us a folk-tale, nurse," or "Another nursery tale, please, grandma." As
our book is intended for the little ones, we have indicated its
contents by the name they use. The words "Fairy Tales" must
accordingly be taken to include tales in which occurs something
"fairy," something extraordinary--fairies, giants, dwarfs, speaking
animals. It must be taken also to cover tales in which what is
extraordinary is the stupidity of some of the actors. Many of the
tales in this volume, as in similar collections for other European
countries, are what the folklorists call Drolls. They serve to justify
the title of Merrie England, which used to be given to this country of
ours, and indicate unsuspected capacity for fun and humour among the
unlettered classes. The story of Tom Tit Tot, which opens our
collection, is unequalled among all other folk-tales I am acquainted
with, for its combined sense of humour and dramatic power.

The first adjective of our title also needs a similar extension of its
meaning. I have acted on Moliere's principle, and have taken what was
good wherever I could find it. Thus, a couple of these stories have
been found among descendants of English immigrants in America; a
couple of others I tell as I heard them myself in my youth in
Australia. One of the best was taken down from the mouth of an English
Gipsy. I have also included some stories that have only been found in
Lowland Scotch. I have felt justified in doing this, as of the twenty-
one folk-tales contained in Chambers' "Popular Rhymes of Scotland," no
less than sixteen are also to be found in an English form. With the
Folk-tale as with the Ballad, Lowland Scotch may be regarded as simply
a dialect of English, and it is a mere chance whether a tale is extant
in one or other, or both.

I have also rescued and re-told a few Fairy Tales that only exist now-