
 
 Shelton 
 
 . Heroes of the Cross in America. 
 
 Smith 
 
 . Rex Christus: A Study of Missions in 
 
 
 China. 
 
 Smith . 
 
 . Chinese Characteristics. 
 
 Smith . 
 
 . Village Life in China. 
 
 Students a 
 
 nd the Modern Missionary Crusade — Report 
 
 
 of Nashville Student Volunteer Con- 
 
 
 vention. 
 
 Taylor 
 
 . The Price of Africa. 
 
 Tyler . 
 
 . . Forty Years among the Zulus. 
 
 Warneck 
 
 . Outline of the History of Prostestant 
 
 
 IMissions. 
 
 Wells . 
 
 . . Unto All the World. 
 
 Weston 
 
 . China in Twelve Lessons (pamphlet). 
 
 Zwemer . 
 
 . The Mohammedan World of To-day. 
 
 The End
 
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