he stories and knowing who wrote them, I do not
believe that any boy or girl who had read even one of them would find
it difficult to make a choice.

The sixth book, "The Travels of Baron Munchausen," is said to have
been written by a German named Raspe; but it is just as well not to
believe this statement too positively, for it is quite possible that
Raspe had nothing to do with the book. Learned scholars have held
profound discussions on the source of the stories. One in particular,
that of the frozen tunes which began to play of themselves as soon as
they thawed, has been found in some form in several countries. The
best match for the Baron's version is the old tale of the merchants
who set out one day to buy furs. When they came to a river, they saw
the fur dealers standing on the opposite shore. The dealers held up
their furs and seemed to be shouting their prices, but it was so cold
that the words froze in the air. Then the merchants went out on the
ice and built a great fire. It warmed the air overhead, and the words
thawed and came down. But long before this, the dealers had gone home.
The merchants thought the prices too high, so they, too, went home;
and that was the end of the tale. The "Travels" is full of stories as
absurd as this, but told in such a way that while you are reading
them, and sometimes for as much as five minutes afterwards, you feel
as if they were really true.

The seventh and last of the books is the plays of Shakespeare. A play
always contains a story, and it is the stories of some of
Shakespeare's dramas that are given here. In the real plays there is
much more than stories, however, because Shakespeare was not only a
story-teller but also a poet. A poet must express what he sees and
thinks in a way to give pleasure and he must see more than other
people. Now when Shakespeare puts a thought into words, we find that
no one else has expressed it so well. Moreover, he sees more clearly
than any other writer how a person would feel and behave in various
circumstances. As we read the plays, we say to ourselves of one
character after another, "That is just the way I should feel if I were
that person." We think of them as real people. We talk of what they
would have done if circumstances had been different. It is only a
great genius who can make out of words characters that seem almost as
real as the people around us, but this is what William Shakespeare has
done.