would you say,' says he, 'if I made your ould goose as good as new?' "My dear, at the word o' makin' his goose as good as new, you'd think the poor ould king's eyes was ready to jump out iv his head. With that the king whistled, and down kem the poor goose, all as one as a hound, waddlin' up to the poor cripple, her masther, and as like him as two pays. The minute the saint clapt his eyes on the goose, 'I'll do the job for you,' says he, 'King O'Toole.' 'By Jaminee!' says King O'Toole, 'if you do, but I'll say you're the cleverest fellow in the sivin parishes.' 'Oh, by dad,' says Saint Kavin, 'you must say more nor that-my horn's not so soft all out,' says he, 'as to repair your ould goose for nothin'; what'll you gi' me if I do the job for you?-that's the chat,' says Saint Kavin. 'I'll give you whatever you ax,' says the king; 'is n't that fair?' 'Divil a fairer,' says the saint; 'that's the way to do business. Now,' says he, 'this is the bargain I'll make with you, King O'Toole: will you gi' me all the ground the goose flies over, the first offer, afther I make her as good as new?' 'I will,' says the king. 'You won't go back o' your word?' says Saint Kavin. 'Honor bright!' says King O'Toole, howldin' out his fist. 'Honor bright!' says Saint Kavin, back agin, 'it's a bargain. Come here!' says he to the poor ould goose-'come here, you unfort'nate ould cripple, and it's I that'll make you the sportin' bird.' With that, my dear, he took up the goose by the two wings-'Criss o' my crass and you,' says he, markin' her to grace with the blessed sign at the same minute — and throwin' her up in the air, 'whew,' says he, jist givin' her a blast to help her; and with that, my jewel, she tuk to her heels, flyin' like one o' the aigles themselves and cuttin' as many capers as a swallow before a shower of rain. "Well, my dear, it was a beautiful sight to see the king standin' with his mouth open, lookin' at his poor ould goose flyin' as light as a lark, and betther nor ever she was: and when she lit at his fut, patter her an the head, and, 'Ma vourneen,' says he, 'but you are the darlint o' the world.' 'And what do you say to me,' says Saint Kavin, 'for makin' her the like?' 'By gor,' says the king, 'I say nothin' bates the art o' man, barrin' the bees.' 'And do you say no more nor that?' says Saint Kavin. 'And that I'm behoulden to you,' says the king. 'But will you give me all the ground the goose flew over?' says Saint Kavin. 'I will,' says King O'Toole, 'and you're welkim to it,' says he, 'though it's the last acre I have to give.' 'But you'll keep your word thrue?' says the saint. 'As thrue as the sun,' says the king. 'It's well for you, King O'Toole, that you said that word,' says he; 'for if you did n't say that word, the devil receave the bit o' your goose id ever fly agin.' "Whin the king was as good as his word, Saint Kavin was plazed with him, and thin it was that he made himself known to the king. 'And,' says he, 'King O'Toole, you're a dacent man, for I only kem here to thry you. You don't know me,' says he, 'bekase I'm disguised.' 'Musha! thin,' says the king, 'who are you?' 'I'm Saint Kavin,' said the Saint, blessin' himself. 'Oh, queen iv heaven!' says the king makin' the sign o' the crass betune his eyes, and fallin' down on his knees before the saint; is it the great Saint Kavin,' says he, 'that I've been discoorsin' all this time without knowin' it,' says he, 'all as one as if he was a lump iv a gosson? - and so you're a saint?' says the king. 'I am,' says Saint Kavin. 'By gor, I thought I was only talking to a dacent boy,' says the king. 'Well, you know the differ now,' says the saint. 'I'm Saint Kavin,' says he, 'the greatest of all the saints.' "And so the king had his goose as good as new, to divart him as long as he lived: and the saint supported him afther he kem into his property, as I tould you, until the day iv his death and that was soon afther; for the poor goose thought he was ketchin' a throut one Friday; but, my jewel, it was a mistake he made-and instead of a throut, it was a thievin' horse-eel; and by gor, instead iv the goose killin' a throut for the king's supper,—by dad, the eel killed the king's goose-and small blame to him; but he did n't ate her, bekase he darn't ate what Saint Kavin had laid his blessed hands on." BIBLIOGRAPHY Alden, Raymond Macdonald, Why the Chimes Rang, and Other Stories. Andersen, Hans Christian, Fairy Tales. Barrie, Sir James Matthew, The Little White Bird. [Peter Pan.] Baum, L. Frank, The Wizard of Oz. Benson, A. C., David Blaize and the Blue Door. Beston, H. B., The Firelight Fairy Book. Brown, Abbie Farwell, The Lonesomest Doll. Browne, Frances, Granny's Wonderful Chair. Carryl, Charles E., Davy and the Goblin. "Carroll, Lewis," Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. "Carroll, Lewis," Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There. Chamisso, Adelbert von, The Wonderful History of Peter Schlemihl. "Collodi, C.," The Adventures of Pinocchio. Cox, Palmer, The Brownies: Their Book. Craik, Dinah Mulock, Adventures of a Brownie. Craik, Dinah Mulock, The Little Lame Prince and His Traveling-Cloak. Crothers, Samuel McChord, Miss Muffet's Christmas Party. Dickens, Charles, A Christmas Carol. Ewald, Carl, Two-Legs, and Other Stories. Grahame, Kenneth, The Wind in the Willows. Harris, Joel Chandler, Nights with Uncle Remus. Hawthorne, Nathaniel, "The Snow Image," "Little Daffydowndilly," "A Rill from the Town Pump." Ingelow, Jean, Mopsa the Fairy. Ingelow, Jean, Stories Told to a Child. 2 vols. Jordan, David Starr, The Book of Knight and Barbara. Lagerlof, Selma, The Wonderful Adventures of Nils. La Motte-Fouqué, F. de, Undine. Lang, Andrew, Prince Prigio. Kingsley, Charles, The Water Babies. Maeterlinck, Maurice, The Blue Bird. Macdonald, George, The Princess and the Goblin. Macdonald, George, At the Back of the North Wind. Pyle, Katherine, In the Green Forest. Raspe, Rudolph Erich, Baron Munchausen's Narrative. Richards, Laura E., The Story of Toto. Richards, Laura E., The Pig Brother. Ruskin, John, The King of the Golden River. Stockton, Frank R., Fanciful Tales. Swift, Jonathan, Gulliver's Travels. Thackeray, William Makepeace, The Rose and the Ring. SECTION IV: FAIRY STORIES-MODERN FANTASTIC TALES INTRODUCTORY The difficulties of classification are very apparent here, and once more it must be noted that illustrative and practical purposes rather than logical ones are served by the arrangement adopted. The modern fanciful story is here placed next to the real folk story instead of after all the groups of folk products. The Hebrew stories at the beginning belong quite as well, perhaps even better, in Section V, while the stories at the end of Section VI shade off into the more modern types of short tales. Then the fact that other groups of modern stories are to follow later, illustrating more realistic studies of life and the very recent and remarkably numerous writings centering around animal life, limits the list here. Many of the animal stories might, with equal propriety, be placed under the head of the fantastic. The child's natural literature. The world has lost certain secrets as the price of an advancing civilization. It is a commonplace of observation that no one can duplicate the success of Mother Goose, whether she be thought of as the maker of jingles or the teller of tales. The conditions of modern life preclude the generally naïve attitude that produced the folk rhymes, ballads, tales, proverbs, fables, and myths. The folk saw things simply and directly. The complex, analytic, questioning mind is not yet, either in or out of stories. The motives from which people act are to them plain and not mixed. Characters are good or bad. They feel no need of elaborately explaining their joys and sorrows. Such experiences come with the day's work. "To-morrow to fresh woods, and pastures new." The zest of life with them is emphatic. Their humor is fresh, unbounded, sincere; there is no trace of cynicism. In folk literature we do not feel the presence of a "writer" who is mightily concerned about maintaining his reputation for wisdom, originality, or style. Hence the freedom from any note of straining after effect, of artificiality. In the midst of a life limited to fundamental needs, their literature deals with fundamentals. On the whole, it was a literature for entertainment. A more learned upper class may have concerned itself then about "problems" and "purposes," as the whole world does now, but the literature of the folk had no such interests. Without discussing the limits of the culture-epoch theory of human development as a complete guide in education, it is clear that the young child passes through a period when his mind looks out upon the world in a manner analogous to that of the folk as expressed in their literature. Quarrel with the fact as we may, it still remains a fact that his nature craves these old stories and will not be satisfied with something "just as good." The modern fairy story. The advance of civilization has been accompanied by a wistful longing for the simplicities left by the way. In some periods this interest in the past has been more marked than in others. When the machinery of life has weighed too heavily on the human spirit, men have turned for relief to a contemplation of the "good old times" and have preached crusades of a "return to nature." |