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      Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. A list of
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      in spelling and hyphenation have been maintained. A list of
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JOURNEYS THROUGH BOOKLAND

A New and Original
Plan for Reading Applied to the
World's Best Literature
for Children

by

CHARLES H. SYLVESTER

Author of English and American Literature

VOLUME TEN--THE GUIDE

New Edition

For parents, teachers, and all who have
children under their charge; for adults
who wish to renew their acquaintance
with the friends of their youth, or to
open for the first time the world's great
treasure house of literature; for youthful
readers who must study the classics

[Illustration: OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE
HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW
WASHINGTON IRVING
JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER
JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL
WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT]

Chicago
Bellows-Reeve Company
Publishers

Copyright, 1922
Bellows-Reeve Company

CONTENTS

                                                                  PAGE
      I. INTRODUCTION                                                1

     II. JOURNEYS THROUGH BOOKLAND--ITS CONTENTS AND PLAN            7
           The Masterpieces                                          9
           Arrangement and Grading                                  10
           The Studies and Helps                                    13
             Studies                                                15
             Notes                                                  15
             Introductory Notes                                     15
             Biographies                                            16
             Pronouncing Vocabularies                               16
             Pictures                                               17
             Tables of Contents                                     17
             Index                                                  17
           The Nursery Rhymes                                       18
           Discussion of each Volume                                24
             Volume One                                             24
             Volume Two                                             26
             Volume Three                                           28
             Volume Four                                            29
             Volume Five                                            29
             Volume Six                                             30
             Volume Seven                                           31
             Volume Eight                                           33
             Volume Nine                                            34
             Volume Ten--The Guide                                  35

    III. PICTURES AND THEIR USE                                     36
           What Should We Notice in a Picture?                      36
             Line                                                   36
             Light and Shade                                        37
             Tone and Color                                         39
             Composition                                            39
             Atmosphere and Perspective                             40
             Application of Principles                              41
               _Bob and Tiny Tim_                                   41
           Pictures and Their Value in Literature                   44
           On the Use of Pictures in _Journeys_                     48
             _Nursery Rhymes_                                       51
             _Jack and the Beanstalk_                               52
             _Nurse Helps Me when I Embark_                         52
             _Wynken, Blynken, and Nod_                             53
             _Shuffle-Shoon and Amber-Locks_                        54
             _Tom and the Dragon Fly_                               55
             _The Swallow and the Stork Came_                       55
             _Down Tumbled Wheelbarrow_                             58
             _Geraint Hears Enid Singing_                           60

     IV. TELLING STORIES                                            63
             _The Fairies of the Caldon-Low_                        68
             _Little Giffin of Tennessee_                           71
             _The Ballad of Agincourt_                              74
             _Hervé Riel_                                           78

      V. READING, AND THE BUILDING OF CHARACTER                     85
             _Who Stole the Bird's Nest?_                           95
             _Lead, Kindly Light_                                   98
             _Poor Richard's Almanac_                              101

     VI. FATHER AND SON                                            107

    VII. MEMORIZING                                                128
           One Hundred Choice Quotations                           131

   VIII. HOW TO READ FICTION                                       143
           Different Kinds of Literature                           143
           Reading Stories                                         145
             Plot                                                  149
               _Cinderella_                                        150
             Persons                                               156
               _The Hardy Tin Soldier_                             158
             The Scenes                                            162
               _The Dog and His Shadow_                            164
               _The Fox and the Stork_                             166
               _A Christmas Carol_                                 168
             The Lesson and the Author's Purpose                   170
               _The Fir Tree_                                      173
             The Method and Style of the Author                    174
             Emotional Power                                       176
               _Rab and His Friends_                               177
             General Principles and Reflections                    181
             Completed Studies                                     185
               _The Hare and the Tortoise_                         185
               _The Fox and the Crow_                              187
               _The Drummer_                                       193
               _Tom, the Water Baby_                               198
               _The Passing of Arthur_                             214

     IX. CLOSE READING OR STUDY                                    224
               _Rab and His Friends_                               225
               _Braddock's Defeat_                                 227
               _Industry and Sloth_                                229
               _Why the Sea is Salt_                               231
               _Faithless Sally Brown_                             232
               _The Definition of a Gentleman_                     234
               _Adventures in Lilliput_                            235
               _The Heart of Bruce_                                238
               _Annie Laurie_                                      243
               _The Lost Child_                                    243
               _David Crockett in the Creek War_                   244
               _The Impeachment of Warren Hastings_                248
               From _The Death of Cæsar_                           253

      X. CLOSE READING (Concluded)                                 256
           The Author                                              257
           Sentences                                               258
           Figures of Speech                                       259
             Allusions                                             259
             Basis of Figures                                      262
             Simile                                                263
             Metaphor                                              264
             Synecdoche and Metonymy                               265
             Apostrophe and Personification                        266
           Studies in Figures                                      268
               _Ode to a Skylark_                                  268
               _A Visit from Saint Nicholas_                       270
               _The First Snowfall_                                270

     XI. READING POETRY                                            272
               _The Reaper and the Flowers_                        272
               _The Brown Thrush_                                  276
               _The Child's World_                                 277
               _Seven Times One_                                   278
               _The First Snowfall_                                281
               _The Potato_                                        285
               _Origin of the Opal_                                285
               _The Barefoot Boy_                                  286
               _The Bugle Song_                                    287
               _The Petrified Fern_                                291
               _The Forsaken Merman_                               295
               _The Cloud_                                         301
               _Ode to a Skylark_                                  306

    XII. READING ALOUD                                             311
           Articulation and Enunciation                            311
           Emphasis and Inflection                                 312
           Emotional States                                        312
             Pitch                                                 312
             Rate or Time                                          313
             Quality                                               315
             Force                                                 315

   XIII. LITERATURE AND ITS FORMS                                  317
           Prose                                                   318
             Methods of Expression                                 318
               Narration                                           318
               Description                                         321
               Exposition                                          321
               Argumentation                                       322
             Forms of Prose                                        322
               Fiction                                             322
               Essays                                              322
               Orations                                            324
               Drama                                               325
             Poetry                                                327
               Structure of Poetry                                 328
               Rhythm                                              328
               Rhyme                                               329
               Alliteration                                        330
             Kinds of Poetry                                       331
               Epic                                                331
               Lyric                                               333
                 Songs                                             333
                 Ode                                               335
                 Elegy                                             335
                 Sonnet                                            337
                   _Victor and Vanquished_                         338
               Dramatic                                            339
                 Miracle Plays                                     340
                 Morality Plays                                    340
                 Masques                                           341
                 Tragedies and Comedies                            341

    XIV. JOURNEYS IN ITS RELATION TO THE SCHOOL--READING AND
           LANGUAGE                                                345
           Reading                                                 348
           Language                                                349
           Oral Lessons                                            352
               _The Wind and the Sun_                              357
           Written Lessons                                         360
             Introduction                                          360
             Literature in Written Lessons                         363
               Narration                                           363
                 _Robin Hood and the Stranger_                     363
               Description                                         365
                 _The King of the Golden River_                    366
               Exposition                                          368
                 _Cid Campeador_                                   368
               Argument                                            370
                 _The Boston Massacre_                             370
               Conclusion                                          376
                 _An Exciting Canoe Race_                          376

     XV. JOURNEYS IN ITS RELATION TO THE SCHOOL--NATURE STUDY      380
           Seven Long Selections                                   381
               _Tom, the Water Baby_                               381
               _Robinson Crusoe_                                   382
               _The Swiss Family Robinson_                         382
               _Brute Neighbors_                                   383
               _The Pond in Winter_                                384
               _Winter Animals_                                    384
               _Trees and Ants that Help Each Other_               385
           Classified Selections                                   386
             Flowers and Plant Life                                386
             Birds                                                 387
             Four-footed Animals                                   389
             Reptiles                                              391
             Insects                                               391
             Denizens of the Water                                 391
             Natural Phenomena                                     392
             Geography in Nature                                   392
           Complete Study                                          393
               _The King of the Golden River_                      393

    XVI. JOURNEYS IN ITS RELATION TO THE SCHOOL--GEOGRAPHY AND
           HISTORY                                                 400
           Classified References                                   402
           Model Geography Lesson                                  411
             The Wind                                              411
           Model History Lessons                                   413
             Alfred the Great                                      413
             Burgoyne's Campaign                                   419

   XVII. JOURNEYS IN ITS RELATION TO THE HIGH SCHOOL               425
           Classification of Studies                               427
           Type Studies                                            431

  XVIII. RECITATIONS AND SPECIAL DAYS IN SCHOOL                    436
           Bird Day                                                437
           Memorial Day                                            438
           Christmas                                               438
           Birthdays                                               438
           Dramatization                                           439
           An Old-Fashioned Afternoon                              440

    XIX. HANDY LIST OF THE STUDIES IN JOURNEYS THROUGH BOOKLAND    441
           Volume One                                              442
           Volume Two                                              443
           Volume Three                                            445
           Volume Four                                             446
           Volume Five                                             446
           Volume Six                                              447
           Volume Seven                                            448
           Volume Eight                                            449
           Volume Nine                                             449

     XX. SUPPLEMENTARY BOOK LISTS                                  451
           For the Separate Volumes                                454
             Volume One                                            454
             Volume Two                                            455
             Volume Three                                          457
             Volume Four                                           458
             Volume Five                                           459
             Volume Six                                            460
             Volume Seven                                          461
           Classified Lists                                        462
             Fiction                                               463
             Poetry and Drama                                      464
             Essays                                                464
             Nature                                                465
             Biography                                             465
             History                                               465
             Travel and Geography                                  466
           Miscellaneous                                           466

  APPENDIX--
           Handy Table of English Writers                          469
           Handy Table of American Writers                         473

  GENERAL INDEX                                                    475

ILLUSTRATIONS

HALFTONE PORTRAITS OF AUTHORS

                                                                  PAGE
  GROUP ONE                                               Frontispiece
        _Henry Wadsworth Longfellow_
        _Oliver Wendell Holmes_
        _Nathaniel Hawthorne_
        _Washington Irving_
        _John Greenleaf Whittier_
        _James Russell Lowell_
        _William Cullen Bryant_

  GROUP TWO                                                         52
        _William Shakespeare_
        _Alfred, Lord Tennyson_
        _Robert Browning_
        _Sir Walter Scott_
        _William Wordsworth_
        _Geoffrey Chaucer_
        _Joseph Addison_

  GROUP THREE                                                      100
        _Cardinal Newman_
        _Sir Francis Bacon_
        _Jonathan Swift_
        _Daniel Defoe_
        _Cardinal Wiseman_
        _Cervantes_
        _Father Ryan_

  GROUP FOUR                                                       148
        _Julia Ward Howe_
        _Benjamin Franklin_
        _Henry David Thoreau_
        _Patrick Henry_
        _William H. Prescott_
        _Francis Parkman_
        _James Fenimore Cooper_

  GROUP FIVE                                                       198
        _Edgar Allan Poe_
        _Donald G. Mitchell_
        _James Whitcomb Riley_
        _Thomas Buchanan Read_
        _Eugene Field_
        _John Howard Payne_
        _John G. Saxe_

  GROUP SIX                                                        246
        _Elizabeth Barrett Browning_
        _Phoebe Cary_
        _Alice Cary_
        _Lucy Larcom_
        _Felicia Hemans_
        _George Eliot_
        _Jean Ingelow_

  GROUP SEVEN                                                      294
        _Robert Burns_
        _Robert Southey_
        _William Cowper_
        _Lord Byron_
        _John Keats_
        _Percy Bysshe Shelley_
        _Samuel Taylor Coleridge_

  GROUP EIGHT                                                      342
        _Rudyard Kipling_
        _Robert Louis Stevenson_
        _Paul Du Chaillu_
        _Thomas Hughes_
        _Hans Christian Andersen_
        _Jakob Grimm_
        _Wilhelm Grimm_

  GROUP NINE                                                       400
        _John Ruskin_
        _Oliver Goldsmith_
        _Matthew Arnold_
        _Thomas Babington Macaulay_
        _John Bunyan_
        _Thomas De Quincey_
        _Charles Lamb_

  GROUP TEN                                                        454
        _John Tyndall_
        _Charles Kingsley_
        _Thomas Moore_
        _Alexander Pope_
        _Thomas Campbell_
        _David Livingstone_
        _George MacDonald_

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

Everyone who associates with children becomes deeply interested in them.
Their helplessness during their early years appeals warmly to sympathy;
their acute desire to learn and their responsiveness to suggestion make
teaching a delight; their loyalty and devotion warm the heart and
inspire the wish to do the things that count for most. Everything
combines to increase a sense of responsibility and to make the elders
active in bringing to bear those influences that make for character,
power and success.

Every worthy teacher in every school gives more than her salary commands
and puts heart power into every act. By example and precept the lessons
are taught and growth follows in response to cultivation. But the
schools are handicapped by lack of time for much personal care, by lack
of facilities for the best of instruction and by the multiplicity of
things that must be done. Under the best conditions a teacher has but a
small part of a child's time and then instruction must be given usually
to classes and not to individuals. Outside of school for a considerable
time each day the child falls under the influence of playmates who may
or may not be helpful, but the greater part of every twenty-four hours
belongs to the home.

Parents, guardians, brothers and sisters, servants, consciously or
unconsciously, wisely or unwisely, are teaching all the time. It is from
this great complex of influences that every child builds his character
and lays the foundation of whatever success he afterwards achieves.

Undoubtedly the home is the greatest single influence and that is
strongest during the early years. Before a boy is seven the elements of
his character begin to form; by the time he is fourteen his future
usually can be predicted, and after he is twenty, few real changes are
brought about in the character of the man. The schools can do little
more than plant the seeds of culture; in the family must the young
plants be watered, nourished and trained. Then will the growth be
symmetrical and beautiful.

When the school and the home work together, when parents and teacher are
in hearty sympathy, the great work is easily accomplished. But this
harmony in interest is difficult to secure. In the first place it is not
possible frequently for parents and teachers to become acquainted;
usually is it impossible for them to know one another intimately. Here
there are two forces, each ignorant of the other, but both trying for a
common end. Again, parents in many, many instances are not acquainted
with the schools nor with the methods of instruction which are followed
therein. What is done by one may be undone by the other. If there could
be a common ground of meeting, much labor would be saved and greater
harmony of effort established.

When fathers and mothers are willing to take time enough from their
other duties to show that sympathetic interest in juvenile tasks which
is the greatest stimulus to intelligent effort, when they wish to know
what work each child is doing and where in each text book his lessons
are, when the multiplication table and the story of Cinderella are of as
much importance as the price of meat or the profit on a yard of silk,
then will the parents and the teachers come together in whatever field
appears mutually acceptable.

Everybody reads, and reading is now the greatest single influence upon
humanity. The day of the orator has passed, the day of print has long
been upon us. No adult remains long uninfluenced by what he reads
persistently, and every child receives more impressions from his reading
than from all other sources put together.

Someone has shown forcibly by a graphic diagram the ideas we are most
anxious to establish. In this diagram of _Forces in Education_, the
circle represents the sum total of all those influences which tend to
make the mind and character of the growing child. That half of the
circle to the right of the heavy line represents the forces of the
school; the half to the left, the forces that come into play outside the
teacher's domain. In school are the various studies taught; reading,
writing, language, nature, geography, history, arithmetic. Other things
such as morals, manners, hygiene, etc., come in for their share of force
in the division "Miscellaneous." Out of school the child's work
influences him; his playmates affect him more; the example and
instruction of his parents form his habits, thought and character to a
still greater extent; but more than any one, as much as the three
combined, does his home reading shape his destiny.

That this last statement is no exaggeration is proved by the testimony
of many a wise and thoughtful man, by the observation of teachers
everywhere. When a child has learned to read, he possesses the
instrument of highest culture, but at the same time the instrument of
greater danger. Bad books or bad methods of reading good books lead the
reader's mind astray or stimulate a destructive imagination that affects
character forever; but good books and right methods of reading make the
soul sensitive to right and wrong, improve the mind, inspire to higher
ideals and lead to loftier effort.

Here is the one fertile field wherein teacher, parent and every other
person interested in the welfare of children and youth may meet and work
together in the noblest cause God ever gave us the grace to see.

"I have a notion," said Benjamin Harrison, "that children are about the
only people we can do anything for. When we get to be men and women we
are either spoiled or improved. The work is done." One of the best
things we can do is to create a taste for good reading and cultivate a
habit of reading in the right manner. It is an easy and a delightful
task.

How many parents do it? Let them live with their children in the realm
the little ones love. Let them read the fairy tales, the myths, the
stories, the history that childhood appreciates, not in a spirit of
criticism or in the role of a dictator but as a child of a little larger
growth, a man or woman with a youthful mind.

How many teachers assist? By so teaching that reading becomes an
inspiration in itself; that only mastery contents; that beauty, high
sentiment, lofty ideals may be found and followed; by making the reading
recitation the one delightful hour of the day.

If any mature person at home can spend each week a few hours in reading
and talking with the children about what has been read he will be
surprised to find how lightly the time passes and how quickly his own
cares and anxieties are dissipated. He will find greater delight than he
has ever known in the society of his equals; and the younger ones, whose
minds glow with helpful curiosity and absorbing interest will be kept
to that extent from the street and its attractions, while at the same
time they are learning those things that count for most in life's great
battle.

Let no one feel in the least uncertain of his power to interest and
delight. Let him have no hesitation in joining in with the children, in
meeting them on their level and in sharing thought and feeling with
them. By being a child himself he most easily makes of himself a wise
and inspiring leader.

CHAPTER II

JOURNEYS THROUGH BOOKLAND--ITS CONTENTS AND PLAN

_Journeys Through Bookland_ is what the title signifies, a series of
excursions into the field of the world's greatest literature.
Accordingly, the base of the work is laid in those great classics that,
since first they found expression in words, have been the education and
inspiration of man. But these excursions are taken hand-in-hand with a
leader, whose province it is to explain, to interpret, to guide and to
direct. Suiting his labors to the age and acquirement of the readers he
helps them all, from the child halting in his early attempts to
interpret the printed page to the high school or college student who
wishes to master the innermost secrets of literature. In no small sense
is this leadership a labor of love, for it follows an experience of
twenty years of personal instruction in the public schools and among the
teachers of the country.

_Journeys Through Bookland_ must be considered as a unit; for one plan,
one purpose, controls from the first page of the first volume to the
last page of the tenth. The literary selections were not chosen
haphazard nor were they graded and arranged after any ordinary plan. In
this respect they differ in character and arrangement from the
selections in any other work now upon the market.

Moreover, the notes, interpretations, original articles and multifarious
helps are an integral part and are inseparable. In this respect, again,
is the work original and unique.

Further, the pictures, of which there are many hundreds, were drawn or
painted expressly for _Journeys Through Bookland_ and are as much a part
of the general scheme as any other help to appreciation. Again, the type
page, the decorations, the paper, binding and endsheets, all combine to
give an artistic setting to literary masterpieces and a stimulating
atmosphere for literary study.

The masterpieces which make the field of the _Journeys_ naturally fall
into three classes. First, there is the literature of culture, those
things which you and I and everybody must know if we expect to be
considered educated or to be able to read with intelligence and
appreciation the current writings of the day. To this class belong all
those nursery rhymes, lyrics, classic myths, legends and so on to which
allusion is constantly made and which are themselves the legal tender of
polite and cultured conversation. Next, there are those selections whose
power lies in the profound influence they exert upon the unfolding
character of boy or girl. As a child readeth so is he. Masterpieces of
this type abound in the books and it is by means of them that the author
hopes and expects to exert his greatest influence upon his unknown
friends among the children. The third group consists of the masterpieces
which lend interest to school work and make it pleasanter, easier and
more profitable. It is what some may call the practical side of
literature. It is what, at first, appeals most strongly to those who
have read little, but which ultimately appears of less value than the
influence of cultural and character-building literature.

Any treatment of _Journeys_ that is worthy of the name must consider the
masterpieces themselves in their three great functions, as well as the
devices by which the selections are made effective.

_1. The Masterpieces_

The table of contents at the beginning of each volume shows a wide
selection of the best things that have ever been written for
children--not always the new things, but always the best things for the
purpose. The masterpieces are the tried and true ones that have long
been popular with children and have formed a large part of the literary
education of the race.

There are a host of complete masterpieces and many selections from other
works which are too long to print here or which are otherwise
unavailable. It has often happened that something written for older
heads and for serious purposes has in it some of the most charming and
helpful things for the young. For instance, _Gulliver's Travels_ is a
political satire, and as such it is long since dead. Yet parts of it
make the most fascinating reading for children. Moreover, Swift and many
other great writers defiled their pages with matter which ought to be
unprintable. To bring together the good things from such writers, to
reprint them with all the graces of style they originally possessed, and
yet so carefully to edit them that there can be no suggestion of
offense, has been the constant aim of the writer.

The books contain, too, many beautiful selections translated from
foreign languages and made fresh, attractive and inspiring. Many of the
old fables and folk stories have been rewritten, but others which have
existed long in good form have been left untouched. In the great
masterpieces no liberties have been taken with the text without making
known the fact, and in every case the most reliable edition has been
followed. It is hoped that children will have nothing to "unlearn" from
the reading of these books.

There are not a few old things in the set that are really new, because
they have heretofore been inaccessible to children except in musty books
not likely to be met.

This is no haphazard collection made hastily, and largely at the
suggestion of others. Everything in the books has been read and reread
by the writer. True, he has availed himself of the help of others, and
to many his obligations are deep and lasting; but in the end the
responsibility for selection and for the quantity and quality of the
helps is wholly his.

_2. Arrangement and Grading_

The contents of the books have been graded from the nursery rhymes in
the first volume to the rather difficult selections in the ninth volume.
In the arrangement, however, not all the simplest reading is in the
first volume. It might be better understood if we say that one volume
overlaps another, so that, for instance, the latter part of the first
volume is more difficult than the first part of the second volume. When
a child is able to read in the third volume he will find something to
interest him in all the volumes.

What has been said, however, does not wholly explain the system of
arrangement. Fiction, poetry, essays, biography, nature-study, science
and history are all fairly represented in the selections, but no book is
given over exclusively to any subject. Rather is it so arranged that the
child who reads by course will traverse nearly every subject in every
volume, and to him the different subjects will be presented logically in
the order in which his growing mind demands them. We might say that as
he reads from volume to volume, he travels in an ever widening and
rising spiral. The fiction of the first volume consists of fables, fairy
tales and folk stories; the poetry of nursery rhymes and children's
verses; the biography of anecdotal sketches of Field and Stevenson; and
history is suggested in the quaintly written _Story of Joseph_. On a
subsequent turn of the spiral are found fiction from Scott and Swift;
poetry from Homer, Vergil, Hay, Gilbert and Tennyson; hero stories from
Malory; history from Washington Irving.

If, however, some inquiring young person should wish to read all there
is on history, biography or any other subject, the full index in the
tenth volume will show him where everything of the nature he wishes is
to be found.

Another valuable feature of arrangement is the frequent bringing
together of selections that bear some relation to one another. A simple
cycle of this sort may be seen where in the eighth volume the account of
Lord Nelson's great naval victory is followed by _Casabianca_; a better
one where in the fifth volume there is an account of King Arthur,
followed by tales of the Round Table Knights from Malory, and _Geraint
and Enid_ and _The Passing of Arthur_ from Tennyson. By this plan one
selection serves as the setting for another, and a child often can see
how the real things of life prove the inspiration for great writers.
Again, in the fourth volume is _The Pine Tree Shillings_, a New England
story or tradition for girls; this is followed immediately by _The
Sunken Treasure_, a vivid story for boys; next comes _The Hutchinson
Mob_, a semi-historical sketch, followed in turn by _The Boston
Massacre_, which is pure history. The cycle is completed by _The Landing
of the Pilgrims_ and _Sheridan's Ride_, two historical poems.

_Graphic Classification of Masterpieces_ on page 14 will show more
clearly what is meant by the overlapping of subjects. In the column at
the left are given the names of the subjects under which the selections
have been classified, running from _Fables_ to _Drama_, and _Studies_,
the last name including all the varied helps given by the author. Across
the top of the table the Roman numerals, I to X, indicate the numbers of
the ten volumes. The shading in the squares shows the relative quantity
of material. In using the _Classification_, "read across to learn in
which volume the subjects are treated; read down to find what each
volume contains." Thus: The first volume contains (reading down), a
great many fables, many fairy stories and much folk lore, a few myths
and old stories, a little biography, some biblical or religious
material, selections that may be classified under the heads of nature,
humor and poetry; but there is no account of legendary heroes, no travel
and adventure, no history, nothing of a patriotic nature and no drama.
On the other hand (reading across), there are many fables in the first
volume, a few in the second but none thereafter; a few myths and some
classic literature are found in the first three volumes, more in the
fourth and fifth, but the number and quantity decrease in the sixth and
do not appear thereafter; nature work is to be found in all the volumes
but is strongest in the seventh; drama appears in the eighth and the
ninth. Biography has a place in all volumes, but is strongest in the
seventh; while the Studies, appearing in all volumes, reach their
highest point in the tenth.

_3. The Studies and Helps_

As has been said, the chief factors in making _Journeys Through
Bookland_ unique and of greatest value are the many helps that are given
the readers, young and old. These helps are varied in character and are
widely distributed through the volumes. They must be considered one at a
time by the person who would assist others to use them to the best
purpose. These helps consist of what are technically known as studies,
notes, introductory notes, biographies, pronouncing vocabularies,
pictures, tables of contents and index. The following comments will make
clear the purpose of each.

  GRAPHIC CLASSIFICATION OF MASTERPIECES
  --------------------------------------------------------------------
  |               |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |     |
  | Analysis      | I  | II |III | IV | V  | VI |VII |VIII| IX |  X  |
  |               |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |     |
  ----------------+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+     |
  |               |++++|----|    |    |    |    |    |    |    |     |
  | Fables        |++++|----|    |    |    |    |    |    |    |  V  |
  |               |++++|----|    |    |    |    |    |    |    |  o  |
  ----------------+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+  l  |
  | Fairy Stories |++++|++++|----|    |    |    |    |    |    |  u  |
  | Folk Lore     |++++|++++|----|    |    |    |    |    |    |  m  |
  |               |++++|++++|----|    |    |    |    |    |    |  e  |
  ----------------+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+     |
  | Stories Old   |----|----|----|++++|++++|++++|++++|----|----|  X  |
  | and New       |----|----|----|++++|++++|++++|++++|----|----|     |
  |               |----|----|----|++++|++++|++++|++++|----|----|  i  |
  ----------------+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+  s  |
  | Myths and     |----|----|----|++++|++++|++++|    |    |    |     |
  | Classic       |----|----|----|++++|++++|++++|    |    |    |  a  |
  | Literature    |----|----|----|++++|++++|++++|    |    |    |     |
  ----------------+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+  G  |
  | Legendary     |    |    |----|++++|++++|++++|    |    |    |  u  |
  | Heroes        |    |    |----|++++|++++|++++|    |    |    |  i  |
  |               |    |    |----|++++|++++|++++|    |    |    |  d  |
  ----------------+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+  e  |
  |               |----|----|----|----|----|----|++++|++++|----|     |
  | Biography     |----|----|----|----|----|----|++++|++++|----|  f  |
  |               |----|----|----|----|----|----|++++|++++|----|  o  |
  ----------------+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+  r  |
  | Travel and    |    |    |    |----|----|----|----|++++|----|     |
  | Adventure     |    |    |    |----|----|----|----|++++|----|  P  |
  |               |    |    |    |----|----|----|----|++++|----|  a  |
  ----------------+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+  r  |
  |               |    |    |    |----|----|----|----|++++|++++|  e  |
  | History       |    |    |    |----|----|----|----|++++|++++|  n  |
  |               |    |    |    |----|----|----|----|++++|++++|  t  |
  ----------------+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+  s, |
  | Biblical,     |----|----|    |----|----|----|----|    |----|     |
  | Moral,        |----|----|    |----|----|----|----|    |----|  T  |
  | Religious     |----|----|    |----|----|----|----|    |----|  e  |
  ----------------+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+  a  |
  |               |    |    |----|----|----|----|----|++++|++++|  c  |
  | Patriotism    |    |    |----|----|----|----|----|++++|++++|  h  |
  |               |    |    |----|----|----|----|----|++++|++++|  e  |
  ----------------+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+  r  |
  |               |----|----|----|----|----|----|++++|----|----|  s  |
  | Nature        |----|----|----|----|----|----|++++|----|----|     |
  |               |----|----|----|----|----|----|++++|----|----|  a  |
  ----------------+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+  n  |
  |               |----|----|----|----|----|----|----|----|----|  d  |
  | Humor         |----|----|----|----|----|----|----|----|----|     |
  |               |----|----|----|----|----|----|----|----|----|  S  |
  ----------------+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+  t  |
  |               |----|----|----|----|----|----|----|----|----|  u  |
  | Poetry        |----|----|----|----|----|----|----|----|----|  d  |
  |               |----|----|----|----|----|----|----|----|----|  e  |
  ----------------+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+  n  |
  |               |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |----|----|  t  |
  | Drama         |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |----|----|  s  |
  |               |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |----|----|     |
  ----------------+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+     |
  |               |----|----|----|----|----|----|----|----|++++|     |
  | Studies       |----|----|----|----|----|----|----|----|++++|     |
  |               |----|----|----|----|----|----|----|----|++++|     |
  --------------------------------------------------------------------

  Read across to learn in which volumes the subjects are treated;
  read down to find what each volume contains.

_a. Studies._ Every volume contains a large number of helps of different
kinds for young people. Usually these are in connection with some
selection and are adapted to the age of the boy or girl most likely to
read the piece. As each study is presented in an interesting and
informal manner and does not cover many points, it is felt that young
people will enjoy them only less than the masterpieces themselves.

The studies are arranged as systematically as the selections, and are
graded even more carefully. Their scope and method will be more fully
explained in subsequent sections of this volume.

_b. Notes._ These consist of explanatory notes, that are placed wherever
they seem to be needed. They explain words not usually found readily in
the dictionaries, foreign phrases, and such historical or other
allusions as are necessary to an understanding of the text by youthful
readers. These notes are placed at the bottom of the page that needs
explanation, and so are immediately available. In such a position they
are more liable to be read than if gathered together at the end of the
volume. They are neither formal nor pedantic, and are as brief as is
consistent with clearness. Their purpose is to help the reader, not to
show the writer's knowledge.

_c. Introductory Notes._ At the heads of selections from longer
masterpieces are introductory notes which give some little account of
the larger work and enough of the context so that the selection may not
seem a fragment. In some instances this note gives the historical
setting of a masterpiece or tells something of the circumstances under
which it was written, when those facts help to an appreciation of the
selection. Sometimes an acquaintance with the personality of an author
is so necessary to a clear understanding of what he writes that a brief
sketch of his life or a few anecdotes that show his character are given
in the note preceding what he has written. These notes are printed in
the same type as the text, especially in the first four volumes, for
they are felt to be worthy of equal consideration.

_d. Biographies._ Besides the biographical notes appended to selections,
there are not a few more pretentious sketches that have been given
prominent titles in the body of the books. These have been prepared
expressly for this work, either by the editor or by some one fully
acquainted with the subject and accustomed to writing for young people.
These biographies are written from the point of view of young people,
and contain the things that boys and girls like to know about their
favorite authors or some of the noble men and women whose lives have
made this world a better and a happier place in which to live. In the
earlier volumes they are brief, simple, and largely made up of
anecdotes; later they are more mature, and show something of the reasons
that make the lives interesting and valuable material for studies. There
are, also, in the books a few lengthy extracts from some of the world's
great biographies. Care has been exercised in the selection of these, so
that in each case, while the extract is of interest to young people, it
is also fairly representative of the larger work from which it has been
taken.

_e. Pronouncing Vocabularies._ Children often find difficulty in
pronouncing proper names, and not many have at hand any books from which
they can obtain the information. At the end of every volume is a list of
the important proper names in that book, and after each name the
pronunciation is given phonetically, so that no dictionary or other
reference work is necessary. Since each volume has its own list, it is
not necessary even to lay down the book in hand and take up the last
volume.

_f. Pictures._ The illustrations in the several volumes form one great
feature in the general plan. They alone will do much to interest
children in the reading, and if attention is called to them they will be
found to increase in value. The color plates in each volume, the
numerous fine halftones of special design, and the hundreds of pen and
ink drawings that illuminate the text have been painted and drawn for
these books, and will be found nowhere else. More than twenty artists
have given their skill and enthusiasm to make the books brighter,
clearer, and more inspiring. The initial letters and the many fine
decorations also belong exclusively to the set, and combine to give it
esthetic value. Everything of this nature will command attention and
hold interest.

_g. Tables of Contents._ Beginning each volume is a table showing the
contents of the volume and the names of authors. It forms a means of
ready reference to the larger divisions of the work and is a handy
supplement to the index.

_h. Index._ At the end of the tenth volume is an index to the whole ten
volumes. There may be found not only each author and title in
alphabetical order, but also a complete classification of the
selections in the set. To find the history in this series, look in the
index under the title "History." When a topic has as many sub-divisions
as has "Fiction," for instance, or "Poetry," cross references are given.

_4. The Nursery Rhymes_

When a child is taught the little nursery rhymes which to us may seem to
be meaningless jingles, he is really peeping into the fields of
literature, taking the first steps in those journeys that will end in
Shakespeare, Browning and Goethe. When his infantile ear is caught by
the lively rhythm and the catchy rhymes, he is receiving his first
lessons in poetry. That the lessons are delightful now he shows by his
smiles, and in middle life he will appreciate the joy more keenly as he
teaches the same little rhymes to his own children.

Most children know the rhymes when they come to school and they will
like to read them there. A child's keenest interest is in the things he
knows. Later, perhaps in the high school or the grammar grades, he will
be interested again in learning that the rhymes are not wholly frivolous
and that there may be reasons why these rhymes should have survived for
centuries in practically unchanged forms. Some of the facts that may be
brought out at various times are the following:

I. There is a hidden significance in some of the nursery rhymes. For
instance:

_a. Daffy-Down-Dilly_ (page 47). In England one of the earliest and most
common of spring flowers is the daffodil, a bright yellow, lily-like
blossom, with long, narrow green leaves all growing from the bulb. The
American child may know them as the big double monstrosities the florist
sells in the spring, or he may have some single and prettier ones
growing in his garden. The jonquil and the various kinds of narcissus
are nearly related white or white and pink flowers. This picture on page
47 of _Journeys Through Bookland_ shows a few daffodils growing. Miss
Daffy-Down-Dilly, then, in her yellow petticoat and her green gown, is
the pretty flower; and the rhyme so understood brings a breath of spring
with it.

_b. Humpty Dumpty_ (page 55). This is really a riddle of the
old-fashioned kind. There are many of them in English folk lore. Usually
a verse was repeated and then a question asked; as, "Who was Humpty
Dumpty?" The artist has answered the question for us in the picture.
Possibly many people who learned the rhyme in childhood never thought of
Humpty as an egg.

What answer would you give to the question, Who was Taffy (page 54)? For
similar riddles, see _Nancy Netticoat_ (Vol. I, p. 72), _The Andiron_
(page 245) and _St. Ives_ (page 202).

II. Some were intended to teach certain facts. For instance:

_a._ When children were taught the alphabet as the first step to
reading, _The Apple Pie_ (page 43) gave the letters in their order,
including the obsolete "_Ampersand_."

_b._ As children grew a little older and could begin to read what they
already knew, things in which the same words were many times repeated
were helpful. Two examples are _The House that Jack Built_ (page 56)
and _There Is the Key of the Kingdom_ (page 45).

_c._ The numbers from one to twenty were taught by _One, Two_ (page 41).

_d._ The days of the week were taught by _Solomon Grundy_ (page 42),
which with its amusing provision for repetition is sure to catch the
fancy of a child and keep his thoughts on the words.

III. Some of them teach kindness to animals:

_a. Dapple Gray_ (page 22).

_b. Ladybird_ (page 12). This is sometimes known as ladybug, and the
_bug_ is the little, round, reddish beetle whose wings are black dotted.
It is a pretty, harmless beetle that gardeners like to see around their
plants. Children repeat the rhyme when they find the beetle in the house
and always release it to "fly away and save its children."

_c. Poor Robin_ (page 16).

_d._ Old Mother Hubbard's amusing adventures with her dog (page 24)
leave a very kindly feeling toward both.

IV. Some are philosophical, or inculcate moral precepts or good habits,
in a simple or amusing way.

_a. Early to Bed_ (page 34).

_b. Little Bo-Peep_ (page 9). Is it not better to let cares and worries
alone? Why cry about things that are lost?

_c. Three Little Kittens_ (page 13) suggests care for our possessions.

_d. There Was a Man_ (page 60) has the same idea that we often hear
expressed in the proverb "A hair from the same dog will cure the
wound."

_e. Rainbow in the Morning_ (page 48) has some real weather wisdom in
it.

_f. There Was a Jolly Miller_ (page 47), gives a good lesson in
contentment.

_g. A Diller, A Dollar_ (page 59).

_h. See a Pin_ (page 59) suggests in its harmless superstition a good
lesson in economy.

_i. Little Boy Blue_ (page 33) makes the lazy boy and the sluggard
unpopular.

_j. Come, Let's to Bed_ (page 34) ridicules sleepiness, slowness and
greediness.

V. Mother's loving care, at morning and evening, when dressing and
undressing the baby or when putting the little folks to bed, has
prompted several of the rhymes:

_a. This Little Pig_ (page 5) the mother repeats to the baby as she
counts his little toes.

_b. Pat-a-Cake_ (page 4) is another night or morning rhyme; and here
mother "marks it with" the initial of _her_ baby's name and puts it in
the oven for her baby and herself. Another of similar import is: _Up,
Little Baby_ (page 7).

_c. Diddle, Diddle, Dumpling_ (page 7) has kept many a little boy awake
till he was safely undressed.

_d._ What an old rhyme must _Bye, Baby Bunting_ be (page 6)! It goes
back to the days when "father went a-hunting, to get a rabbit skin to
wrap Baby Bunting in." Some one, more recently, has added the idea of
_buying_ the rabbit skin.

_e._ The simple little lyric, _Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star_ (page 44)
has filled many a childish soul with gentle wonder, and many a
night-robed lassie has wandered to the window and begged the little
stars to keep on lighting the weary traveler in the dark.

VI. Some of the rhymes are pure fun, and even as such are worthy of a
place in any person's memory:

_a. There Was an Old Woman_ (page 36); _Great A_ (page 14); _Jack Be
Nimble_ (page 28); _To Market, to Market_ (page 6), and _There Was a
Monkey_ (page 14); _Goosey-Goosey_ (page 21); _Hey, Diddle, Diddle_
(page 23); _There Was a Rat_ (page 14), and others, belong to this
category.

_b. Three Blind Mice_ (page 12) is an old-fashioned _Round_. Many a band
of little folks has been divided into groups and has sung the
nonsensical rhymes until every boy and girl broke down in laughter. Do
you poor modern people know how it was done? The school was divided into
a half-dozen sections. The first section began to sing and when its
members reached the end of the first line, the second section began; the
third section began when the second reached the end of the first line,
and so on till all sections were singing. When any section reached the
word "As--" they began again at the beginning. The first line was
chanted in a low, slow monotone, the others were sung as rapidly as
possible to a rattling little tune on a high pitch. Imagine the noise,
confusion and laughter. Many a dull afternoon in school has been broken
up by it, and countless children have returned to their little tasks
with new enthusiasm. The old things are not always to be scorned.

_c. Old King Cole_ (page 52) is a jolly rhyme, and the illustration is
one of the finest in the books. Everybody should study it.

VII. Two, at least, of the rhymes are of the "counting out" kind. Often
children want to determine who is to be "It" in a game of tag, who is to
be blinded in a game of hide-and-seek, or who takes the disagreeable
part in some other play. They are lined up and one begins to "count out"
by repeating a senseless jingle, touching a playmate at each word. The
one on whom the last word falls is "out," safe from the unpleasant task.
One at a time they are counted out till only the "It" remains.

_Wire, brier_ and _One-ery, Two-ery_ (page 51) are examples. The artist
has shown a group being counted out, in her very lifelike picture on
pages 50 and 51.

VIII. There are some errors in grammar in the rhymes, many words you
cannot find in a dictionary, and some of the rhymes may seem a little
coarse and vulgar; but they have lived so long in their present form
that it seems almost a pity to change them. Encourage the older children
to find the errors and to criticise and correct as much as they wish.
Probably they will not like the rhymes in their new form and correct
dress any better than we would.

IX. There is really a practical value, too, in a knowledge of the
nursery rhymes. Allusions to them are found in all literature and many a
sentence is unintelligible to him who does not recognize the nursery
rhyme alluded to. It would be safe, almost, to say that not a day passes
in which the daily papers do not contain allusions to some simple little
lines dear to our childhood. They are not to be sneered at; they are to
be loved in babyhood and childhood, understood in youth, and treasured
in middle life and old age.

_5. Discussion of Each Volume_

Our _Journeys Through Bookland_ contains a wealth of material and a host
of studies and helps. It is not an easy matter to get even the plan of
it into one's mind in a few minutes. The object of this volume is to
guide the parent, teacher or student and to show as many of the
important phases of _Journeys_ as is possible. In other chapters we take
up different methods of reading or show ways in which the books can be
used to accomplish certain definite purposes, and how to select the
material needed for any occasion. By means of cross references to the
other books this volume serves as a key to them all.

_Volume One._ The first sixty pages of this volume are given over to the
best known of the old nursery rhymes. That they are old is one of their
great merits. That all cultured people know them is proof of their value
and interest. The words are old words but the pictures are new. Every
one was drawn expressly for _Journeys_ and all show the conception of
artists who have not lost the appreciation of childhood. Little children
love the rhymes and will learn them and repeat them at sight of the
pictures long before they can read. Elsewhere in this volume are
suggestions which show how the rhymes may be used profitably.

_Journeys_ does not pretend to teach reading in the sense in which it is
understood in the kindergarten and the early primary grades. Rather it
begins to be of service as a reader only after the child has been
taught how to read for himself. Children in the third grade will read
many stories for themselves; from the fourth grade on they are nearly
all independent readers. Every teacher knows, however, that children
like to listen to stories which it would be utterly impossible for them
to read, and that later they best love to read the things which they
have heard from the lips of parent or teacher. Therefore, the literature
of the first volume forms a treasure house from which the parent may
draw many a good story to tell, and where he may find more that will be
excellent for him to read aloud. The taste for the best literature is
often formed in early childhood. So no child is too young for _Journeys_
and no child is too old. The real things we read over and over with
increasing interest as the years go on. Elsewhere in this volume are
directions for story-telling, and many especially good selections are
named. What the parent shall read aloud is best left to him to
determine; at first he will do well not to read aloud any of the
comments with which the books are fitted. If he finds that the interest
warrants it he can use the comments for himself and ask questions that
will lead to thoughtful consideration of what is being read, even by
very young children. The only thing necessary is that the reading should
be taken seriously and that the parent should be as much interested as
the youthful listener.

There are stories and poems, fairy tales and folk lore, biography in
simple anecdotes of the great favorites of children and toward the end
of the volume a few rather difficult selections for older children. In
this volume as in all of them it is hoped that parents will look over
the table of contents again and again, select the things that seem best
and suit them to the occasion. How beautiful the lullabies are for the
babies, and how much the older boys and girls will enjoy them when read
at baby's side! When the children are interested in the whimsical rhymes
of Stevenson, his biography should be read; and Eugene Field's life is
interesting when his sweet poems are lending their charm to the evening
by the fireside. Some of the fables contain deep lessons that may be
absorbed by the older children while the younger ones are interested in
the story only.

_Volume Two._ The selections in the first part of the second volume are
intentionally simpler than the last ones in the first volume. It is a
good thing for a child to handle books, to learn to find what he wants
in a book the greater part of which is too difficult for him. Oliver
Wendell Holmes thought it was an excellent thing for himself that he had
had the opportunity to "tumble around in a library" when he was a
youngster. Every student who has had the opportunity so to indulge
himself has felt the same thing. There are so many books published every
month and so much reading to be done that a discriminating sense must be
cultivated. No one can read it all or even a small part of it. Older
people will discriminate by reading what they like. Children must learn
to handle books and to find out what they are able to read. To put into
their hands all they can read of the simple things they like is not
wise. Most children read too much. Fairy stories are all right in their
way, but to give a child all the fairy tales he can read is a serious
mistake. Hundreds of pretty, inane, senseless stories in attractive
bindings with pretty, characterless illustrations tempt the children to
vitiate their taste in reading, long before they are able by themselves
to read the best literature.

Because they are valuable, there are fairy stories in _Journeys_;
because their use may be abused, there are few of them; because
something else should be read with them, they are not all in one volume
nor in one place in a volume. The same rule of classification applies to
other selections than fairy tales.

This is the volume in which the myths appear in the form of simple
tales: three from the northland, two from Greece. Each story is
attractive in itself, has some of the interest that surrounds a fairy
tale and serves as the fore-shadowing of history. That they are
something more than fairy tales is shown in the comments and elementary
explanations that accompany them.

Little poems, lullabies, pretty things that children love are dropped
into the pages here and there. Children seem to fear poetry after they
have been in school a little while, largely because they have so much
trouble in reading it aloud under the criticisms of the teacher and
because the form has made the meaning a little difficult. It is,
however, a great misfortune if a person grows up without an appreciation
of poetry when it is so simple a matter to give the young an abiding
love for it. A little help now and then, a word of appreciation, a
manifestation of pleasure when reading it and almost without effort the
child begins to read and love poetry as he does good prose.

The beginnings of nature study appear in the second volume in the form
of beautiful selections that encourage a love for birds and other
animals, and _Tom, The Water Baby_, is a delightful story, half fairy
tale, half natural history romance.

In this volume also is found _The King of the Golden River_, perhaps the
best fairy story ever written.

_Volume Three._ A glance at the table of contents in the third volume
will show the general nature of the selections. Fairy stories or tales
with a highly imaginative basis predominate. There are some that are
humorous, as for instance the selections from the writings of Lewis
Carroll, and one or two of the poems.

The long selection from _The Swiss Family Robinson_ is a good
introduction to nature literature and contains all of the book that is
worth reading by anyone. The two tales from _The Arabian Nights_ are
among the best in that collection and are perhaps the ones most
frequently referred to in general literature and in conversation. The
story of Beowulf and Grendel is a prose rendering of the oldest poem in
the English language, and valuable for that reason. While it is rather
terrifying in some of its details its unreality saves it from harmful
possibilities. Parents and teachers are inclined rather to overestimate
the unpleasant consequences of reading terrifying things when they are
of this character. Few, if any, children will read the story if it
displeases them and those who do will not retain the disagreeable
impression it makes for any great length of time.

In this volume we begin our acquaintance with the legendary heroes of
the great nations. _Frithiof_, _Siegfried_, _Robin Hood_ and _Roland_
are all in this book, to be followed by _Cid Campeador_ in Volume IV.

_Volume Four._ In this volume, with many fine poems and tales
interspersed, is found the continuation of the legendary hero stories
begun in Volume III, also as a natural sequence, a cycle of history that
begins with a story and ends in a narrative of an actual historical
occurrence. These may be found in the six selections beginning with _The
Pine-Tree Shillings_. The article on _Joan of Arc_, the story of
_Pancratius_ and the account of _Alfred the Great_, though not related
in any way, yet still serve to carry out the idea that this volume is
largely an introduction to readings in history.

_The Attack on the Castle_ is a stirring account of a mediæval battle.
It prepares the way to the mediæval spirit made more prominent in the
next volume. In _The Arickara Indians_ the boys will begin to find the
interest that the aborigines always have for our youth.

_Volume Five._ The legendary great, the half-historical personages that
have been for so many centuries the inspiration of youths of many lands
are found again in this volume in the person of the Greek heroes and, at
much greater length, in England's famous King Arthur. The story of his
Round Table and its knights is told in an extremely interesting way. The
spirit of Sir Thomas Malory is retained in his quaint accounts and
Tennyson's noble poems show how great a factor the legends of Arthur
have been in literature. Besides the articles that are instructive there
are a few that are highly entertaining or merely humorous, for every
child has a right to read sometimes for amusement only. It will be seen
that some classes of literature have ceased to appear and that others
are coming into view. The "spiral arrangement" is nicely illustrated in
the reappearance of history and the legendary heroes and in the
disappearance of myths and fairy tales, for which there is, however,
some compensation in the highly imaginative _Gulliver's Travels_, an
extract from Dean Swift.

In this volume are also included a little cycle on one of the great
heroes of the Scotch, Robert Bruce. These carry on the series of
selections on legendary heroes, begun in Volume Three. These are
followed by stories of adventure, of frontier life in the Central West,
tales from the early history of our country. _Reminiscences of a
Pioneer_, _The Buccaneers_, _Captain Morgan at Maracaibo_, and
_Braddock's Defeat_ are examples of this kind of literature. These
selections are authentic accounts from original sources and are among
those things which boys really like, but which have not heretofore been
accessible to them. Patriotic Poems, somewhat in the same vein, are
given where they will be noticed and read.

_Volume Six._ In this volume the series of legendary and semi-historical
selections is completed. It includes the best of the legends concerning
the national hero of Persia, also the story of _The Tournament_ from
_Ivanhoe_, inserted here as a fitting introduction to Scott's novels.
There are several examples of nature studies in literature and several
fine stories that have their place in the education of everyone. The
best of these stories and one of the finest ever written is _Rab and His
Friend_. A cycle of a religious nature is found in those selections
which are named _The Imitation of Christ_, _The Destruction of
Sennacherib, Ruth_, and _The Vision of Belshazzar_.

The longest and best story in this book is _A Christmas Carol_ by
Charles Dickens. This is a model in construction and furnishes the basis
for all the studies that would naturally accompany the most elaborate
piece of fiction.

The sixth volume is one of interest and one that will give plenty of
opportunity for study to those who have the inclination to follow out
the suggestions that accompany the selections. Close study should be
upon those things which are already somewhat familiar. The high school
student will find his time more profitably spent in working on the
things in this volume than in poring over the more difficult
masterpieces that are sometimes prescribed in courses of study. What we
desire is power to read, understand and appreciate, and that is obtained
by study upon those things that interest us and about which we know
enough to enable us to use our minds to best advantage.

_Volume Seven._ On the whole, this is a more mature volume than any that
has preceded it and yet there are some selections of a simple character
inserted for the purpose of interesting those who cannot yet read very
heavy literature. From this point on, however, there is little
difference in the grade of the volumes. The way in which the literature
is studied marks the difference in rank. In fact, when a person can read
intelligently and with appreciation such selections as appear in this
volume he can read anything that is set before him. There may be some
things that will require effort and perhaps explanation, but it is
merely a question of vocabulary and parallel information. Besides the
stories, there are selections in every department of literature except
those that have been passed in the progress of the plan of grading. The
legendary heroes, the myths and the stories of classic literature are no
longer to be found. In their place are more selections on nature, more
of biography and history and the real literature of inspiration. Some of
the last group appear in the form of fine lyrics which everyone loves
but which are made more attractive and inspiring by proper setting and
helpful interpretations.

In this volume biography, which has had its share of attention in every
volume, becomes a strong feature, especially in the fine sketches that
are given of famous writers. It is a fact that most writers have lived
so quietly and in such comparative seclusion that their lives are devoid
of the exciting events that make the liveliest appeal to young people,
yet every one has done so much for the world and in such varied ways
that there are things in their lives that interest and enthrall the mind
if only they are properly presented. Our great American writers have
been noble men and women and their lives are models worthy of imitation.
That is the thing for us to glory in and for our young people to know,
for it is not by any means a universal fact that people who wrote
inspiring literature have lived inspiring lives. The literature of
nature is probably stronger in this volume than in any other and the
selections are of the most absorbing kind. It is not expected to give a
vast amount of information but to create a love for reading about the
great facts in nature and an appreciation of the beauties in the
writings of those who love it. This is the last volume in which there is
much fiction and it marks the beginnings of the really fine essays which
form a large part of the succeeding volume. The history is of a higher
type and includes excerpts from the writings of some of our greatest
historians.

_Volume Eight._ The notable feature of the eighth volume is the
selection from the plays of Shakespeare. Nothing is more important in
the literary education of a child than his proper introduction to the
greatest of our great writers, and this has been accomplished in the
following manner. _The Tempest_ was selected as the play, because it is
simple and lively in its style, appeals to young people and has in it
just enough of the marvelous, the beautiful and the terrible to make a
decided impression on one who reads it for the first time. There are
other plays that are greater but none that may be taught so easily to
juvenile readers. In this volume there is a brief article on the reading
of Shakespeare; this is followed by the inimitable tale of _The Tempest_
by Charles and Mary Lamb; this by the play, _The Tempest_, practically
as it was written; and this, in turn, by a long series of interesting
studies on the drama. The whole is attractive from start to finish and
the studies are certain to lead the reader to think.

The drama, then, is the new feature of the ninth volume, but this is
also the volume of fine essays, the highest type of prose. The essays
are best represented by the following titles, all of which may be found
in the table of contents of the eighth volume: _The Alhambra_ by Irving,
_A Bed of Nettles_ by Allen, _Dream Children_, by Charles Lamb. These
titles, too, show how broad is the field covered by the essay and how
delightful a variety there may be in the one style of composition. The
departments of Travel and Adventure, Patriotism and History have not
been neglected. On the whole it is a serious volume, one which will give
the high school student and the older members of the family a plentiful
supply of good reading material and a suggestion of study for the
evenings of many a winter day.

_Volume Nine._ Most of the selections in this volume are rather
difficult reading for young people but there are helps enough to make
the task a pleasant one. The series of essays, begun in Volume Eight is
here continued, with _The Ascent of the Jungfrau_ by Tyndall, _A
Dissertation upon Roast Pig_ and _The Praise of Chimney Sweepers_ by
Charles Lamb, and two representative essays by Sir Francis Bacon. The
studies are of an advanced nature and if carried out as intended will be
of decided service to high school students. In a few cases the
selections are simple, like _Robert of Lincoln_, for instance, but the
studies that accompany it are the more complete. It is hoped by such an
arrangement to show how inexhaustible a field for study literature
offers and how many things there are to be known about the least of our
fine lyrics. _The Ode on a Grecian Urn_ is of a different type. This
poem makes no direct appeal to sentiment or to the knowledge of the
average young person, yet by study it is seen to be a lyric of
exquisite beauty. This volume introduces the writings of several authors
who have not before appeared because of their slight appeal to young
people. Among them may be mentioned particularly Addison, Boswell, and
Bacon. The volume contains also orations that should be studied as
models, viz: _The Gettysburg Address_, _The Fate of the Indians_ and
_The Call to Arms_. Each has a series of studies following it. As a
relief from the serious work of the volume there are included an extract
from _Pickwick Papers_; that fascinating story, _The Gold-Bug_; and the
delightful essay, _Modestine_, an extract from _Travels with a Donkey_,
by Stevenson.

_Volume Ten._ At the end of this volume are given two tables; the first
arranges the leading English writers chronologically, and the second
follows a similar plan with the American authors. The index with which
the book closes is for the entire series and enables the reader to find
the selections readily, if he knows either the title or the name of the
author; to find all the selections on any given topic; and to find the
studies quickly if they are wanted. The index should prove as useful as
any of the devices with which the books are filled.

PICTURES AND THEIR USE

_I. What Should We Notice in a Picture?_

In his excellent little book, _How to Judge of a Picture_, Van Dyke
speaks of the things that constitute a good painting as follows: "First,
it is good in tone, or possess a uniformity of tone that is refreshing
to the eye; second, it is good in atmosphere--something you doubtless
never thought could be expressed with a paint-brush; third, it is well
composed, and a landscape requires composition as well as a figure
piece; fourth, 'values' are well maintained, its qualities good, its
poetic feeling excellent." A second writer has said that beauty is
manifested in four ways: by line, by light and shade, by color and by
composition. We will consider these characteristics in order.

_a. Line._ We define the boundaries of objects and limit space by means
of lines, and the use of lines constitutes drawing in pictures. These
lines so used may be narrow or broad, straight or curved, perfect or
broken, and definite or vague and undetermined. Upon their proper use,
however, depends the beauty of proportion, the strength of personality
and the impressions of truthfulness and reality. There are few rigid
lines in nature. What we see is an impression of line, not sharp lines.
If you look at a book you may see the sharp lines that bound its edges
but if you move it away a little or put it in shadow its boundaries are
a little hazy and gradually you lose the impression of the lines that
bound it and see only a book. A tree has no sharp outline except when it
stands on a horizon and looks like a silhouette against the light.
Ordinarily it is a mass of moving light and shade, of color. The leaves
are not separately limited by lines and yet we know that leaves are
there. If the artist drew each leaf separately and accurately the
general effect would be extremely unnatural and instead of a tree we
should see only the minute carefulness of a painter who had failed.
Perfect lines, then, are rare in good pictures. The artist does not
intend to make exact representations of reality but to convey the
_appearance_ of reality, and just in so far as he succeeds in conveying
that appearance of reality is he successful. This does not mean that
good drawing is not necessary in a picture; it merely tells you what
constitutes good drawing. If the lines of the human figure are perfect
it is almost certain that the figure will be strained, unnatural and
without the appearance of life or motion. In a good picture the lines of
good drawing are present but they are broken, subdued and lead into one
another as do the lines we see in nature.

_b. Light and Shade._ It is the distribution of light and shadows in a
picture that gives it the appearance of reality. A mere outline drawing
is flat and has no semblance of life. The paintings of the ancient
Egyptians are good examples of pictures that have no light and shade,
and we all know how flat, stiff and unreal they appear. In pen and ink,
and charcoal drawings, light is indicated by white and shadow by black,
but between the two extremes are introduced various shades and tints of
gray that make the variety of tone in shadows. This varying of the
strength of shadows is everywhere in nature, though most of us are blind
to it. In looking at any object for the purpose of distinguishing the
lights and shades upon it we should half close our eyes and look
intently at all parts of it. Under an inspection of this sort the
building which we thought to be all of even light is seen to be dotted
with patches of shadow of different intensity, showing that there are
projections where the light from the sun strikes clearly or depressions
into which it cannot enter so freely. A picture should give the same
effect, and it is this effect, which includes also the distance from the
eye as well as the shades from the light source, that we call "values."
If we look at a tree in the way described we see that it is covered with
patches of green in light or dark tints and that these color values are
the lights and shades of which we are speaking. There will be one point
of highest light and an opposing point of deepest shadow, and upon the
proper arrangement of these as well as upon the patches of minor
importance depends the lifelike appearance of the objects in the
picture. Van Dyke says there are three things concerning light and shade
that should be looked for in every picture, viz.: that everything, no
matter how small it be, has its due proportion of light and shade; that
there be one point of compass from which the light comes; that there be
a center of light in the picture itself, from which all other lights
radiate and decrease until they are lost in the color or shadow.

_c. Tone and Color._ The first thing that seizes the eye in a painting
is color, and the brightest, gayest colors are the ones that are most
likely to attract. In fact they are the only colors that the
inexperienced may see, for many a person is blind to the subdued tints
and shades that are really the most attractive to the trained eye. Good
coloring, then, does not mean brightness alone. It is the relationship,
the qualities and the suitableness of colors one to another, whether
they be in shadow, half-tint or light, that constitute good coloring.
Brilliant dresses and inharmonious ornaments strike the refined eye with
displeasure, the wearer is "loud" in her dress. Subdued colors relieved
here and there with a harmonious dash of brightness show correct taste.
So in pictures those that have the low or deep tones, that are rich and
harmonious, are the ones that are most appreciated by the experts, and
are the ones usually found to have been painted by the masters.
Nevertheless if high color combines richness and harmony it shows a fine
skill. Tone has to do with the quantity of color used in the painting,
and harmony with the qualities of colors. Tone and harmony must combine
to make perfect coloring.

_d. Composition._ If we study any great poem, drama or novel, one that
is constructed with a due regard for unity, we find there is one central
character or idea and that all other persons, all incidents, scenes and
all the little devices that go to give reality to the conception are
subordinated to the central person or idea. Unless this is done the
creation lacks unity and therefore lacks force, beauty and coherence.
The same facts hold true of a picture. Every good picture is so
arranged and drawn that the important idea is centralized and the parts
are unified and harmonized until the whole is single in its effect. This
is accomplished by what is called in the language of the painter,
"composition." Important things are recognized and lesser things
subordinated to give beauty, clearness and brilliancy to the central
idea. While these facts are most obvious in pictures that contain
figures, it is no less true in landscapes or other pictures which
contain no figures. For instance, a moonlight scene on the Hudson would
have as its central idea the beauty of the light on the water and the
mountains. To secure this the artist would keep down the lines of the
mountains, subordinate the details in the foreground and place as the
central idea in the picture the pale shimmering light from the moon
whether that body be itself visible or not. Oftentimes in looking at a
picture it is difficult to tell wherein its excellent composition lies,
but the absence of strength and unity is unerringly felt.

_e. Atmosphere and Perspective._ We are all familiar with the diminished
size of objects seen at a distance and realize that the apparent coming
together of two parallel lines, as those of a railway track, is owing to
the same cause. We know, too, that this diminishing must be shown in a
picture or there is no sense of distance for the spectator. What is not
so clear to us usually, is that there is as great a difference in color
and the appearance of objects. The diminution of size is linear
perspective and the change of color due to distance and atmospheric
conditions is commonly called aerial perspective. The tendency among
amateurs is to paint a tree green no matter how far away from the
spectator it is, while a little observation and study would show the
veriest tyro that the green of a distant tree has faded till to the eye
it looks a bluish gray. Moreover, outlines have faded and seem to flow
into those of other objects, and all combine to give to the picture the
true appearance of distance, which is what the artist seeks and the one
who looks at the picture has a right to expect.

_f. An Application of the Foregoing Principles._ What has been said on
this subject of judging a picture may be made clearer by an application
to one of the pictures in _Journeys_. Let us take, for instance, the
color plate facing page 304, in Volume VI. It is a reproduction in color
of the painting in water colors, _Bob and Tiny Tim_, and will show what
is meant by the comments above almost as well as the original painting
would have done.

1. Tone and color. Are the colors in the picture bright and gay or are
they subdued? What are the brightest colors? Are the colors harmonious
or do they "quarrel" as they come to the eye?

Are the shades of blue and purple and lighter colors in the clothing of
the various persons glaring or subdued? Do you observe any inharmony
which offends the eye, or are you pleased with contrasting colors and
tones? The harmony in color is due to the choice of colors that do not
contrast too strongly. The artist knew which were complementary colors;
that is, which, united, form white. Which colors in the picture do you
think show warmth, and which show cold, as suitable to out-of-door
scenes? What effect on the rest of the picture does the olive green of
the interior of the room have? What effect does the gray green of the
open door have?

2. Light and Shade. Is the picture flat and without appearance of life,
or do the persons and objects stand out in a life-like manner? Are parts
of the picture in shade, so that outlines are lost? The artist has shown
the left of the building in the foreground as in shadow; how is this
effect produced? Do you observe gradations of tone in the shawl on Tiny
Tim, which indicate relative light and shadow? Where is the highest
light in the picture, and where the darkest shadow? Are the lights
strong as if the sun were shining, or soft and diffused, as is
noticeable on a snowy winter's day?

3. Line. Although you cannot see Bob's feet in the picture, do you feel
that his body is well supported? Is his position natural, as of one
carrying a burden on one shoulder? Are the lines of the figures in the
foreground clear and distinct? How do they compare with the lines of the
figures and building across the street? In both cases the artist gives
us all that is necessary to convey the impression of reality. In the use
of oils and water colors, sharp lines are avoided. Colors are used so
that different surfaces and effects flow into one another; the lines are
concealed and we have the very counterfeit of reality. This constitutes
good drawing.

4. Composition. What is the central idea of the picture? The artist has
brought the principal figures into the immediate foreground; do the
arrangement of color, contrasts of tone values, and the smaller figures
in the background give life and significance to the figures of Bob and
Tiny Tim? Would the effectiveness of the picture be greater or less if
the artist had failed to show the snowy outdoor scene, with its holiday
spirit? Do you recall the incident in the story portrayed by the
picture? Are the characteristics of Bob and Tiny Tim, as described by
Dickens, faithfully followed by the artist? Do their faces show the
spirit of Christmas? If you had not read the story, would you not feel a
glow of sympathy for the little boy, and a wish that you could join in
making a happy holiday for him? Has not the artist succeeded in bringing
the scene described by the author more vividly and beautifully to us?

5. Atmosphere and Perspective. How far from the figures of Bob and the
little boy are the people on the sidewalk? How does the artist express
the idea of relative distance? Are there any lines in the picture which
help us to determine distance? If the eye follows the lines of the cross
pieces on the door, will they not come together if extended far enough
to the left? Of course the buildings across the street are not very far
away, but their outlines are a little hazy. Does this haziness help to
give the effect of distance? Do you think the door was really a
gray-green? Has the artist used this tone to show the effect of the
outdoor light on a gray, or possibly a white door? The building across
the street, at the left, has yellow and red and purple tones; do you
think these were the actual colors? If not, why has the artist selected
these particular shades? Do parts of buildings or other objects in
shadow take on different shades from parts in bright lights? What
colors appear most frequently in the picture? Has the artist succeeded
in giving the picture the atmosphere of Dickens's story?

_II. Pictures and Their Value in Literature_

Pictures are in themselves a language--the oldest as well as the most
universal tongue of the world. The primitive man of all races resorted
to a picture-writing in his first efforts to transcribe his thoughts and
emotions into a more lasting form than the oral expression. Our earliest
authentic history of the customs, beliefs and life of the ancient
Egyptians, the Babylonians, the Chinese and even our own American
Indians comes to us from the pictured records they left on stone, wood
or clay.

In the present age, what child does not yield to the magic rhythm and
the compelling lilt of the old nursery rhymes! With what added joy does
he discover that there are pictures for these treasured jingles! And
long before the printed words can be recognized he enters the alluring
world of books by "reading" the illustrations. With glowing eyes on the
picture he repeats the rhyme he had learned from its many demanded
repetitions.

By giving him simple, clear, realistic conceptions through pictures, we
influence the child to read eagerly the text, to discover the whole
story, of which such a fascinating hint is given in the portion
illustrated. These first pictures must satisfy the child's love of
action and movement, and portray only the most dramatic scenes, the big
important facts with all superfluous happenings omitted.

In fables, where the primary purpose is to convey an abstract truth, a
something bigger and broader than the mere interesting events described,
the illustrations add much to the meaning and purpose of the text. Here
the artist shows not only the physical attributes of the real animal,
but in a subtle way goes a step further and through the features or the
attitude suggests the characteristics attributed in the fable. Thus
unconsciously the little reader gets from the picture an increased
conception of the sly, clever, crafty ways of the fox or the slow,
plodding, steadfast patience of the tortoise.

As literature develops from the simple nursery rhyme and the brief,
abrupt fable to the fairy tale with its illusive beauty, so the pictures
should advance in a parallel and a closely related manner. The
illustrations now take on a mysterious, unreal, esthetic quality, in
harmony with the world of fairy lore, and train the imagination as much
as the direct words of the author. The child realizes that the forest
scenes which furnish the background for so many of his favorite fairy
tales have a subtle beauty which has never been seen by him. Gradually
through such pictures he is led to seek an ideal beauty in the real
world. He also becomes able not only to appreciate the poetic rendering
of this expression of the ideal but is capable of forming more varied
mental images of things about which he reads; to put more of his own
individuality, his own conceptions, into his mental picture.

The passing ages have so completely revolutionized the customs and ways
of life that the child of today finds comparatively little in his
familiar surroundings which he can link with the world of history and
legend. Literature should be supplemented by pictures to bridge this
chasm and to bring legendary and historical heroes into the child's own
world and enable him to follow their thoughts, interpret their emotions
and appreciate their actions.

The child who sees a picture of court life where the cavalier is attired
in richly colored velvet, silk, lace, and jewels, and surrounded by the
luxuries of the court, and compares it with another of the same period
which portrays a Puritan in his somber-hued, severe suit, stiff linen
collar and cuffs, broad-brimmed, plain hat and not a single jewel or
ornament used for mere decorative or esthetic value, realizes the vast
difference in the types and character of the two men. He is furnished
with an appropriate mental atmosphere in which to follow their history
and in which to comprehend the inevitable clash that came between the
Cavaliers and the Roundheads. He will then eagerly and sympathetically
follow the Pilgrims in their lonely stay in Holland and in their brave
struggle in the new country. Here, again, the various pictures portray a
land and climate as vigorous, uncompromising and stern as the characters
of the Pilgrims themselves. Then the great forests, the felling of the
trees, the erection of the log houses and forts, the meeting of Puritans
with the neighboring Indians, with their curious costumes, homes,
customs and occupations, introduce other phases of life that put the
child in a receptive mood for the reading of colonial history, Indian
legends and stories of pioneer life.

Familiarity with the author's portrait, with pictures of his home or his
favorite scenes, brings a something of the writer's personality to the
child. He feels the story is told _more directly to him_. A sympathetic
bond is established that leads him to a more intimate and a more
intelligent acquaintance with the author's emotions, thoughts, style and
purposes as expressed in his works. He reads Thoreau's _Journal_, and
notes uncomprehendingly, the potent sway of nature over the heart and
life of the man. It requires the keen vision and the genius of the
artist to give him a realization of the mesmeric influence nature
frequently exerts.

If this author's portrait is the work of a great artist it will perform
a double service. For example, the reproduction of the _Aesop_ of
Velasquez not only gives the child an idea of the appearance of that
creator of the wonderful fables, but it also introduces the great
Spanish artist who has depicted marvelous interpretations of life on
canvas and has so wonderfully influenced the style and method of the
work of many of the artists who succeeded him.

The world of literature is filled with poems and stories which emphasize
abstract truths, teach needed lessons or give universal principles of
beauty. Many of these have been the subject and the inspiration of
pictures. And, in the re-telling of the poem or story with brush or pen,
the artists have added a something of their own individuality and
character which serves not only to emphasize and perpetuate themselves
through their pictured translation of these noble thoughts, but also
makes the principles inculcated by the author become a part of the
child's moral creed.

All have long realized the value of pictures in connection with stories
involving scientific knowledge, but the co-operation of the artist with
the author in presenting literature to children is of equal importance.
The picture arrests the interest of the child and wins his love for
books long before he can read; it arouses his desire to master the
meaning of the printed forms, that he may discover the story for
himself; it gives him facts regarding unfamiliar things without which
knowledge the printed symbol means little; it leads him to the discovery
of unseen beauties in his environment; it develops his imagination; it
arouses his creative faculties; it aids him to grasp the deepest,
highest meaning of the world's literature; it opens up the undreamed
beauties of the vast world of art; it interprets abstract thoughts until
they become a part of his character, and CHARACTER is the true end of
all READING and of all EDUCATION.

_III. On the Use of the Pictures in "Journeys"_

Children love pictures, and they love to make them. We of riper years
are inclined to forget how very strong was our pictorial instinct when
we were young. A little girl may make on a sheet of paper a few
irregular lines not very well connected, wholly meaningless to us, and
see in them very plainly every lineament of her favorite doll. She sees
no lines, no paper, only her own precious doll. A little later she will
draw pictures to illustrate a story, and while we may see nothing in her
work, she sees enough to make the story more real, and is in this way
preparing herself to read more intelligently and with greater
appreciation as she grows older. We should not laugh at these crude
drawings, nor try to make them better. They express her ideas in her
way, and that is enough. On the other hand, we should encourage her to
try other pictures for other stories till she learns herself to distrust
her drawings, or finds a way to express herself so that others may
understand what she thinks and feels.

Pictures mean something, always. In the first place they show to him who
can read them what some one else has thought and felt. If they are meant
to illustrate something in literature, they may fail because the artist
has not caught the spirit of what he is trying to depict, or because he
lacks in execution. On our side, they may fail because we cannot
interpret his work, either from lack of understanding or from the
dullness of our sensibilities. Again, we may object to the artist's
interpretation of the literature, and his pictures may merely excite our
opposition. Usually, however, we see through the artist's eyes from a
new point of view, so that, even if we do not altogether approve what we
see, we are led to question and find for ourselves something new,
pleasing and helpful.

Children are harsh critics, not only of pictures but of literature
itself, and the critical spirit is a good one to cultivate, if it is not
allowed to fall into captious fault-finding. On the whole, however, it
is far better to point out the good things in a picture than to call
attention to poor execution or poor conception. Leave criticism
generally to those infrequent cases in which the artist has actually
blundered because he has not read the selection closely or accurately,
or has been careless in the things he ought to know. For instance, it
would be absurd to show King Arthur in a modern dress suit, or to put
fire-arms in the hands of the Indians who met Columbus for the first
time. But such faults occur infrequently. Usually the pictures are
careful studies, and give many a hint on costuming, manners and customs,
as well as on the proper surroundings of the characters.

Some selections are so universal in their nature, so freely applicable
to all times and places, that the artist may be allowed to delineate any
people, anywhere, at any time. Nursery rhymes, so often alluded to, lend
themselves to an endless variety of imaginary people and places. The old
woman might be living still in her shoe and whipping her children
soundly, in a twentieth-century wrapper, or clothed in skins she might
send them supperless to bed in pre-historic ages. Whether Jack and Jill
wore wooden shoes or patent-leather pumps we shall never really know;
perhaps their little feet were encased in moccasins, or they may have
been bare and ornamented with rings: what we do know is that Jack broke
his crown and Jill came tumbling after.

So we will give the artists all the latitude they wish, as long as they
keep the facts straight, and we will try to help the children to see
what the artist saw, and so get clearer visions for themselves.

The pictures in these books are from many artists, all of whom have
given an interpretation of the selection they were working upon, and
have given it in such a way as to be helpful and inspiring to their
youthful readers. Every time the artists have tried to get a child's
view of things and to draw so that a child will like their work. Their
enthusiasm has been boundless, and their execution remarkably good. Some
of their pictures are gay, some are grave, a few sad; some are highly
imaginative and others very realistic. Not a few are wonderfully
beautiful. Among so many designs, so many kinds, everyone will find
something to admire.

Among the many, let us take a few for a brief study to show that they
may be used with children to make literature clear, to give interest and
keener appreciation.

The very first picture in Volume One (sub-title, _Nursery Rhymes_, page
1) is frankly intended as an introduction to the rhymes which follow,
and is also a good illustration of many of the principles stated in this
chapter.

The little boy is fond of his playthings and especially of his toy cat,
but you see he is giving his chief thought just now to the rhymes and
jingles which his mother is repeating, while the baby is absorbed and
happy in looking at the pictures. Do you see the sewing-basket with the
knitting which the mother has laid aside while she devotes an hour to
play? Do the other books on the table suggest that she sets a value on
good reading as an important element in the training of children even as
young as these in the picture? The idea is carried out further in the
decorations of the draperies around the window. You see there in simple
outline characters which appear in fuller detail with the rhymes which
follow in this volume. The color tones are subdued and restful, not loud
and glaring, but they are so happily blended, or contrasted, that both
persons and objects are clear and distinct. It tells without words the
story of happy childhood.

_Jack and the Beanstalk_ (Volume One, page 159) is a picture which will
repay study. A child's imagination reaches out more or less vaguely,
though often to his satisfaction, for a visualization of the
exaggerations of nature which appear in almost all fables and fairy
tales. Our artist has given this subject a realistic touch, which makes
Jack's adventure seem almost possible.

Does the beanstalk look natural? Does it look like the beanstalk which
grows in your garden? Are the bean pods like those you have seen? Is the
color natural? Does the stalk look strong enough to bear Jack's weight?
How high up do you think he must go to reach the giant's home? How is
the impression of height given? Do you see the landscape stretching away
in the distance? Do the fields and the stream look far away? Do you
think Jack became frightened or dizzy as he went on--up and up? Doesn't
the picture help you to understand his courage and determination to
carry out his purpose?

  [Illustration: ALFRED TENNYSON
  ROBERT BROWNING
  WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
  SIR WALTER SCOTT
  WILLIAM WORDSWORTH
  GEOFFREY CHAUCER
  JOSEPH ADDISON]

_Nurse helps me when I embark_ (Volume One page 127) is a fine picture
for study. Ask questions like the following: What toys do you see in the
picture? Do boys like toys which suggest adventure? Do you think he
likes his small boat? Why? Did it suggest to his mind that he would call
his bed a boat, and sail away in it to dreamland? Is he saying his
prayer? Will the small candle give light enough? Why does it smoke? What
kind of a bed is it? What is the canopy over the bed made of?
Interesting questions may be asked about the poem: What is a prudent
sailor? What do prudent sailors have to take on board? What is a pier?
What is the pier beside which the boy finds his vessel fast?

On page 262 of Volume One is printed _Wynken, Blynken, and Nod_, Eugene
Field's musical lyric for little ones. The attractive picture may be
looked at before the poem is read. Questions help the children more than
explanations and comments, particularly where they are logically asked.
The natural order is to ask about the prominent things first, and then
about minor details, thus: How many children are there? Where are they?
What does their boat look like? What is the child nearest the toe of the
shoes doing? Where are the other two standing? What have they in their
hands? What are they doing with the net? Are they catching any fish?
Where is the moon? What can you see in the moon? Is the face laughing?
Now let us read the poem, and when we have done so, let us see what
lines in particular the artist was thinking about. Who are the three
children? "Wynken, Blynken, and Nod." What did they do? "Sailed off in a
wooden shoe ... into a sea of dew." What did the moon say? "'Where are
you going and what do you wish?'" What did the children answer? "'We
have come to fish for the herring fish.'" What kind of nets have they?
"Nets of silver and gold." What did the old moon do? "The old moon
laughed and sang a song." What were the herring fish? "The herring fish
were the little stars." How long did they fish? "All night long their
nets they threw." Where did they throw their nets? "To the stars in the
twinkling foam." * * * * Were there really three little children? No.
How many were there? Only one. Who, then, were Wynken and Blynken? The
little child's eyes. And who was Nod? His head. What was the wooden shoe
that sailed the skies? Only a trundle-bed. What then was all this story
about fishing from a wooden shoe for herring fish with nets of silver
and gold? Only a wee one's dream. How can you see the "wonderful sights
that be"? By shutting our eyes while mother sings. Don't you suppose the
artist shut her eyes when she thought of the picture, and perhaps
dreamed of the time when she lay in her little bed and her mother sang
of the wonderful sights that be? Wasn't that just why she made such a
beautiful picture, and thought even of putting wings to the shoe, so it
could sail through the sky? After such a talk as that with a little
child, do you not think, dear parent, that he would come nearer to you,
and while you read the poem softly and smoothly to him he would learn to
like its music, and through its refining influence learn to love you a
little better? When he has grown to manhood, do you not think there will
come times when his heart will be touched, when he will long for the
loving arms around him and the sweet mother voice to sing once more of
the wonderful sights that be? There are holier things to be done for
children than to feed and clothe them.

In Volume Two, on page 121 may be found the picture _Shuffle-Shoon and
Amber Locks_. How many persons are shown in the picture? How is the old
man dressed? In what is he sitting? How is the boy dressed? Where is he
sitting? Can you sit comfortably that way? What does he hold in his left
hand? What is the little boy doing? How many blocks are there in his
building? How many blocks are on the floor? What is the old man placing
on top of the blocks? What is on the wall back of the chair? Of what is
the curtain made? Which is Shuffle-Shoon? Why is he called
Shuffle-Shoon? Why is the boy called Amber-Locks? What is the color of
amber? Do you think the old man has a kind face? How old do you suppose
he is? How old is Amber-Locks? Do you like his face?

From Volume Two, page 264, _Tom and The Dragon Fly_: What is the first
thing you notice when you look at this picture? What is the second
thing? Where is Tom standing? Where is the dragon-fly? How many wings
has it? How many legs can you see on the dragon-fly? Does Tom's hair
look as though he had just come from the water? What is he looking at?
Does he seem to be afraid, or happy? Can you tell where the surface of
the water is? Is any part of Tom in the water? Can you see sky or clouds
in the picture? Does any land show?

From Volume Two, page 69, _The Swallow and the Stork Came_: After a
picture has been examined, as has been explained, it is sometimes a good
thing to study the way in which the artist has produced his effects. The
effects in this picture are remarkably fine and Mr. Rudeen has
accomplished his purposes very skilfully. What effect is given by the
mass of white in the center of the picture? Does it help to give
emphasis to the principal figures? Does the artist use his colors in
proper tones and shadings? Does he succeed in making the birds seem
really to fly? Do you see the face in the fir tree? How are the eyes
indicated? Are the lines and patches that make the face any different
from those that indicate other leaves on the tree? Why then does it look
like a face? Does the face have an expression of surprise? If the
branches and leaves on the left side of the tree were curved downward
instead of upward, would the expression be changed? Is there any
indication of feathers on the swallows? How are feathers indicated on
the stork? The artist drew the original of this picture with pen and
black ink. The engraver made one plate for this drawing in black, then
another plate for those portions of the picture which have any shade or
tone of orange, and still another for the blue tones. The green is
produced by printing from the orange and the blue inks over the same
surface. Facing page 82, Volume Two is the portrait of Hans Christian
Andersen. This was taken from a photograph, and under a microscope it
can be seen that the ink is put on in fine dots. The border was drawn
with pen and ink. The original photograph of Andersen was photographed
through a screen and reduced to the size you see it. The pictures in the
book are printed from the metal plates which put the ink on the paper in
little dots. These prints are called _halftones_: the pen and ink
drawings in the texts are called _zinc etchings_. The original of the
colored frontispiece of the same volume was a water-color painting by
Mr. Henderson. This was reduced in size by photography and four plates
were made, one showing all the black, and another all the red, a third
all the blue and a fourth all the yellow in the original. Then the paper
was run through the press four times, each time with the color of ink
for which each plate was etched. By printing one color over another this
way, the different shades were made. No better way is known for
reproducing colored pictures. The border was drawn with pen and ink. The
title page was drawn with pen and ink and a zinc etching made by
photographic process, from which an electrotype plate was made. The end
sheets are decorated by a zinc etching reduced from a large drawing made
by Mr. Mitchell. The title and ornaments on the back of the books are
made from strong brass dies that were engraved from drawings made by
special artists. Gold leaf is laid over the section to be lettered and
the dies are pressed upon it with such force as to fasten the gold upon
the cover. Then the parts of the gold leaf that have not been pressed
into the cover are brushed away and the design is perfect.

To learn what a picture really contains, to appreciate its purpose and
merit, we should study it systematically. The following topics suggest
themselves:

  1. The general view.
  2. The details.
  3. The center of interest.
  4. The purpose.
  5. The artists' conception and its appropriateness.
  6. Elements of beauty.

As in other cases, the best way to explain a method is to apply it.
Accordingly, let us study by this method the picture _Down Tumbled
Wheelbarrow_, on page 46 of Volume One.

1. _The general view._ Here is a picture of a man wheeling his wife
through a London street, and the breaking down of his wheelbarrow.

2. _The details._ The man, and his wife sitting in the wheelbarrow; the
cobbled street, the sidewalk, the houses on one side of the street, the
arch-way with the house above it, and the street showing through the
arch-way; the man in the distance. A shop in the middle ground, with
fruit and vegetables displayed outside the window. The man with the
wheelbarrow is dressed in the fashion of the past, with tall hat, blue
cut-a-way long-tailed coat, black breeches and blue stockings, white
vest and white gloves. His neckerchief and shoes are orange color. His
wife is also fashionably gowned. Her bonnet has blue and orange
feathers, she has an embroidered shawl of orange color, with a blue
overdress and a gray skirt; her blue parasol is in the air, dropped in
the shock of the breaking of the wheelbarrow. Her arms are extended in
effort to save herself. The wheel is bent under the barrow.

3. _The center of interest._ The center of interest of most pictures is
found near the center of the picture. It is plainly so in this picture;
the man with the wheelbarrow, and his bride engage our attention, while
secondarily we note the rough cobbled pavement and the narrow street.

4. _The purpose._ The artist's intention is to show the dramatic moment
when the wheelbarrow broke, and the bride got the fall.

5. _The artist's conception and its appropriateness._ In choosing the
line "Down Tumbled Wheelbarrow," the artist selected the moment which
was the climax of the adventure, and in so doing he shows the shock of
surprise and alarm in the attitude and expression of both bride and
groom as contrasted with their very fine holiday costumes, which show
how much care they had given to their preparation for their wedding
journey. The artist has not overlooked the opportunity to show us a
typical London street of the olden time, narrow and paved with cobble
stones. The arch-way gives us the assurance that the street was very
narrow, so that the wheelbarrow had to go over the rough cobbles. The
conception seems appropriate and true to the story in the simple rhyme.

6. _Elements of beauty._ There are two main elements in this picture,
which contribute to the pleasure it gives us, aside from the story it
tells. In the composition of the picture, the artist has placed the main
figures in the foreground and drawn them in full detail. Note the
contrast of the masses of black with the open spaces of white and light
shadings. The walls of the houses are indicated by few lines which are
sufficient but which do not draw the eye from the center. The rough
street is skillfully indicated by a few deftly drawn round cobbles,
leaving the larger white space to give air and light to the central
figures. The treatment of color is the second element of beauty to be
noticed. Not all the picture is colored; in this class of illustration,
the white spaces have the effect of giving background to the colors, and
bringing out their best values.

Another profitable study can be made on the full-page illustration that
appears on page 159, in Volume Five. Questions best induce interest in a
picture, but the questions should be asked systematically. The following
is a model on the picture named above, _Geraint hears Enid singing_.

1. _General view._ How many men are in the picture? What do they appear
to be doing? What is the building at the right?

2. _Details._ Who is the man on horse-back? How is he dressed? What is
hanging from a chain on his breast? What is he looking at? What is the
expression on his face? What is the color of his horse? Have you ever
seen a bridle and a harness like these in the picture? Do you think the
man loved his horse and took good care of him? Who is the man standing
beside the horse? How would you describe his garments? What has he in
his right hand? What is its use, and what does it signify? What does the
gesture with his left hand indicate? What do you think of the building
on the right? Is it new or old? What seems to be growing on the walls?
What does this mean? What seems to be growing up between the stones of
the pavement?

3. _The center of interest._ Are the men talking together? If so, why
are they not looking at each other? Does the attitude and expression of
the man on the horse suggest an interesting topic? (Tell the story in
part, and read the lines covering this episode, page 156. Is the center
of interest now made clear?)

4. _Purpose._ What did the artist mean to do by means of this picture?
Did he select an important and interesting event in the story?

5. _Conception and appropriateness._ Has the artist followed the text
truthfully in his conception? Do you think there is a dramatic interest
in this scene, which made it appropriate for illustration? Would it have
been as effective without the old man in the picture? Why? Does the man
on the horse show his character in his bearing? Has the artist succeeded
in portraying the old man in the character described in the text? Does
the picture please you? Do you think it is a success?

6. _Elements of beauty._ Do you like the soft, even tones of the
picture, the heavy touches of the pen in the main figures and the light
touches in the background? Is the day bright or gloomy? Is the effect of
light on the wall, balcony and doorway pleasing? From what direction
does the light come? How does the artist indicate surfaces in shadow?
Does the outline of the castle through the arch add interest and beauty
to the picture?

After the children have been taught to observe properly, you have in the
pictures numberless interesting subjects for language exercises. A good,
clear-cut description of a picture is worth reading, and to write one
means thought and study. The exercise may be varied by asking the child
to describe the picture before he has any knowledge of the subject and
then asking him to call his imagination into play and write a story to
fit the picture. Later you may read him the story the artist meant to
illustrate.

Besides the color plates and halftones which are found in their proper
places in the several volumes, the following pen and ink drawings are
good examples of the kind of pictures that best repay study:

  Volume I,    page  22.
  Volume I,    page  30.
  Volume I,    page  35.
  Volume I,    page  67.
  Volume I,    page 159.
  Volume I,    page 203.
  Volume I,    page 375.
  Volume I,    page 391.
  Volume II,   page 111.
  Volume II,   page 228.
  Volume II,   page 384.
  Volume III,  page 141.
  Volume III,  page 324.
  Volume IV,   page 452.
  Volume V,    page  97.
  Volume V,    page 253.
  Volume VI,   page 145.
  Volume VI,   page 361.
  Volume VII,  page 281.
  Volume VII,  page 439.
  Volume VIII, page 160.
  Volume VIII, page 321.
  Volume IX,   page 118.
  Volume IX,   page 248.

CHAPTER IV

TELLING STORIES

Before a child can read he develops a passion for stories, and nothing
delights him more than an interesting tale from the loving lips of
father or mother. In good kindergartens and primary schools, there are
teachers who tell stories to the little ones and do it well, but parents
will not wish to delegate it entirely to teachers, for story-telling is
the best way of getting at the hearts of children and planting those
germs which later grow into refined taste in reading as well as ripen
into real character. On the other hand, the teachers may neglect to tell
stories to their pupils or are not skilled either in selection or in
manner of telling. Parents who are interested in the welfare of their
small boys and girls will wish to know what is being done and how it is
accomplished, but may have little idea of the material it is wise to use
or where to find good subjects for their tales.

Proper selection is highly important, for taste and appetite for certain
kinds of literature may be created long before the child can read for
himself. Strong-minded, courageous little boys will love to hear of
giants and ogres, and will revel in adventures that may terrify their
more delicate sisters. George hates the fierce foes that Jack the
Giant-Killer meets, and dreams of the time when he can overpower and
slay his own ogres. Alice listens tremblingly, and when she goes to her
little bed at night lies in fear and trembling, while hideous faces leer
at her from out the shadowed recesses. George never wearies of our
oldest poem, _Beowulf_, while Alice wants only _Cinderella_, or at most
_Bluebeard_. It is nothing less than cruelty to fill the imaginations of
sensitive children with deeds of violence and tales of sadness and woe.
Yet it is no less true that some young folks are the better for their
giants, their knights and their battles. On the whole, it is wiser to
keep the giants, the ogres and the suffering people in the background,
or to dwell upon them only when there seems a demand for them; later,
lead the young imaginations into the realms of history and real life
where giants are very real and ogres yet remain to be subdued. Do not
tell sad or exciting stories in the evening. Keep the quiet, peaceful
things for bed-time stories.

Here, then, is the great opportunity for the parent. The teacher has
thirty or more children of as many different temperaments from homes as
varied in culture as the children are different in appearance, and to
them she must tell her story as to one. The parent has but his own
little flock, whom he has known every day of their lives, and whose
souls are as transparent as glass to his watchful and sympathetic eye.
How certain may he feel in his selection of material, how powerful in
his recital!

Perhaps, however, he may find the pleasant task an unaccustomed one, may
have forgotten what he knew as a boy, and may not know where to turn for
material. Here these books come to his assistance with material for
every taste and suited to every occasion. In the beginning of the first
volume are the nursery rhymes which children have enjoyed for ages,
which are read, or far better told, to infants who rejoice in the
pictures. Between the nursery rhymes and the literature that follows is
quite a gap, intentionally left by the editor. There are no pretty
little tales in words of one syllable for beginners to read, but there
are good fables and stories to be told while the children are learning
to read, and later, to be read by the young people themselves. No parent
can go astray in selection if he knows his own children.

Do not be afraid to _tell_ the story--reading it aloud will not be half
so effective. Select a fable or a short story first. Read it carefully,
and then shut the book and think about it. Be sure you have the plot in
your mind, make the hero and the other characters seem very real to
yourself, picture the scenes vividly in your mind's eye, and you are
ready to begin.

1. _Use Your Own Words._ Simple words, graphic, commonplace words, are
the best. The older children will be just as much entertained, and the
younger ones can understand better. On the other hand, do not talk
_down_ to their level; they will resent the idea and laugh at you. _Keep
on their level._ That means that you must be sure you know your audience
before you begin to talk.

2. _Talk Naturally._ Forget that you are telling a story for the effect
it will produce. Forget yourself. Tell the story as you would tell them
an incident you have just seen.

3. _Look Your Children in the Eyes._ Find the responsive eyes and get
your inspiration from them; seek out the dull and uninterested eyes and
talk to them till they brighten up and respond to your enthusiasm. Let
every child know that many times you have looked him square in the face
and make everyone feel you are talking straight at him.

4. _Supply Many Details._ Children love them; their lives are made up of
little things. Don't think you are ignoring the real story by your
additions. The details you give are probably the very ones the author of
the original story intended you to supply from your own imagination as
you read. Under this head comes the giving of names to characters;
descriptions of clothes, of facts, of feelings; the addition of new
incidents.

The recital of a bare plot is not an interesting story. For instance: "A
boy on his way to school found a yellowbird's nest with four little
birds in it," is the recitation of a bare plot. Is it interesting? Would
the story appeal to children? What do you think of the form following?

"John told me an interesting story this morning. As he was coming to
school today he saw a little yellowbird fly from the bushes by the big
tree at the corner of Mr. Brown's yard. He parted the leaves and looked
into the bush, but for quite a while he could see nothing. At last,
however, he spied a pretty little nest in the fork of a limb and so low
that he could look right down into it. John must have made some noise,
because when he looked in he saw four little, wide-open red mouths, and
that was about all. Of course, there were little half-naked bodies under
the gaping mouths, but he couldn't see them, for each little bird was
shaking his head about, stretching it up higher and higher and opening
his mouth wider and wider. You see, to each little bird a rustling sound
meant that the mother bird had come back with a bit of tasty breakfast
in her mouth. When the wee babies found that they had made a mistake
they closed their mouths, drew down their heads and packed themselves
away so tightly that I'm sure they can't be cold while their mother is
away."

5. _Be Intimate and Personal with Your Audience._ Express your opinion
now and then as your own; interrupt the story occasionally (not often
enough to spoil the interest) by asking for the ideas of the children.
Let them guess, sometimes, at the outcome of the story. Make them feel
that they are an important part of the exercise. Sometimes they will
help you wonderfully.

6. _Use Direct Discourse Wherever Possible._ Make your characters speak
in their own words. Say, "John said, 'I saw the nest,'" rather than,
"John said that he saw the nest."

7. _Keep the Climax Out of Sight as Long as Possible._ Curiosity is a
large factor in interest, and if the children know "how the story is
coming out" you are liable to lose their attention. However, you will
find that some stories will prove such favorites to young children that
they will call for the tales again and again. Occasionally small
children are very particular about the way in which a story is
repeated--there must be no deviations from the way in which it was first
told. You may congratulate yourself on having told the story well, if