A modern tale that is a bit of pure imagination and seems an attempt to follow Grimm and Andersen, is A Quick-Running Squash, in Aspinwall’s Short Stories for Short People.  It uses the little boy’s interest in a garden—­his garden.—­Interest centers about the fairy, the magic seed, the wonderful ride, and the happy ending.  It uses the simple, everyday life and puts into it the unusual and the wonderful where nothing is impossible.  It blends the realistic and the romantic in a way that is most pleasing. The Rich Goose, by Leora Robinson, in the Outlook, is an accumulative tale with an interesting ending and surprise. Why the Morning Glory Climbs, by Elizabeth McCracken, in Miss Bryant’s How to Tell Stories, is a simple fanciful tale. The Discontented Pendulum, by Jane Taylor, in Poulssen’s In the Child’s World, is a good illustration of the modern purely fanciful tale. What Bunch and Joker saw in the Moon, in Wide-Awake Chatterbox, about 1887, is a most delightful modern fanciful tale, although it is best suited to the child of nine or ten. Greencap, by Ruth Hays, in St. Nicholas, June, 1915, appeals to the child through the experience of Sarah Jane, whose Mother and Father traveled to India.  Sarah went to live with Aunt Jane and there met Greencap who granted the proverbial “three wishes.” Alice in Wonderland ranks in a class by itself among modern fanciful tales but it is better suited to the child of the third and fourth grades.

A modern fairy tale which is suited to the child’s simplicity and which will stimulate his own desire to make a tale, is The Doll Who Was Sister to a Princess, one of the Toy Stories by Carolyn Bailey which have been published by the Kindergarten Review during 1914-15.  Among modern tales selected from Fairy Stories Re-told from St. Nicholas, appear some interesting ones which might be read to the little child, or told in the primary grades.  Among these might be mentioned:—­

     The Ballad of the Blacksmith’s Sons, a modern tale in verse by
     Mary E. Wilkins.

Casperl, by H.C.  Bunner, a modern Sleeping Beauty tale.  This tale has the virtue of not being complex and elaborate.  It has the underlying idea that “People who are helping others have a strength beyond their own.”

     Ten Little Dwarfs, by Sophie Dorsey, from the French of Emile
     Souvestre.  It tells of the ten little Dwarfs who lived in the
     Good-wife’s fingers.

Wondering Tom, by Mary Mapes Dodge.  This is a bright story of a boy who Hamlet-like, hesitated to act.  Tom was always wondering.  The story contains a fairy, Kumtoo-thepoynt, who sat on a toadstool and looked profound.  It is realistic and romantic and has fine touches of humor.  It tells how Wondering Tom became transformed into a Royal Ship-Builder.