his thinking? The relation of life to life is a
delicate and difficult thing to interpret. But surely we can do better
at an interpretation than tales of hunting, of impossible heroisms, and
of war. Or at least, we can protest against having these almost the sole
interpretations of adventure which are offered to children. The world
of industry holds possibilities for adventure as thrilling as the world
of high-colored romance. We must look with fresh eyes to see it. When
once we see it, we shall be able to give the children a new type of the
"story of adventure." Of all the experiments which the stories in this
collection represent, this attempt to find and picture the romance and
adventure in our world here and now, I consider the most important and
difficult. In such stories as "Boris" and "Eben's Cows" and "The Sky
Scraper," I have made experimental attempts to give children a sense of
adventure by presenting social relations in this new way.

The cultured world has yet another answer to the question, "How shall
we give our children adventure?" It points to the wealth of classical
myths, of Iliads, sagas, of fairy-stories which are practically
folk-lore, semi-magic, semi-allegorical, semi-moral tales which express
the ideals and experiences of a different and younger world than ours of
today. And it replies, "Give them these." It feels in the sternness of
saga stuff and in the humanity of folk-lore, a validity and a dignity
and a simplicity which seem to make them suitable for children. These
tales tell of beliefs of folk less experienced than we: we have outgrown
them. They must be suited to the less experienced: give them to
children. Thus runs the common argument. And so we find Hawthorne's
"Tanglewood Tales," AEsop's "Fables," various Indian myths and Celtic
legends, and even the "Niebelungen Lied" often given to quite young
children. But do we find this reasoning valid when we examine these
tales free from the glamour which adult sophistication casts around
them? Remember we are thinking now of children in that delicate seven-to
eight-year-old transition period. I have already told how I believe
these children are but just beginning to have conceptions of
laws,--social and physical. They are groping their way, regimenting
their experiences, seeing dim generalizations and abstractions. But they
are not firmly oriented. They are beginners in the world of physical or
social science and can be easily side-tracked or