Childhoods Favorites and Fairy Stories | Page 3

alert, quick-witted, money-maker abounds, but the men who live with ideas, who care for the principles of things, and who make life rich in resource and interest are comparatively few. America needs poetry more than it needs industrial training; though the two ought never to be separated. The time to awaken the imagination, which is the creative faculty, is early childhood; and the most accessible material for this education is the literature which the race created in its childhood. The creative man, whether in the arts or in practical affairs, in poetry, in engineering or in business, is always the man of imagination.
In this library for young people the attempt has been made not only to give the child what it needs but in the form which is most easily understood. For this reason some well-known stories have been retold in simpler English than their classic forms present. This is especially true of many tales for any young children reprinted by special arrangement from recent English sources. In some cases, where the substance has seemed of more importance to the child than the form, simpler words and forms of expression have been substituted for more complex or abstract phrases, and passages of minor importance have been condensed or omitted.
The aim in making the selections in this set of books has been to interest the child and give it what it needs for normal growth; the material has been taken from many sources old and new; much of the reading matter presented has been familiar in one form or another, to generations of children; much has appeared for the first time within the last ten years; a considerable part has been prepared especially for the Treasury and a large part has been selected from the best writing in the various fields.
It is the hope of the Editor that this "Treasury" or "Library" will justify its title by its real and fundamental service to children and parents alike.
HAMILTON W. MABIE

INTRODUCTION
Since this series of books is intended for all young people from one to one hundred, it opens with about eighty of the old MOTHER GOOSE RHYMES. Nothing better was ever invented to tell to little folks who are young enough for lullabies. Their rhythm, their humor, and their pith will always cause us to prize them as the Babies' Classics.
Next come a score of the most famous NURSERY TALES, the kind that children cry for and love to hear fifty times over. And since, just as soon as little folks like stories they love to hear them in rhyme, here are forty CHILDREN'S FAVORITE POEMS.
What would young life be without "Puss in Boots" and "Little Red Riding Hood" and "The Sleeping Beauty"? Our TREASURY would indeed be poor without them, so these FAVORITE STORIES come next, yoked with some OLD-FASHIONED POEMS in story-form, as "The Night before Christmas," "The Wonderful World," and "Little Orphant Annie." All who love pets and animals have always liked FABLES, so here are the noted parables of ?sop, and the lesser-known but even more jolly tales from East Indian sources.
The fairy-tale age is supposed to come from four to nine, but the editors are sure it lasts much longer than that. However this may be, the better half of our first volume is given up to FAIRY TALES AND LAUGHTER STORIES from all over the world.
It ends with TALES FOR TINY TOTS, the kind that mother reads beside the fire at bedtime, some of them old, like the "Little Red Hen" and "Peter Rabbit," and some of them newer, like "The Greedy Brownie" and "The Birthday Honors of the Fairy Queen."
WILLIAM BYRON FORBUSH.

CONTENTS
General Introduction to Young Folks' Treasury vii Introduction xi
NURSERY RHYMES
Hush-a-bye, Baby, on the Tree-top; Rock-a-bye, Baby thy Cradle is Green; Bye, Baby Bunting; Hush Thee, my Babby; Sleep, Baby, Sleep; This Little Pig Went to Market; etc., etc. 1-31
NURSERY TALES
The Three Bears 32 Cinderella 35 The Three Brothers 41 The Wren and the Bear 42 Chicken-Licken 45 The Fox and the Cat 47 The Rats and their Son-in-Law 48 The Mouse and the Sausage 50 Johnny and the Golden Goose 51 Titty Mouse and Tatty Mouse 56 Teeny Tiny 58 The Spider and the Flea 60 The Little Shepherd Boy 61 The Three Spinners 62 The Cat and the Mouse in Partnership 65 The Sweet Soup 68 The Straw, the Coal, and the Bean 68 Why the Bear Has a Stumpy Tail 70 The Three Little Pigs 71
CHILDREN'S FAVORITE POEMS
The Three Children 75 The Owl and the Pussy-Cat--Edward Lear 75 Kindness to Animals 77 How Doth the Little Busy Bee--Isaac Watts 77 Suppose--Phoebe Cary 78 Twinkle, Twinkle 79 Pretty Cow--Jane Taylor 80 The Three Little Kittens--Eliza Lee Follen 80 The Land of Counterpane--Robert Louis Stevenson 82 There was a Little Girl--Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 82 The