kindness, and service to the Elves; and the Elves become human in
their joy at receiving gifts. The structure of the tale is so distinct
as to be seen a thing itself, apart from the story. The framework is
built on what happens on two nights and following nights, the
conversation of the next day, and what happens on Christmas Eve. The
climax evidently is what the Shoemaker and his Wife hid in the corner
to see--the entrance of the Elves on Christmas Eve--which episode has
been interpreted charmingly by the English illustrator, Cruikshank.
The joy of the Elves and of the two aged people, the gifts received by
the one and the riches won by the other, form the conclusion, which
follows very closely upon the climax. The commonplace setting, the
poor room with its simple bed and table, becomes transformed by the
unusual happenings in the place. If we should take away this setting,
we see how much the tale would suffer. Also without the characters the
tale would be empty. And without the interesting, human, humorous, and
pleasing plot, characters and setting would be insufficient. Each
element of the short-story contributes its fair share to the tale, and
blends harmoniously in the whole.

Various standards for testing the folk-tale have been given by
writers. One might refer to the standards given by Wilman in his
_Pedagogische Vorträge_ and those mentioned by William Rein in _Das
Erste Schuljahr_. We have seen here that the fairy tale must contain
the child's interests and it must be able to stand the test of a true
classic. It must stand the test of literature in its appeal to emotion
and to imagination, in its appeal to the intellect through its basis
of truth, and to the language-sense through its perfection of form; it
must stand the test of the short-story and of good narration and of
description. Let us now examine a few of the old tales to see how they
stand the complete test:--