SUSAN E. BLOW.




PREFACE.

It is the author's aim in this collection to furnish stories for the
child that shall be short, simple in form and familiar in subject, that
shall contain much repetition, rhythm, dramatic possibility,
alliteration, and also onomatopoetical and imaginative qualities, all
of which the young child craves in the literature which is presented to
him. The writer has striven to avoid elaborate introductions, long and
intricate descriptions, and all those characteristics from which the
child instinctively turns.

The matter here presented naturally falls under three heads: first,
original stories; secondly, favorite childhood stories rewritten;
thirdly, adaptations of popular tales.

Nearly all of the purely original stories are based upon some of the
more vital motifs to be found in the best of our fairy lore.

Of the favorite childhood stories, "Billy Bobtail" is evidently founded
upon "The Bremen Town-Musicians"; and, as it is given here, it is an
adaptation of a story heard frequently during the writer's childhood.
It will readily be seen that "Kid Would Not Go" is only another form of
"The Old Woman and Her Pig," and that "Fox Lox" is identical with the
tale of "Chicken Little." "The Wee, Wee Woman" is supposedly an
adaptation of the old English story of "Teeny Weeny." It is given here