Childhoods Favorites and Fairy Stories | Page 3

the imagination has fed in every age and which is,
for the most part, conspicuously absent from our educational
programmes.
America has at present greater facility in producing "smart" men than
in producing able men; the 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 Æsop, 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