rity with young children to the predominance of the imaginative
element. The traditionary fairy tales and folk stories are usually more
suitable than those that appear in teachers' magazines and modern
holiday books for children. The hardest thing for the educated mind to
do is to write down to the level of children without coddling or
becoming cynical. The old tales are sincere, simple, and full of faith.
They are not written for children, but are the romance of the people
with whom they came into existence, and they have stood the test of
ages.

The myth is usually not suitable for young children, as it is a
religious story having a symbolic meaning which is beyond their
interpretation. If it is used at all, only the story in it should be
given.

2. Stories of adventure, courage, and the defence of the helpless appeal
very strongly to young children. Even the cruelties and crudities of
_Bluebeard_, _Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves_, and _Aladdin and his
Wonderful Lamp_ do not alarm or repel children very much, owing to their
lack of experience in these matters. Stories based on the love of the
sexes are unsuitable for children of this age, although it constitutes
the chief element in stories for older people.

3. The child is also interested in stories of simple games, of animals
and birds, and of the material world on which so much of his happiness
depends. These stories are corrective of the desire which characterizes
some children for too many fairy stories. The fairy story and the nature
story should be alternated, so that the child's interests may be
imaginative without becoming visionary, and practical without becoming
prosaic.

4. Most children have a keen sense of the musical qualities of verse.
The child of two years of age will give his attention to the rhythm of
the nursery rhyme when the prose story will not interest him. The
consideration and analysis of these musical qualities should be
deferred for years; but it is probable that the foundation for a future
appreciation of poetry is often laid by an acquaintance with the rhymes
of childhood.

5. The element of repetition appeals strongly to children. In this lies
the attractiveness of the "cumulative story", in which the same
incident, or feature, or form of expression is repeated again and again
with some slight modification; for example, the story of _Henny Penny_,
_The Gingerbread Boy_, and _The Little Red Hen_. The choruses and the
refrains of