conversations. The world of the fairy tale must be simple
like the world Andersen has given us. It must be a world of
genuine people and honest occupations in order to form a
suitable background for the supernatural. Only fairy tales
possessing simplicity are suited to the oldest kindergarten
child of five or six years. To the degree that the child is
younger than five years, he should be given fewer and fewer
fairy tales. Those given should be largely realistic stories
of extreme simplicity.

_Unity of effect_. The little child likes the short tale,
for it is a unity he can grasp. If you have ever listened to
a child of five spontaneously attempting to tell you a long
tale he has not grasped, and have observed how the units of
the tale have become confused in the mind that has not held
the central theme, you then realize how harmful it is to
give a child too long a story. Unity demands that there be
no heaping up of sensations, but neat, orderly, essential
incidents, held together by one central idea. The tale must
go to the climax directly. It must close according to Uncle
Remus's idea when he says, "De tale ain't persoon atter em
no furder don de place whar dey [the characters] make der
disappear'nce." It will say what it has to say and lose no
time in saying it; and often it will attempt to say only one
thing. It will be remarkable as well for what it omits as
for what it tells. The Norse _Doll i' the Grass_ well
illustrates this unity. Boots set out to find a wife and
found a charming little lassie who could spin and weave a
shirt in one day, though of course the shirt was tiny. He
took her home and then celebrated his wedding with the