the King that his three guests are his own children. "Even a cat may
look at a king," is probably traceable to some fairy tale if not to
_Puss-in-Boots_. The philosophy in the fairy tales and the proverbs
that have arisen in them, are subjects which offer to the adult much
pleasure and fruitfulness.

But one must ask, "Does this philosophy appeal to the child? Is it not
adult wisdom foreign to his immaturity?" The old folk-tales are the
products of adult minds; but the adults were grown-ups that looked
upon the world with the eyes of children, and their philosophy often
was the philosophy of childhood. For childhood has its philosophy; but
because it meets with repression on so many sides it usually keeps it
to itself. When given freedom and self-activity and self-expression,
the child's philosophy appears also. And it is the inner truth of the
tale rather than the outer forms of sense and shapes of beauty which,
when suited to the little child, appeals to this child-philosophy and
makes the deepest impression upon him.

In the literary fairy tale there often appears a philosophy which is
didactic and above and beyond the child's knowledge of the world. It
remains a question how much this adult philosophy appeals to him.
Although his tales were written for his grandchildren, so finished a
telling of the tale as we find in Laboulaye, with its delightful hits
of satire, appeals more to the grown-up versed in the ways of the
world. But the sage remarks of worldly wisdom of Uncle Remus could not
fail to impress a little boy: "Go where you will and when you may, and
stay long ez you choosen ter stay, en right dar en den you'll sholy
fin' dat folks what git full er consate en proudness is gwine ter git
it tuck out 'm um."--Uncle Remus treated the little boy as if he was
"pestered with sense, like grown-ups," and surely the little boy