beasts, and because people are killed in them, especially wicked
giants. But probably you who read the tales know very well how
much is true and how much is only make-believe, and I never yet
heard of a child who killed a very tall man merely because Jack
killed the giants, or who was unkind to his stepmother, if he had
one, because, in fairy tales, the stepmother is often
disagreeable. If there are frightful monsters in fairy tales,
they do not frighten you now, because that kind of monster is no
longer going about the world, whatever he may have done long,
long ago. He has been turned into stone, and you may see his
remains in museums. Therefore, I am not afraid that you will be
afraid of the magicians and dragons; besides, you see that a
really brave boy or girl was always their master, even in the
height of their power.

Some of the tales here, like The Half-Chick, are for very little
children; others for older ones. The longest tales, like Heart of
Ice, were not invented when the others were, but were written in
French, by clever men and women, such as Madame d'Aulnoy, and the
Count de Caylus, about two hundred years ago. There are not many
people now, perhaps there are none, who can write really good
fairy tales, because they do not believe enough in their own
stories, and because they want to be wittier than it has pleased
Heaven to make them.

So here we give you the last of the old stories, for the present,
and hope you will like them, and feel grateful to the Brothers
Grimm, who took them down from the telling of old women, and to
M. Sebillot and M. Charles Marelles, who have lent us some tales
from their own French people, and to Mr. Ford, who drew the