The New York herald., 1922-11-12
What Are the Great Children's Stories and Why

| questionable and 1njudlciouS morality. The
one lasting impression of the whole series
is that left by the episode of Elsie sitting
interminably upon the piano stool, until
she faints from WEAKNESS and hunger, all
because her father insists that she shall
sit there until she plays him a certain
secular piece on Sunday. The Elsie Books
may have endured by force of numbers
but they are not in the Best Book class.
Hans Brnker or the Silver Skates" by
Mary Mapes Dodge, and Little Lord
Fauntleroy." by Frances Hodgson Burnett
undoubtedly belong. Without being big
stories or strilxingly original, they are
eminently wholesome; and after frequent
readings they wear WELL OF course if you
have read Hans ,Rrinker' you will re-
member the great skating race, and how
the silver skates were won: and best of
all, how Hans's father. after sitting for
years in an imbecile stupor after a blow
on the head, is operated upon, RECEIVERS his
wits, and tells how. years ago. he buried
fortune beside the tree in the yard. And
when they dig beside the tree they find
nothing. because. as they presently re-
member. it was not that new young tree
the meant, Dul the Olu lTee, gone
years ago-beneath whose stump the
treasure is found. And as for Lord
Fauntleroy, there are a score of memories
from the first glimpse we have of pair OF
sturdy legs flashing past when Cedric wins
the impromptu foot race, down through his
departure for England, leaving his friend
the grocer to point out mournfully "His
| Lordship's very kicks" on the apple bar
rel; and reaching the climax where the
fierce old Earl is finally reconciled to his
daughter-in-law and tells her, I'VE al
ways wanted you here. only We were not
precisely aware of it." Little Lord
Fauntleroy' may be er-sentimentalized
in spots, but the pleasure it gives is of
sterling quality.
1t is an interesting experiment to ask
your various acquaintances among writers.
teachers and others supposed to have ex-
pert knowledge, what their personal choice
would be of a dozen unquestionably best
books" for children. Widely as their
answers may vary. Little Women"
Treasure Island" and Alice in Wonder
land" will prove fairly constant quanti-
ties. And then presently they will add re-
luctantly, 81 suppose Mother Goose really
ought to be included" Why Mother
Goose" should be admitted with apology
or an afterthought is hard TO under
stand. 1t is one of our Proudest and most
distinctive possessions on the children's
booksheves, part of our Anglo-Saxon
heritage redolent of old English customs
and traditions and English cheer No
other nation or language possesses any
similar collection of nursery rhymes and
woven into the fabric of our speech and
thought. Humpty- -Dumpty, Simple Simon.
Old King Cole one and all part of the
verbal coinage of the realm of letters,
symbols as definite and enduring as Ham
! let or Mr.. Micawber. And no matter how
many times you have told your children
or grandchildren about Jack and JILL" or
THE Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe"
it never once occurred to you that the
words were silly. And that perhaps is
more than one can say to-day of similar
experiment. with, let us say, Bunyan's
Pilgrims Progress
out of half a dozen persons whom the
present writer recently consulted only one
made mention of "Aesop's Fables" but
that one stressed it as the book which
stood out above all others among the sharp