Carolyn S. Bailey - For the Childrens Hour

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This edition, first published in 2010 by Yesterday's Classics, an imprint of Yesterday's Classics, LLC, is an unabridged republication of the work originally published by Milton Bradley Co. in 1906. This title is available in a print edition (ISBN 978-1-59915-067-3).

Yesterday's Classics republishes classic books for children from the golden age of children's literature, the era from 1880 to 1920. Many of our titles are offered in high-quality paperback editions, with text cast in modern easy-to-read type for today's readers. The illustrations from the original volumes are included except in those few cases where the quality of the original images is too low to make their reproduction feasible. Unless specified otherwise, color illustrations in the original volumes are rendered in black and white in our print editions.

"Between the dark and the daylight,

When the night is beginning to lower,

Comes a pause in the day's occupations

Which is known as the children's hour."

For The Children's Hour is the result of an effort to collect and edit as many as possible of the stories referred to in the story lists of the daily Program of Gift and Occupation work. Through the courtesy of authors and publishers, a longer list is presented, and a book of stories is offered containing material which has not appeared heretofore in one volume.

The scheme of compiling has been to gather from many sources; old myths, folk-tales, magazines now out of print, and the best of literature, old and latter-day, such stories as relate to the child's every-day experience, and find a place in his education because of this point of contact.

In nearly every case it has been found necessary to adapt the stories to the immediate use of the storyteller, whether kindergartner or mother. They have been shortened, and only such salient facts retained as will result in clear mental concepts, and make the stories easily told without undue taxing of the child's attention.

A large place has been given to the fanciful tale, which has a direct educational value in the training of the imagination; and the accumulative repetition story, which develops the child's sense of humor, and appeals to his instinctive love of rhyme and jingle.

The book is offered to kindergartners, teachers, and mothers who realize the large part the story plays in the development of the little child, mentally and morally.

Grateful acknowledgment is due the following authors and publishers for their permission to use the copyrighted material appearing in FOR THE CHILDREN'S HOUR:

Laura E. Richards, Harriet Prescott Spofford, Elizabeth Harrison, Lucy Wheelock, Sarah Arnold, Maud Lindsay, Alice E. Allen, Kate Whiting Patch, Alice J. Patterson, Bertha Johnston (editor of Kindergarten Magazine), Clifton Johnson, Charles Battell Loomis, James E. Tower (editor of Good Housekeeping).

Little, Brown & Co.; Dana, Estes & Co.; D. C. Heath & Co.; Houghton, Mifflin & Co.; Silver, Burdette & Co.; Phelps Publishing Co.; Ginn & Co.; Perry Mason Co.; Outlook Co.; A. Flanagan Co.; University Publishing Co.; Educational Publishing Co.; Milton Bradley Co.; The Churchman Co.; The Christian Register; Home Kindergarten Co.; George S. Hurlburt Co.; Richard G. Badger.

N OBODY knew whence she came, nor whither she went. All the children could have told you about her was that sometimes they looked up from their play, and there she stood in her soft, misty cloak and shadowy gray veil, which reminded them of thin smoke. Sometimes they could scarcely see her face behind this veil, but if any one of them had been brave, and unselfish, there would be the Little Gray Grandmother, her face quite clear and distinct, smiling down on them.

There was a large family of them, and they had sharp eyes, too, but none of them ever saw her coming until there she stood in the midst of them. They lived near the great sea, and the mist often covered the coast for miles and miles. Their city cousins laughed at them, and said the Little Gray Grandmother was only a bit of sea fog, left behind after a damp day; but they knew better.

She never spoke to them, but sometimes she looked sad when she came upon one of them doing a mean or greedy thing. Oh, how stern her eyes were the day she found Wilhelm telling a lie! No one could make them believe she was only a dream, or a bit of sea fog. Had she not left the thimble for Mai, which pushed the needle so fast that a long seam was finished before you could say "Jack Robinson"? Who else brought the boots for Gregory, which helped him run so quickly on an errand that even his dog, Oyster, could not keep up with him?

They were all as certain as certain could be that she had given Doodle, when he was a baby, those soft, warm mittens that somehow grew as he grew, and always just fitted his hands. Such wonderful mittens! On the coldest day all Doodle had to do was to reach out his hand in his hearty, cheery way to any oneno matter how coldand they were sure to feel a warm glow at once. That was the way that Doodle got into the way of looking out for all the lame dogs and sick cats; and why all the old people liked him so much. They said he made them feel young again. And Tom, and Wilhelm, and the rest; the Little Gray Grandmother had left a gift for each.

Oh, they were a happy family! What if they did have to eat herring and dry bread, with a few potatoes thrown in, all the year roundand live in a hut? Didn't they have a Little Gray Grandmother?

So, you may know how eagerly they were all looking one day at something the Little Gray Grandmother had left for them in the sand. What could it be? It glittered like the surface of a pool of water when the sun touches it. They could see their faces in itoh, so clearly! They decided to take it to the dear-mother. Ah, the dear-motherwho cooked, and sewed for them, and nursed them when they were ill, and was always ready to answer their questionsshe would know. So they took the glittering thing in to her.

She thought it was pretty. She always liked anything they brought in, if it were only a bit of sea weed, or a star fish. She said it was made of precious metal, and perhaps the sea had washed it up. But the children said, "Oh, no; the Little Gray Grandmother left it."

At last they hung it up on the wall where every one might use it for a mirror; but, oh, such strange sights as the children saw in it! It had a queer way of turning itself about toward the east or the west window, so the children could see as easily in the evening as in the morning light. And one day when Mai was tired, and spoke crossly to the little brother, she looked up and saw the face of a grizzly bear reflected in the wonderful mirror.

Gregory had a way of boasting about the things he was going to do, and he often caught a glimpse of a rooster in the mirror, strutting about as if he owned the whole barnyard. Once little Beata came in ahead of the others, and, finding some rosy apples the father had brought home, she took the very biggest and began to eat it. But the mirror swung quickly around and showed her a greedy little pig, eating a whole pile of apples, and the picture made her so ashamed that she laid the apple down again.