Penrhyn W. Coussens - A Childs Book of Stories

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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 Duffield and Company in 1911. This title is available in a print edition (ISBN 978-1-59915-248-6).

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.

The primary idea of this collection of well-known and much-loved tales is to bring together under one cover those stories which have won a most assured place in literature for children between the ages of four and nine.

The compiler has at different times had occasion to look up many of the tales contained in this collection, and quite frequently the task has been long and tedious. Many a librarian and teacher has sought his assistance, having failed, after exhausting all the means at her command, to locate some favorite story. To all in such case it is to be hoped that this volume will be of help.

Stories for children should appeal especially to the imagination and its development, and the fairy or wonder tale is a most potent means to this end. That this has been recognized from the earliest times is proved by the fact that the original sources of many of the stories collected by Charles Perrault (published under the title of Mother Goose's Nursery Tales), the Brothers Grimm, Mme. D'Aulnoy, Charles Marelles, Asbjrnsen and Moe, Hans Christian Andersen, and others, are lost in the shades of antiquity.

The fairy tales that have lived through the ages have done so because of their real merit. In most of them is evidenced the kindergarten idea of presenting something of real value, usually a stimulant to the moral sense, in a sugar-coated form. In any event, they are a source of unbounded delight to the child, and cruel indeed are the parents or guardians who, from a misguided sense of duty, deliberately exclude from the reading selected for the children committed to their care, everything that savors of "manifest untruth." It is to be regretted that there are many such unwise, not to say unkind, persons.

It is perhaps worthy of note that Charles Perrault, the Countess d'Aulnoy, the Brothers Grimm, and others whose names are so closely associated with the fairy tale, are remembered solely on that account, and not by reason of any other contribution they may have made to the literature of their periods.

Much attention is now given by educators to the study of fairy and folk tales, and their value to the child as a help towards his greater mental development. Heretofore this has been left to the parent, who, probably, has utilized this means merely to provide the child with amusement and pleasure, and without any idea of its educational possibilities.

Who of us in relating to a child the exploits of "Jack and the Bean-Stalk," or "Tom Thumb" or "Jack the Giant Killer," is not carried back to the time when he sat himself in his mother's lap, listening with rapt attention to the unfolding of the story? One's own childhood days are brought back vividly, and, if for no other reason than this, let us be grateful for the fairy tale.

In this volume a wide range of authorities has been consulted, and every effort made to give the best version of each tale.

P. W. C OUSSENS.

O NCE upon a time there dwelt on the outskirts of a large forest a poor woodcutter with his wife and two children; the boy was called Hansel and the girl Grettel. He had always little enough to live on, and once, when there was a great famine in the land, he couldn't even provide them with daily bread. One night, as he was tossing about in bed, full of cares and worry, he sighed and said to his wife: "What's to become of us? How are we to support our poor children, now that we have nothing more for ourselves?" "I'll tell you what, husband," answered the woman; "early to-morrow morning we'll take the children out into the thickest part of the wood; there we shall light a fire for them and give them each a piece of bread; then we'll go on to our work and leave them alone. They won't be able to find their way home, and we shall thus be rid of them." "No, wife," said her husband, "that won't do; how could I find it in my heart to leave my children alone in the wood? The wild beasts would soon come and tear them to pieces." "Oh! you fool," said she, "then we must all four die of hunger, and you may just as well go and plane the boards for our coffins;" and she left him no peace till he consented. "But I can't help feeling sorry for the poor children," added the husband.

The children, too, had not been able to sleep for hunger, and had heard what their stepmother had said to their father. Grettel wept bitterly and spoke to Hansel: "Now it's all up with us." "No, no, Grettel," said Hansel, "don't fret yourself; I'll be able to find a way of escape, no fear." And when the old people had fallen asleep he got up, slipped on his little coat, opened the back door, and stole out. The moon was shining clearly, and the white pebbles which lay in front of the house glittered like bits of silver. Hansel bent down and filled his pocket with as many of them as he could cram in. Then he went back and said to Grettel, "Be comforted, my dear little sister, and go to sleep: God will not desert us," and he lay down in bed again.

At daybreak, even before the sun was up, the woman came and woke the two children: "Get up, you lie-abeds, we're all going to the forest to fetch wood." She gave them each a bit of bread and spoke: "There's something for your luncheon, but don't you eat it up before, for it's all you'll get." Grettel took the bread under her apron, as Hansel had the stones in his pocket. Then they all set out together on the way to the forest. After they had walked for a little, Hansel stood still and looked back at the house, and this manuvre he repeated again and again. His father observed him and spoke: "Hansel, what are you gazing at there, and why do you always remain behind? Take care, and don't lose your footing." "Oh! father," said Hansel, "I am looking back at my white kitten, which is sitting on the roof, waving me a farewell." The woman exclaimed: "What a donkey you are! That isn't your kitten, that's the morning sun shining on the chimney." But Hansel had not looked back at his kitten, but had always dropped one of the white pebbles out of his pocket on to the path.

When they had reached the middle of the forest the father said: "Now, children, go and fetch a lot of wood, and I'll light a fire that you mayn't feel cold." Hansel and Grettel heaped up brushwood till they had made a pile nearly the size of a small hill. The brushwood was set fire to, and when the flames leaped high the woman said: "Now lie down at the fire, children, and rest yourselves: we are going into the forest to cut down wood; when we've finished we'll come back and fetch you." Hansel and Grettel sat down beside the fire, and at mid-day ate their little bits of bread. They heard the strokes of the ax, so they thought their father was quite near. But it was no ax they heard, but a bough he had tied on to a dead tree, and that was blown about by the wind. And when they had sat for a long time their eyes closed with fatigue, and they fell fast asleep. When they awoke at last it was pitch-dark. Grettel began to cry and said: "How are we ever to get out of the wood?" But Hansel comforted her. "Wait a bit," he said, "till the moon is up, and then we'll find our way sure enough." And when the full moon had risen he took his sister by the hand and followed the pebbles, which shone like new threepenny bits and showed them the path. They walked all through the night, and at daybreak reached their father's house again. They knocked at the door, and when the woman opened it she exclaimed: "You naughty children, what a time you've slept in the wood! We thought you were never going to come back." But the father rejoiced, for his conscience had reproached him for leaving his children behind by themselves.