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are the old favorites in a version especially suited for the
home fireside. The interest, the charm, and all the sweetness
have been retained; but the svaagery, distressing details, and
excessive pathos have been dropped. Surely our little people are
better off without some of the sentiments of that barbaric past
when the tales originated. Felix Adler, in his notable work on "The
Moral Education of Children," years ago appealed for just such
a version as this, wherein there should be "less falsehood, gluttony,
drunkenness, and evil in general" than in the usual tellings, and
from which "malicious stpemothers and cruel fathers should be
excluded." The same need has been widely felt by parents and teachers.
"The Oak-Tree Fairy Book" supplies this want, and can be read aloud
or placed in the hands of children with entire confidence. The
changes are not, however, very radical in most instances, and I have
made no alteration in incidents where there did not seem to be an
ethical necessity for so doing.
The first sixteen tales in this book have a special claim to the
attention of American readers, for they were picked up in this
country. Two or three of them are to be found in nearly all our fairy-
tale collections, and it would not be safe to say that any of them
originated here; yet there are none of the sixteen but that differ
in an interesting way from the usual versions, and most of them are
quite unfamiliar to the present generation. I am indebted for them
to friends and correspondents and to the American Journal of
Folk Lore. Readers acquainted with similar tales not in the
ordinary collections will confer a favor if they will communicate
with me.
CLIFTON JOHNSON
Hadley, Mass.
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