friends. Some of these friends went with her to the King's palace, and
she now had no difficulty. She knew the language of those who lived in
the forest, and she was no longer poor and lonely. So in the pages
of this book you will learn of the lives of faithful dogs and huge
buffaloes, and the brown thrush will sing for you a song full of
meaning. The modest violet, the jack-in-the-pulpit, even the four-leaf
clovers will tell you stories about the forest and the field, so that
wherever you walk you will be surrounded by your friends. The magic
glass of Merlin will unseal for you this world of Nature.

Merlin's globe also enables you to look into the past and live in
it as if it were the present. You will take part in the first
Thanksgiving Day. You will learn why the flag of our country is called
Old Glory. You will look in upon the boy Lincoln, tired after his
hard day's work on the farm, reading by the open fire in his father's
cabin. You will see the young Washington bravely helping General
Braddock to save his soldiers. So the magic glass of reading will make
the early history of our country real to you, and the past will no
longer be the past but a part of your present life.

If you wish to live for a time in the fairy realm, where there are
buried treasure chests or magic lamps and rings, or if you would like
to make a journey to far-off lands where are many wonders, you have
only to look in this magic glass, and in a twinkling you are whisked
away. You find yourself in a strange country where men and women wear
curious, flowing garments of many colors, where trees and animals are
unfamiliar, and where queer buildings with many towers attract your
delighted eyes. The narrow streets are filled with strange life. You
see a boy with eyes that seem to be looking on strange things. He is
talking with an evil-looking man who bends over him, pointing down the