R.  “Where are you going?”

     S. and P.  “We are going to build us a house.”

     R.  “May I live with you?”

     S. and P.  “What can you do to help?”

The Rabbit scratched his leg with his left hind foot for a minute and said, “I can gnaw pegs with my sharp teeth and I can put them in with my paws.”  “Good,” said the Sheep and the Pig, “you may come with us!” Then they met a gray Goose who could pull moss and stuff it in cracks, and a Cock who could crow early and waken all.  So they all found a house and lived in it happily.

The Spanish Media Pollito, or Little Half-Chick, is another accumulative animal tale similar to Henny Penny, and one which is worthy of university study.  The disobedient but energetic hero who went off to Madrid is very appealing and constantly amusing, and the tale possesses unusual beauty.  The interest centers in the character.  The beauty lies in the setting of the adventures, as Medio Pollito came to a stream, to a large chestnut tree, to the wind, to the soldiers outside the city gates, to the King’s Palace at Madrid, and to the King’s cook, until in the end he reached the high point of immortalization as the weather-vane of a church steeple.

The Story of Three Pigs could contend with The Three Bears for the position of ideal story for little people.  It suits them even better than The Three Bears, perhaps because they can identify themselves more easily with the hero, who is a most winning, clever individual, though a Pig.  The children know nothing of the standards of the Greek drama, but they recognize a good thing; and when the actors in their story are great in interest and in liveliness, they respond with a corresponding appreciation.  The dramatic element in The Three Pigs is strong and all children love to dramatize it.  The story is the Italian Three Goslings, the Negro Tiny Pig, the Indian Lambikin, and the German The Wolf and Seven Kids.  This tale is given by Andrew Lang in his Green Fairy Book.  The most satisfactory presentation of the story is given by Leslie Brooke in his Golden Goose Book.  The German version occurred in an old poem, Reinhart Fuchs, in which the Kid sees the Wolf through a chink.  Originally the characters must have been Kids, for little pigs do not have hair on their “chinny chin chins.”

One of the earliest modern animal tales is The Good-Natured Bear,[9] by Richard Hengist Horne, the English critic.  This tale was written in 1846, just when men were beginning to gain a greater knowledge of animal life.  It is both psychological and imaginative.  It was brought to the attention of the English public in a criticism, On Some Illustrated Christmas Books,[10] by Thackeray, who considered it one of the “wittiest, pleasantest, and kindest of books, and an admirable story.”  It is now out of print, but it seems to be worthy of being preserved and reprinted.  The story is the autobiography of a Bear, who first tells about his interesting experiences as a Baby Bear.  He first gives to Gretchen and the children gathered about him an account of his experience when his Mother first taught him to walk alone.