Old Man of the Mountain
FAMOUS STORIES
Every Child Should Know
EDITED BY
Hamilton Wright Mabie
THE WHAT-EVERY-CHILD-SHOULD-KNOW-LIBRARY
Published by
DOUBLEDAY, DORAN & CO., INC., for
THE PARENTS' INSTITUTE, INC.
Publishers of "The Parents' Magazine"
9 EAST 40th STREET, NEW YORK
COPYRIGHT, 1907, BY DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY.
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES AT THE
COUNTRY LIFE PRESS. GARDEN CITY. N.Y.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The stories of "The Great Stone Face" and "The Snow Image" byNathaniel Hawthorne, are used in this volume by permission of Messrs.Houghton, Mifflin & Company. Messrs. Little, Brown & Company havegranted permission for the republication of "The Man Without aCountry" by Edward Everett Hale.
INTRODUCTION
The group of stories brought together in this volume differ fromlegends because they have, with one exception, no core of fact at thecentre, from myths because they make no attempt to personify orexplain the forces or processes of nature, from fairy stories becausethey do not often bring on to the stage actors of a different naturefrom ours. They give full play to the fancy as in "A Child's Dream ofa Star," "The King of the Golden River," "Undine," and "The SnowImage"; but they are not poetic records of the facts of life, attemptsto shape those facts "to meet the needs of the imagination, thecravings of the heart." In the Introduction to the book of Fairy Talesin this series, those familiar and much loved stories which have beenrepeated to children for unnumbered generations and will be repeatedto the end of time, are described as "records of the free and joyfulplay of the imagination, opening doors through hard conditions to thespirit, which craves power, freedom, happiness; righting wrongs, andredressing injuries; defeating base designs; rewarding patience andvirtue; crowning true love with happiness; placing the powers ofdarkness under the control of man and making their ministers hisservants." The stories which make up this volume are closer toexperience and come, for the most part, nearer to the every-dayhappenings of life.
A generation ago, when the noble activities of science and itsinspiring discoveries were taking possession of the minds of men andrevealing possibilities of power of which they had not dreamed, theprediction was freely made that poetry and fiction had had their day,and that henceforth men would be educated upon facts and get theirinspirations from what are called real things. So engrossing and somarvellous were the results of investigation, the achievements ofexperiment, that it seemed to many as if the older literature ofimagination and fancy had served its purpose as completely as alchemy,astrology, or chain armour.
The prophecies of those fruitful years of research did not tell halfthe story of the wonderful things that were to be; the uses ofelectricity which are within easy reach for the most homely andpractical purposes are as mysterious and magical as the dreams of themagicians. We are served by invisible ministers who are more powerfulthan the genii and more nimble t