from a knowledge and love of children both extending through many years, i wish to speak of the pleasure and profit they will derive from reading and possessing merry tales.

to keep children sane and sweet they must be given bright and cheery stories to read. they will find them in merry tales. early in life they should learn something of myths and folklore. these tales are founded on these old treasures, but are charmingly adapted to the understanding of present-day children. i have read few books for children possessing such literary value and yet using words that children can master without difficulty, thereby being able to enjoy their own reading.

i hope that merry tales will find a place not only in the schoolroom for that time of delight in a well-taught school,—“the period for supplementary reading,”—but that parents may find the book out to place it in the child’s own library, a thing that a child must have if it is ever to have in later life the joys of a genuine booklover.

margaret w. sutherland,

principal of the columbus normal school.