unusually one bowl of porridge was big and hot, one was less
big and cold, and one was little and just right. There were
usual chairs, unusual in size and very unusual when
Goldilocks sat in them. Upstairs the bedroom was usual, but
the beds were unusual when Goldilocks lay upon them. The
Bears themselves were usual, but their talk and action was a
delightful mixture of the surprising and the comical.
Perhaps this love of surprise accounts for the perfect leap
of interest with which a child will follow the Cock in _The
Bremen Town Musicians_, as he saw from the top of the tree
on which he perched, a light, afar off through the wood.
Certainly the theme of a light in the distance has a charm
for children as it must have had for man long ago.

_Sense impression_. Good things to eat, beautiful flowers,
jewels, the beauties of sight, color, and sound, of odor and
of taste, all gratify a child's craving for sense
impression. This, in its height, is the charm of the
_Arabian Nights_. But in a lesser degree it appears in all
fairy tales. Cinderella's beautiful gowns at the ball and
the fine supper stimulate the sense of color, beauty, and
taste. The sugar-panes and gingerbread roof of the Witch's
House, in _Hansel and Grethel_, stir the child's kindred
taste for sweets and cookies. The Gingerbread Boy, with his
chocolate jacket, his cinnamon buttons, currant eyes,
rose-sugar mouth, orange-candy cap, and gingerbread shoes,
makes the same strong sense appeal. There is a natural
attraction for the child in the beautiful interior of
Sleeping Beauty's Castle, in the lovely perfume of roses in
the Beast's Rose-Garden, in the dance and song of the Elves,