To-day it is to be questioned if the child should be given the tale in nurses’ talk.  To-day children are best cared for by mothers who feel ignorant if they cannot tell their children stories, and who, having an appreciation of their mother English, want their children to hear stories, not only told by themselves rather than by their servants, but also told in the best literary form possible.  They recognize that these earliest years, when the child is first learning his language, are the years for a perfection of form to become indelibly impressed.  The fairy tale, like every piece of literature, is an organism and “should be put before the youngest child with its head on, and standing on both feet.”  The wholesale re-telling of every tale is to be deplored.  And stories which have proved themselves genuine classics, which have a right to live, which have been handed down by tradition, which have been preserved by folk-lore records, and which have been rescued from oblivion,—­in this age of books should have a literary form, which is part of their message, settled upon them.  The Grimm tales await their literary master.

III.  THE FAIRY TALE AS A SHORT-STORY

The fairy tale, then, which in an objective sense, from the standpoint of literature, has proved itself subject-matter of real worth, must be a classic, must have the qualities of mind and soul, must possess the power to appeal to the emotions, a power to appeal to the imagination, and it must have a basis of truth and a perfection of form.  But in addition to possessing these characteristics, because the fairy tale is a special literary form,—­the short-story,—­as literature it must stand the test of the short-story.

The three main characteristics of the short-story, as given by Professor Brander Matthews in his Philosophy of the Short-Story, are originality of theme, ingenuity of invention, and brevity, or compression.  A single effect must be conceived, and no more written than contributes to that effect.  The story depends for its power and charm on (1) characters; (2) plot; and (3) setting.  In The Life and Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson, by Graham Balfour, Stevenson has said, concerning the short-story:—­

“There are, so far as I know, three ways, and three ways only, of writing a story.  You may take a plot and fit characters to it, or you may take a character and choose incidents and situations to develop it, or lastly—­you must bear with me while I try to make this clear....  You may take a certain atmosphere and get action and persons to express and realize it.  I’ll give you an example—­The Merry Men.  There I began with the feeling of one of those islands on the west coast of Scotland, and I gradually developed the story to express the sentiment with which the coast affected me.”

According to the method by which the story was made, the emphasis will be on character, plot, or setting.  Sometimes you may have a perfect blending of all three.