t and
disclaimed Japan's possession of fairy tales as we understand them. "I
always tried to forget fairy tales," he said; "but of nursery stories
I think the most popular and the most widely known in Japan is the
story of Momotaro." But this tale of the "son of a peach," which
relates the conquest of a stronghold of devils, and the rescue of two
daughters of daimios does not come within the scope of this volume.

A broader choice than those which have been quoted is afforded by Mrs.
Elizabeth Stuart Phelps Ward, who writes: "As a child I was a great
reader and lover (and a small creator) of fairy tales. But of them all
the only ones which come readily to my mind are Hans Christian
Andersen's." Equally comprehensive is the answer of Mrs. Georgia A.
Kendrick, the lady principal of Vassar College: "Grimm's tales stand
to me for the best of that kind of lore."

An even more catholic liking breathes in the answer of President
Woodrow Wilson, who declares: "The truth is that I was so voracious of
fairy tales when I was a small boy, that I loved them all almost
equally well, and cannot now say that I had any favorite. All was
grist that came to my mill. I am very much interested in the
undertaking, and wish it all success."

In some cases, much to the regret of the publishers, it has not been
possible to include a choice. Thus Dr. John S. Billings, librarian of
the New York Public Library, tells us that the story which made the
most impression upon him was the "Nibelungenlied" as presented by
Carlyle in the _Westminster Review_ for July, 1831, of which an odd
number came in his way when he was a boy. "I did not understand one
quarter of it," Dr. Billings writes, "but what I did impressed me
greatly. If I had to select from Perrault's fairy tales, I should
probably agree with Dr. Hadley"--another tribute to the perennial
charm of "Jack the Giant-killer."

The interest of these personal literary experiences justify a
quotation from Dr. E. G. Cooley, superintendent of the Chicago
schools: "I was pretty well grown," he writes, "before any of this
literature reached me. My people were not believers in fairy stories,
and circumstances did not put them in my way. My boyhood hero was
Eumenes, as described in the second volume of Rollin's _Ancient
History_." Unfortunately the scope of the present volume has not
permitted the inclusion of Carlyle's version of the "Nibelungenlied"
or of Rollin's tale of Eumenes, or of the old balla