INTRODUCTION



a land of fascinating unrealities, but also the
artistic story which reflects the every-day ex-
periences of real life; artistic in that it touches
these daily experiences with an idealism revealing
the significance and beauty of that which the
jaded taste of the adult designates as "common-
place." That all children crave the story which
is, or might be, true is evidenced by the expression
of their faces when their inevitable question,
"is it really true" or "did it really happen"
is answered in the affirmative.
    Perhaps some of us can recall the pleasure
derived from old-fashioned school readers of an
earlier day. With all their faults they at least
did not overlook the value of standard realistic
stories. In these readers was found the very
moral story of the boy who won the day because
of his forethought in providing an extra piece of
whipcord. There was also "Meddlesome Matty,"
and the honest office-boy, the heroic lad of Hol-
land, and the story of the newly liberated prisoner
who bought a cage full of captive birds and set
them free. These and many others still persist
in memory, and point with unerring aim to
standards of human behavior under conditions
which are both possible and probable. In spite
of their imperfections and stern morality these
stories were valuable because they recited the
fundamental events of human and animal exist-
                      [12]