nce than that of innocently
diverting and entertaining the child. The healthy moral, so subtly
suggested in many of the rhymes, is unconsciously absorbed by the
child's receptive mind, helping him to make his own distinction between
right and wrong, bravery and cowardice, generosity and selfishness.

From a literary standpoint, also, these rhymes have proved of real value
in creating a taste for the truly musical in poetry and song. They train
the ear and stir the imagination of the child as no other verses do.
Many famous poets and writers trace their first inspiration, and love
for things literary, back to the nursery songs and fairy tales of their
childhood.

[Illustration]

Teachers well know that children who have reveled in these rhymes and
stories, at the time of their strongest appeal, step naturally and
appreciatively into the great fields of good literature which are
beyond.

Knowing these things to be true, we do not hesitate to place this
venerable classic on the shelf beside our Shakespeare, and to send our
children there for delight and inspiration. They will understand
Shakespeare the better for having known and loved Mother Goose.

But what about the personality of this classic writer? Was she really
Mistress Elizabeth Goose who is said to have lived in Boston about two
hundred years ago, and who crooned her nonsense jingles to a large and
happy family of grandchildren? We are told that their father, Thomas
Fleet, who was a printer by trade, thought to turn an honest penny with
his mother-in-law's popular verses, so he published them in a small
volume under the title of "Songs for the Nursery: or, Mother Goose's
Melodies." A goose with a very long neck and a wide-open mouth flew
across the title page, at least so the story goes. But we have to
believe that it is only a story, for no copy of the book can be found,
and nothing but tradition identifies Elizabeth Goose, the Boston
grandmother, with the famous rhymester.

We might feel sorry to be obliged to discredit this picturesque story of
Mother Goose, if her real history were not even more mysterious. We know
very little about the beloved patron of childhood, but what we do know
is as follows:

Mother Goose is most certainly of respectable French origin, for in 1697
a distinguished French writer, Charles Perrault, published in Paris a
little book of familiar stories called "Contes de ma Mere l'Oye," or
"Tales of My Mother Goose." Her identity,