There are numerous time-honored stories which have become so incorporated into the literature and thought of our race that a knowledge of them is an indispensable part of one's education. These stories are of several different classes. To one class belong the popular fairy tales which have delighted untold generations of children, and will continue to delight them to the end of time. To another class belong the limited number of fables that have come down to us through many channels from hoar antiquity. To a third belong the charming stories of olden times that are derived from the literatures of ancient peoples, such as the Greeks and the Hebrews. A fourth class includes the half-legendary tales of a distinctly later origin, which have for their subjects certain romantic episodes in the lives of well-known heroes and famous men, or in the history of a people.
It is to this last class that most of the fifty stories contained in the present volume belong. As a matter of course, some of these stories are better known, and therefore more famous, than others. Some have a slight historical value; some are useful as giving point to certain great moral truths; others are products solely of the fancy, and are intended only to amuse. Some are derived from very ancient sources, and are current in the literature of many lands; some have come to us through the ballads and folk tales of the English people; a few are of quite recent origin; nearly all are the subjects of frequent allusions in poetry and prose and in the conversation of educated people. Care has been taken to exclude everything that is not strictly within the limits of probability; hence there is here no trespassing upon the domain of the fairy tale, the fable, or the myth.
That children naturally take a deep interest in such stories, no person can deny; that the reading of them will not only give pleasure, but will help to lay the foundation for broader literary studies, can scarcely be doubted. It is believed, therefore, that the present collection will be found to possess an educative value which will commend it as a supplementary reader in the middle primary grades at school. It is also hoped that the book will prove so attractive that it will be in demand out of school as well as in.
CONTENTS:
King Alfred and the Cakes 5
King Alfred and the Beggar 8
King Canute on the Seashore 10
The Sons of William the Conqueror 12
The White Ship 17
King John and the Abbot 21
A Story of Robin Hood 28
Bruce and the Spider 33
The Black Douglas 35
Three Men of Gotham 39
Other Wise Men of Gotham 42
The Miller of the Dee 46
Sir Philip Sidney 49
The Ungrateful Soldier 51
Sir Humphrey Gilbert 53
Sir Walter Raleigh 54
Pocahontas 58
George Washington and his Hatchet 59
Grace Darling 61
The Story of William Tell 64
Arnold Winkelried 66
The Bell of Atri 69
How Napoleon crossed the Alps 75
The Story of Cincinnatus 76
The Story of Regulus 82
Cornelia's Jewels 85
Androclus and the Lion 87
Horatius at the Bridge 91
Julius Csar 95
The Sword of Damocles 96
Damon and Pythias 100
A Laconic Answer 102
The Ungrateful Guest 103
Alexander and Bucephalus 106
Diogenes the Wise Man 108
The Brave Three Hundred 110
Socrates and his House 112
The King and his Hawk 113
Doctor Goldsmith 118
The Kingdoms 119
The Barmecide Feast 123
The Endless Tale 127
The Blind Men and the Elephant 130
Maximilian and the Goose Boy 132
The Inchcape Rock 137
Whittington and his Cat 140
Casabianca 153
Antonio Canova 156
Picciola 162
Mignon 167
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