the story_.

When a good story with a simple sequence has been told, and while the
children are still athrill with the delight of it, they are told they may
play it.

[Illustration: THE FOX AND THE GRAPES]

[Illustration: "THERE WAS AN OLD WOMAN WHO LIVED IN A SHOE"]

"Who would like to be Red Riding Hood?" says the teacher; up go the little
girls' hands, and Mary or Hannah or Gertrude is chosen.

"Who will be the wolf?" Johnny or Marcus becomes the wolf. The kind
woodchopper and the mother are also happily distributed, for in these
little dramatic companies it is an all-star cast, and no one realises any
indignity in a subordinate _rôle_.

"Now, where shall we have little Red Riding Hood's house? 'Over in that
corner,' Katie? Very well, Riding Hood shall live over there. And where
shall the grandmother's cottage be?"

The children decide that it must be a long distance through the
wood,--half-way round the schoolroom, in fact. The wolf selects the spot
where he will meet Red Riding Hood, and the woodchopper chooses a position
from which he can rush in at the critical moment, to save Red Riding
Hood's life.

Then, with gusto good to see, they play the game. The teacher makes no
suggestions; each actor creates his part. Some children prove extremely