Maeterlinck’s Blue-Bird, Kipling’s Just-So Stories and the tales of the Jungle Books, Selma Lagerloef’s Wonderful Adventures of Nils, the Uncle Remus Tales of Harris, etc.  But these classics are, with a few exceptions, the richness of the primary and elementary literature.  The modern fairy tale suited to the kindergarten child, is at a disadvantage, for most likely it is hidden away in some magazine, waiting for appreciation to bring some attention to it.  And in these complex modern days it is difficult to secure a tale whose simplicity suits the little child.

Among the best tales for little people are Miss Harrison’s Hans and the Four Giants and Little Beta and the Lame Giant.  In Little Beta and the Lame Giant a natural child is placed in unusual surroundings, where the gentleness of the giant and the strength of love in the little girl present strong contrasts that please and satisfy. The Sea Fairy and the Land Fairy in Some Fairies I have Met, by Mrs. Stawell, though possessing much charm and beauty, is too complicated for the little people.  It is a quarrel of a Sea Fairy and a Land Fairy.  It is marked by good structure, it presents a problem in the introduction, has light fancy suited to its characters, piquant dialogue, good description, visualized expressions, and it presents distinct pictures.  Its method is direct and it gets immediately into the story.  Its method of personification, which in this, perhaps the best story of the collection, is rather delightful, in some of the others is less happy and is open to question. How Double Darling’s Old Shoes Became Lady Slippers, by Candace Wheeler, in St. Nicholas, is a really delightful modern fairy story suited to be read to the little child.  It is the experience of a little girl with new shoes and her dream about her old shoes.  But the story lacks in structure, there is not the steady rise to one great action, the episode of the Santa Claus tree is somewhat foreign and unnecessary, and the conclusion falls flat because the end seems to continue after the problem has been worked out.

In The Dwarf’s Tailor, by Underhill, there is much conversation about things and an indirect use of language, such as “arouse them to reply” and “continued to question,” which is tedious.  The humor is at times heavy, quoting proverbs, such as “The pitcher that goes too often to the well is broken at last.”  The climax is without interest.  The scene of the Dwarfs around the fire—­in which the chief element of humor seems to be that the Tailor gives the Dwarf a slap—­is rather foolish than funny.  The details are trite and the transformation misses being pleasing.  Again there is not much plot and the story does not hold by its interest.  In The Golden Egg and the Cock of Gold, by Scudder, the conversation is not always to the point, is somewhat on the gossipy order, is trite, and the suspense is not held because