o 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 be