pleasure of the king. This unity, which is violated in
Grimm's complicated _Golden Bird_, appears pleasantly in
_The Little Pine Tree that Wished for New Leaves_. Here one
feeling dominates the tale, the Pine Tree was no longer
contented. So she wished, first for gold leaves, next for
glass leaves, and then for leaves like those of the oaks and
maples. But the robber who stole her gold leaves, the storm
that shattered her glass leaves, and the goat that ate her
broad green leaves, changed her feeling of discontent, until
she wished at last to have back her slender needles, green
and fair, and awoke next morning, happy and contented.

Fairy tales for little children must avoid certain elements opposed to
the interests of the very young child. Temperaments vary and one must
be guided by the characteristics of the individual child. But while
the little girl with unusual power of visualization, who weeps on
hearing of Thumbling's travels down the cow's mouth in company with
the hay, may be the exception, she proves the rule: the little child
generally should not have the tale that creates an emotion of horror
or deep feeling of pain. This standard would determine what tales
should not be given to the child of kindergarten age:--

_The tale of the witch_. The witch is too strange and too
fearful for the child who has not learned to distinguish the
true from the imaginative. This would move _Hansel and
Grethel_ into the second-grade work and _Sleeping Beauty_
preferably into the work of the first grade. The child soon
gains sufficient experience so that later the story
impresses, not the strangeness.