fairy tales, is brimful of humor for the older child, but here the tailed man is not suited to the faith and understanding of six years. Rumpelstiltskin, its parallel, must also be excluded. The House in the Wood, and its Norse parallel, The Two Step-Sisters, are both very beautiful, but are more suited to the second grade.  In the kindergarten it is much better to present the tale which emphasizes goodness, rather than the two just mentioned, which present the good and the bad and show what happens to both.  Besides there is a certain elation resulting from the superior reward won by the good child which crowds out any pity for the erring child.  Such elation is a form of selfishness and ought not to be emphasized. Snow White and Rose Red contains the strange dwarf, but it is a tale so full of love and goodness and home life that in spite of its length it could be used in the first grade.

Unhappy tales.  The very little child pities, and its tender heart must be protected from depressing sadness as unrelieved as we find it in The Little Match Girl.  The image of suffering impressed on a child, who cannot forget the sight of a cripple for days, is too intense to be healthful.  The sorrow of the poor is one of the elements of life that even the very little child meets, and it is legitimate that his literature should include tales that call for compassion.  But in a year or two, when he develops less impressionability and more poise, he is better prepared to meet such situations, as he must meet them in life.

The tale of capture.  This would eliminate Proserpine.  No more beautiful myth exists than this one of the springtime, but its beauty and its symbolism do not make it suitable for the kindergarten.  It is more suited to the elementary child of the fourth grade.  In fact, very few myths of any sort find a legitimate place in the kindergarten, perhaps only a few of the simpler pourquois tales. The Legend of the Pied Piper of Hamelin, which is very beautiful, and appeals to little children because of the piping and of the children following after, should be omitted from the kindergarten because the capture at the close—­the disappearance of the children in the hill—­is tragic in pathos.  It is better to leave the literature as it is and offer it later when the child reaches the second grade.  The effect of this tragic end has been realized by Josephine Scribner Gates, who (St. Nicholas, November, 1914) has given to the children, “And Piped Those Children Back Again.”  This is a modern completion of The Pied Piper.  It most happily makes the little lame boy who was left in Hamelin when the Piper closed the door of the mountain, the means of the restoration of the other children to their parents.

The very long tale.  This would omit The Ugly Duckling.  The Ugly Duckling is a most artistic tale and one that is