gods of ancient mythology were changed into the demigods and heroes of ancient epic poetry, and these demigods again became at a later age the principal characters of our nursery tales." These thoughts may help to a better understanding of some of the uses of such stories, and of their proper place in children's reading.

PAGE 24.- "The Wind" is taken (with slight changes) from the poem of the same name in "A Child's Garden of Verses," by Robert Louis Stevenson, New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1892.

PAGE 25. -"The City Mouse" and the other poems in this volume by Miss Rossetti are taken from "Sing-Song, a Nursery Rhyme Book," 1871.

PAGE 34. -"Tom Thumb" is an English variant of "Little Thumb,” "Petit Poucet" in Perrault's collection (vide ante), though the details of both differ very widely. The germ of this story occurs in various forms in the oldest books of the Far East, - whence comes more than a third of our Fairy Tales, Rhymes, and Jingles, including even the original of "The Tar Baby," and is found also among the oral legends of the American Indians, and of the Zulus of Africa, as well as in the older literature of every country of Europe, North, East, South, and West.

"Tom Thumb" is a very old character in English nursery literature, and has become less confused with foreign versions than almost any other. In 1611 the ancient tales of "Tom Thumb" were said to have been "in the olde time the only revivers of drouzy age at midnight: old and young have with his tales chim'd mattens till the cocks crow in the morning Batchelors and Maides with his tales have compassed the Christmas fire-blocke till the Curfew-bell rings, Candle out the old Shepheard and the young Plow boy after their days' labour have carol'd out a Tale of Tom Thumbe to make them merry with: and who but little Tom hath made long nights seem short and heavy toyles easie ?"

PAGE 51.—This poem by Coleridge is sometimes called "Answer to a Child's Question." It was first printed in the Morning Post, Oct. 16, 1802, with the heading, "The Language of Birds: Lines spoken extempore to a little child in early spring."

PAGE 62. "Jack and the Beanstalk" is as ancient and widespread as "Tom Thumb," and our version of the story is the English one which has been the longest current and is the least corrupted with incidents from its variants in other countries.

PAGE 122.- The text of "Whittington and his Cat" is based upon a careful collation of three of the oldest versions, found in the Boswell collection of chap-books in the Harvard College Library.

It is astonishing how complete a picture of the life and times of a character that has become a hero of popular legend, can be constructed from the abundant records preserved by the pious care of the citizens of London for more than five hundred years. For Sir Richard Whittington was a real character. He served as Lord Mayor of London in part of the year 1396, in 1397, in 1406, and in 1419. He was one of London's merchant princes: a wise, generous, and just man. He left rich endowments for learning and for city improvements; he founded a college and built a library for the city; he restored St. Bartholomew's Hospital; he improved the prisons, which were pest houses in his day; and enforced simple sanitary legislation. The story of his life, with a picturesque and vivid description of the conditions of life, the manners and customs of the fourteenth century in London, is told by Sir Walter Besant and James Rice in a volume entitled "Sir Richard Whittington," London, Marcus Ward & Co., 1881. While this little book throws much interesting light on the question of what is fact and what is fiction in the story, it is still difficult to say how much of the cat story is true. The same tale is told in a dozen different ways, and of a dozen different people, and they all refer to about the same period.

This, however, is clear: that his executors associated Whittington's memory with a cat, and that many of the records concerning him have connected him with a cat. It is also clear, from contemporary history, that tame cats were much scarcer then than now, and that in many distant countries they were unknown. There is also plenty of evidence that they were about this period valuable articles of merchandise; and there is little doubt that in some way or other Whittington did make a fortunate venture with a cat, and thus laid the foundation of his riches; and of this oft repeated legend.

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PAGE 138. Goody Two Shoes was published in April, 1765, and few nursery books have had a wider circulation, or have retained their position so long. The number of editions that have been published both in England and America is legion. Even in 1802, Charles Lamb, in writing to Coleridge, said: "Goody Two Shoes' is almost out of print. Mrs. Barbauld's stuff has banished all the old classics of the nursery, and the shopman at Newbery's hardly deigned to reach them off an old exploded corner of a shelf, when Mary asked for them. Mrs. Barbauld's and Mrs. Trimmer's nonsense lay in piles about."

The authorship of this famous little story has been attributed to Goldsmith by many authorities, conspicuous among whom are Washington Irving and William Godwin. The Misses Bewick, daughters of the celebrated engraver, who illustrated an edition of the book for T. Saint, of

Newcastle, understood from their father that it was by Oliver Goldsmith. A group of six-penny books for children, ingeniously and quaintly named, published by John Newbery in 1765, is characterized by a distinct literary flavor; and one of the number, "The Lilliputian Magazine," is attributed in the British Museum Catalogue to Oliver Goldsmith. So strong is the family likeness in all the books, that it is believed that they are all by the same hand. The title of " Goody Two Shoes," with its quaint phrasing, shows no common genius, and, as Washington Irving says, "bears the stamp of his [Goldsmith's] sly and playful humor." Since the book was published in 1765, it is most likely to have been written just at the time when Goldsmith was working most industriously in the service of Newbery (1763-4), at which period he was living near Newbery at Islington, and his publisher was paying for his board and lodging. The text of the extracts here published is from a photographic facsimile of the earliest complete copy, edited by Charles Welsh (Griffith and Farran, Successors to Newbery and Harris, West Corner of St. Paul's Churchyard, London, 1880). The quaint title reads as follows, - "THE HISTORY of Little GOODY TWO-SHOES; Otherwise called, Mrs. MARGERY TWO-SHOES. WITH The Means by which she acquired her Learning and Wisdom, and in consequence thereof her Estate; set forth at large for the Benefit of those,

Who from a State of Rags and Care,
And having Shoes but half a Pair;
Their Fortune and their Fame would fix,

And gallop in a Coach and Six.

See the Original Manuscript in the Vatican at Rome, and the Cuts by Michael Angelo. Illustrated with the Comments of our great modern Critics. The THIRD EDITION. LONDON: Printed for J. Newbery, at the Bible and Sun in St. Paul's-Church-Yard, 1766. [Price Six-pence.]"

The dedication is, "To ALL Young Gentlemen and Ladies Who are good, or intend to be good, This BOOK Is inscribed by their old Friend In St. Paul's Church-yard." With slight changes, the book was reprinted in America under the same title: "The First Worcester Edition. Printed at Worcester, Massachusetts, by Isaiah Thomas, And sold Wholesale and Retail, at his Book Store. MDCCLXXXVII.”

Mr. Welsh's later researches into the history of the book have led him to the conclusion that it was planned by John Newbery and written by Goldsmith.