Classic adventure is seldom hampered by social morality. In a treasure hunt the seeker is, by prescriptive right, the hero: the holder—dragon or man—is in the wrong. Since [Robert Louis Stevenson's] Treasure Island this has been one of the strongest conventions of the adventure story. The ethics of aggression have been in the past accorded a similar ambiguity; a certain concept of honour, differing in its nature from country to country or from period to period, has been considered reason enough for one antagonist to be accounted hero and another, villain. Today political and social sensitiveness is making its mark on children's stories, not only in the kind of adventure … with a topical, contemporary setting, but also in fantasy and space adventure. The change is particularly interesting in regard to Cart and Cwidder, for here the old chivalric idea of honour and a modern liberal attitude...