Transcriber's Note:
The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.
MERRY TALES
| NEW YORK | CINCINNATI | CHICAGO |
FOREWORD
From a knowledge and love of children bothextending through many years, I wish to speak ofthe pleasure and profit they will derive from readingand possessing Merry Tales.
To keep children sane and sweet they must begiven bright and cheery stories to read. They willfind them in Merry Tales. Early in life theyshould learn something of myths and folklore.These tales are founded on these old treasures, butare charmingly adapted to the understanding ofpresent-day children. I have read few books forchildren possessing such literary value and yet usingwords that children can master without difficulty,thereby being able to enjoy their own reading.
I hope that Merry Tales will find a place notonly in the schoolroom for that time of delight ina well-taught school,—“the period for supplementaryreading,”—but that parents may find the bookout to place it in the child’s own library, a thingthat a child must have if it is ever to have in laterlife the joys of a genuine booklover.
PREFACE
The stories in this collection have been chosen,first, because they are stories children have alwaysloved, and second, because they are free from muchof the grewsome or grotesque which figures in somany of the folk tales and fables of the past. Althoughthere are elements of surprise and dangerin the adventures of the various characters, yet eachstory ends happily. The little book is intended asa supplementary re