PART III. LIST OF STORIES. BOOKS SUGGESTED TO THE STORY-TELLER AND
BOOKS REFERRED TO IN THE LIST OF STORIES.




INTRODUCTION.


Story-telling is almost the oldest art in the world--the first
conscious form of literary communication. In the East it still
survives, and it is not an uncommon thing to see a crowd at a street
corner held by the simple narration of a story. There are signs in
the West of a growing interest in this ancient art, and we may yet
live to see the renaissance of the troubadours and the minstrels whose
appeal will then rival that of the mob orator or itinerant politician.
One of the surest signs of a belief in the educational power of the
story is its introduction into the curriculum of the training-college
and the classes of the elementary and secondary schools. It is just
at the time when the imagination is most keen, the mind being
unhampered by accumulation of facts, that stories appeal most vividly
and are retained for all time.

It is to be hoped that some day stories will be told to school groups
only by experts who have devoted special time and preparation to the
art of telling them. It is a great fallacy to suppose that the
systematic study of story-telling destroys the spontaneity of
narrative. After a long experience, I find the exact converse to be