dusk without, and a mother’s voice called us from our shelter to “Lay the book down, dear, and come to tea.”  For, to speak in better words than my own, “It is the books we read before middle life that do most to mould our characters and influence our lives; and this not only because our natures are then plastic and our opinions flexible, but also because, to produce lasting impression, it is necessary to give a great author time and meditation.  The books that are with us in the leisure of youth, that we love for a time not only with the enthusiasm, but with something of the exclusiveness, of a first love, are those that enter as factors forever in our mental life.”

CHILDREN’S STORIES

“To be a good story-teller is to be a king among children.”

The business of story-telling is carried on from the soundest of economic motives, in order to supply a constant and growing demand.  We are forced to satisfy the clamorous nursery-folk that beset us on every hand.

Beside us stands an eager little creature quivering with expectation, gazing with wide-open eyes, and saying appealingly, “Tell me a story!” or perhaps a circle of toddlers is gathered round, each one offering the same fervent prayer, with so much trust and confidence expressed in look and gesture that none but a barbarian could bear to disappoint it.

The story-teller is the children’s special property.  When once his gifts have been found out, he may bid good-by to his quiet snooze by the fire, or his peaceful rest with a favorite book.  Though he hide in the uttermost parts of the house, yet will he be discovered and made to deliver up his treasure.  On this one subject, at least, the little ones of the earth are a solid, unanimous body; for never yet was seen the child who did not love the story and prize the story-teller.

Perhaps we never dreamed of practicing the art of story-telling till we were drawn into it by the imperious commands of the little ones about us.  It is an untrodden path to us, and we scarcely understand as yet its difficulties and hindrances, its breadth and its possibilities.  Yet this eager, unceasing demand of the child-nature we must learn to supply, and supply wisely; for we must not think that all the food we give the little one will be sure to agree with him. because he is so hungry.  This would be no more true of a mental than of a physical diet.

What objects, then, shall our stories serve beyond the important one of pleasing the little listeners?  How can we make them distinctly serviceable, filling the difficult and well-nigh impossible role of “useful as well as ornamental”?

There are, of course, certain general benefits which the child gains in the hearing of all well-told stories.  These are, familiarity with good English, cultivation of the imagination, development of sympathy, and clear impression of moral truth.  We shall find, however, that all stories appropriate for young children naturally divide themselves into the following classes:—­