Thomas H. Huxley - "On the Advisableness of Improving Natural Knowledge"

Coventry Patmore - "The Victories of Love and other Poems"

Henry C. Murphy - "The Voyage of Verrazzano"

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The Story Hour

N >> Nora A. Smith and Kate Douglas Wiggin >> The Story Hour



Juliet Sutherland, Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading
Team



THE STORY HOUR

A BOOK FOR THE HOME AND THE KINDERGARTEN

BY

KATE DOUGLAS WIGGIN

AND

NORA A. SMITH

Therefore ear and heart open to the genuine story teller,
as flowers open to the spring sun and the May rain.
FRIEDRICH FROEBEL





CONTENTS.

INTRODUCTION. Kate Douglas Wiggin

PREFACE. Kate Douglas Wiggin and Nora A. Smith

THE ORIOLE'S NEST. Kate Douglas Wiggin

DICKY SMILY'S BIRTHDAY. Kate Douglas Wiggin

AQUA; OR, THE WATER BABY. Kate Douglas Wiggin

MOUFFLOU. Adapted from Ouida by Nora A. Smith

BENJY IN BEASTLAND. Adapted from Mrs. Ewing by Kate Douglas Wiggin
and Nora A. Smith

THE PORCELAIN STOVE. Adapted from Ouida by Kate Douglas Wiggin

THE BABES IN THE WOOD. E. S. Smith

THE STORY OF CHRISTMAS. Nora A. Smith

THE FIRST THANKSGIVING DAY. Nora A. Smith

LITTLE GEORGE WASHINGTON. Part I. Nora A. Smith

GREAT GEORGE WASHINGTON. Part II. Nora A. Smith

THE MAPLE-LEAF AND THE VIOLET. Nora A. Smith

MRS. CHINCHILLA. Kate Douglas Wiggin

A STORY OF THE FOREST. Nora A. Smith

PICCOLA. Nora A. Smith

THE CHILD AND THE WORLD. Kate Douglas Wiggin

WHEN I WAS A LITTLE GIRL. Kate Douglas Wiggin

FROEBEL'S BIRTHDAY. Nora A. Smith




INTRODUCTION.

Story-telling, like letter-writing, is going out of fashion. There are
no modern Scheherezades, and the Sultans nowadays have to be amused in
a different fashion. But, for that matter, a hundred poetic pastimes
of leisure have fled before the relentless Hurry Demon who governs
this prosaic nineteenth century. The Wandering Minstrel is gone, and
the Troubadour, and the Court of Love, and the King's Fool, and the
Round Table, and with them the Story-Teller.

"Come, tell us a story!" It is the familiar plea of childhood. Unhappy
he who has not been assailed with it again and again. Thrice miserable
she who can be consigned to worse than oblivion by the scathing
criticism, "She doesn't know any stories!" and thrice blessed she who
is recognized at a glance as a person likely to be full to the brim of
them.

There are few preliminaries and no formalities when the Person with a
Story is found. The motherly little sister stands by the side of her
chair, two or three of the smaller fry perch on the arms, and the baby
climbs up into her lap (such a person always has a capacious lap), and
folds his fat hands placidly. Then there is a deep sigh of blissful
expectation and an expressive silence, which means, "Now we are ready,
please; and if you would be kind enough to begin it with 'Once upon a
time,' we should be much obliged; though of course we understand that
all the stories in the world can't commence that way, delightful as it
would be."

The Person with a Story smiles obligingly (at least it is to be hoped
that she does), and retires into a little corner of her brain, to
rummage there for something just fitted to the occasion. That same
little corner is densely populated, if she is a lover of children. In
it are all sorts of heroic dogs, wonderful monkeys, intelligent cats,
naughty kittens; virtues masquerading seductively as fairies, and
vices hiding in imps; birds agreeing and disagreeing in their little
nests, and inevitable small boys in the act of robbing them; busy bees
laying up their winter stores, and idle butterflies disgracefully
neglecting to do the same; and then a troop of lost children,
disobedient children, and lazy, industrious, generous, or heedless
ones, waiting to furnish the thrilling climaxes. The Story-Teller
selects a hero or heroine out of this motley crowd,--all longing to be
introduced to Bright-Eye, Fine-Ear, Kind-Heart, and Sweet-Lips,--and
speedily the drama opens.

Did Rachel ever have such an audience? I trow not. Rachel never had
tiny hands snuggling into hers in "the very best part of the story,"
nor was she near enough her hearers to mark the thousand shades of
expression that chased each other across their faces,--supposing they
had any expression, which is doubtful. Rachel never saw dimples
lurking in the ambush of rosy cheeks, and popping in and out in such a
distracting manner that she felt like punctuating her discourse with
kisses! Her dull, conventional, grown-up hearers bent a little forward
in their seats, perhaps, and compelled by her magic power laughed and
cried in the right places; but their eyes never shone with that starry
lustre that we see in the eyes of happy children,--a lustre that is
dimmed, alas, in after years. Their eyes still see visions, but the
"shadows of the prison house" have fallen about us, and the things
which we have seen we "now can see no more!"

If you chance to be the Person with a Story, you sit like a queen on
her throne surrounded by her loyal subjects; or like an unworthy sun
with a group of flowers turning their faces towards you. Inspired by
breathless attention, you try ardently to do your very best. It seems
to you that you could never endure a total failure, and you hardly see
how you could bear, with any sort of equanimity, even the vacant gaze
or restless movement that would bespeak a vagrant interest. If you are
a novice, perhaps the frightful idea crosses your mind, "What if one
of these children should slip out of the room?" Or, still more tragic
possibility, suppose they should look you in the eye and remark with
the terrible candor of infancy, "We do not like this story!" But no;
you are more fortunate. The tale is told, and you are greeted with
sighs of satisfaction and with the instantaneous request, "Tell it
again!" That is the encore of the Story-Teller,--"Tell it again! No,
not another story; the same one over again, please!" for "what novelty
is worth that sweet monotony where everything is known, and loved
because it is known?" No royal accolade could be received with greater
gratitude. You endeavor to let humility wait upon self-respect; but
when you discover that the children can scarcely be dragged from your
fascinating presence, crying like Romeo for death rather than
banishment, and that the next time you appear they make a wild dash
from the upper regions, and precipitate themselves upon you with the
full impact of their several weights "multiplied into their velocity,"
you cannot help hugging yourself to think the good God has endowed you
sufficiently to win the love and admiration of such keen observers and
merciless little critics.

Now this charming little drama takes place in somebody's nursery
corner at twilight, when you are waiting for "that cheerful tocsin of
the soul, the dinner-bell," or around somebody's fireside just before
the children's bedtime; but the same scene is enacted every few days
in the presence of the fresh-hearted, childlike kindergartner, of all
women the likeliest to find the secret of eternal youth. She chooses
the story as one of the vessels in which she shall carry the truth to
her circle of little listeners, and you will never hear her say, like
the needy knife-grinder, "Story? God bless you, I have none to tell,
sir!"

If the group chances to be one of bright, well-born, well-bred
youngsters, the opportunity to inspire and instruct is one of the most
effective and valuable that can come to any teacher. On the other
hand, if the circle happens to be one of little ragamuffins, Arabs,
scrips and scraps of vagrant humanity (sometimes scalawags and
sometimes angels), born in basements and bred on curbstones, then
believe me, my countrymen, there is a sight worth seeing, a scene fit
for a painter. It might be a pleasant satire upon our national
hospitality if the artist were to call such a picture "Young America,"
for comparatively few distinctively American faces would be found in
his group of portraits.

Make a mental picture, dear reader, of the ring of listening children
in a San Francisco free kindergarten, for it would be difficult to
gather so cosmopolitan a company anywhere else: curly yellow hair and
rosy cheeks ... sleek blonde braids and calm blue eyes ... swarthy
faces and blue-black curls ... woolly little pows and thick lips ...
long, arched noses and broad, flat ones. There you will see the fire
and passion of the Southern races and the self-poise, serenity, and
sturdiness of Northern nations. Pat is there, with a gleam of humor in
his eye ... Topsy, all smiles and teeth ... Abraham, trading tops with
little Isaac, next in line ... Hans and Gretchen, phlegmatic and
dependable ... Francois, never still for an instant ... Christina,
rosy, calm, and conscientious, and Duncan, canny and prudent as any of
his clan.

What an opportunity for amalgamation of races and for laying the
foundation of American citizenship! for the purely social atmosphere
of the kindergarten makes it a school of life and experience. Imagine
such a group hanging breathless upon your words, as you recount the
landing of the Pilgrims, or try to paint the character of George
Washington in colors that shall appeal to children whose ancestors
have known Napoleon, Cromwell, and Bismarck, Peter the Great,
Garibaldi, Bruce, and Robert Emmett.

To such an audience were the stories in his little book told; and the
lines that will perhaps seem commonplace to you glow for us with a
"light that never was on sea or land;" for "the secret of our emotions
never lies in the bare object, but in its subtle relations to our own
past."

As we turn the pages, radiant faces peep between the words; the echo
of childish laughter rings in our ears and curves our lips with its
happy memory; there isn't a single round O in all the chapters but
serves as a tiny picture-frame for an eager child's face! The commas
say, "Isn't there any more?" the interrogation points ask, "What did
the boy do then?" the exclamation points cry in ecstasy, "What a
beautiful story!" and the periods sigh, "This is all for to-day."

At this point--where the dog Moufflou returns to his little master--we
remember that Carlotty Griggs clapped her ebony hands, and shrieked in
transport, "I KNOWED HE'D come! _I_ KNOWED he'd come!"

Here is the place where we remarked impressively, "A lie, children, is
the very worst thing in the world!" whereupon Billy interrogated, with
wide eyes and awed voice, "IS IT WORSE THAN A RAILROAD CROSSING?" And
there is a sentence in the story of the "Bird's Nest" sacred to the
memory of Tommy's tear!--Tommy of the callous conscience and the
marble heart. Tommy's dull eye washed for one brief moment by the
salutary tear! Truly the humble Story-Teller has not lived in vain.
Sing, ye morning stars, together, for this is the spot where Tommy
cried!

If you would be the Person with a Story, you must not only have one to
tell, but you must be willing to learn how to tell it, if you wish to
make it a "rememberable thing" to children. The Story-Teller, unlike
the poet, is made as well as born, but he is not made of all stuffs
nor in the twinkling of an eye. In this respect he is very like the
Ichneumon in the nonsense rhyme:--

"There once was an idle Ichneumon
Who thought he could learn to play Schumann;
But he found, to his pains,
It took talent and brains,
And neither possessed this Ichneumon."

To be effective, the story in the kindergarten should always be told,
never read; for little children need the magnetism of eye and smile as
well as the gesture which illuminates the strange word and endows it
with meaning. The story that is told is always a thousand times more
attractive, real, and personal than anything read from a book.

Well-chosen, graphically told stories can be made of distinct
educative value in the nursery or kindergarten. They give the child a
love of reading, develop in him the germ, at least, of a taste for
good literature, and teach him the art of speech. If they are told in
simple, graceful, expressive English, they are a direct and valuable
object lesson in this last direction.

The ear of the child becomes used to refined intonations, and slovenly
language will grow more and more disagreeable to him. The
kindergartner cannot be too careful in this matter. By the sweetness
of her tone and the perfection of her enunciation she not only makes
herself a worthy model for the children, but she constantly reveals
the possibilities of language and its inner meaning.

"The very brooding of a voice on a word," says George Macdonald,
"seems to hatch something of what is in it."

Stories help a child to form a standard by which he can live and grow,
for they are his first introduction into the grand world of the ideal
in character.

"We live by Admiration, Hope, and Love; And even as these are well and
wisely fixed, In dignity of being we ascend."

The child understands his own life better, when he is enabled to
compare it with other lives; he sees himself and his own possibilities
reflected in them as in a mirror.

They also aid in the growth of the imaginative faculty, which is very
early developed in the child, and requires its natural food.
"Imagination," says Dr. Seguin, "is more than a decorative attribute
of leisure; it is a power in the sense that from images perceived and
stored it sublimes ideals." "If I were to choose between two great
calamities for my children," he goes on to say, "I would rather have
them unalphabetic than unimaginative."

There is a great difference of opinion concerning the value of fairy
stories. The Gradgrinds will not accept them on any basis whatever,
but they are invariably so fascinating to children that it is certain
they must serve some good purpose and appeal to some inherent craving
in child-nature. But here comes in the necessity of discrimination.
The true meaning of the word "faerie" is spiritual, but many stories
masquerade under that title which have no claim to it. Some universal
spiritual truth underlies the really fine old fairy tale; but there
can be no educative influence in the so-called fairy stories which are
merely jumbles of impossible incidents, and which not unfrequently
present dishonesty, deceit, and cruelty in attractive or amusing
guise.

When the fairy tale carries us into an exquisite ideal world, where
the fancy may roam at will, creating new images and seeing truth ever
in new forms, then it has a pure and lovely influence over children,
who are natural poets, and live more in the spirit and less in the
body than we. The fairy tale offers us a broad canvas on which to
paint our word-pictures. There are no restrictions of time or space;
the world is ours, and we can roam in it at will; for spirit, there,
is ever victorious over matter.

"Once upon a time," saith the Story-Teller, "there was a beautiful
locust tree, that bent its delicate fans and waved its creamy blossoms
in the sunshine, and laughed because its flowers were so lovely and
fragrant and the world was so fresh and green in its summer dress."

"It's queer for a tree to laugh," said Bright-Eye.

"But queerer if it didn't laugh, with such lovely blossoms hanging all
over it," replied Fine-Ear.

Everything is real to the happy child. Life is a sort of fairy garden,
where he wanders as in a dream. "He can make abstraction of whatever
does not fit into his fable; and he puts his eyes into his pocket just
as we hold our noses in an unsavory lane."

Stories offer a valuable field for instruction, and for introducing in
simple and attractive form much information concerning the laws of
plant and flower and animal life.

A story of this kind, however, must be made as well as told by an
artist; for in the hands of a bungler it is quite as likely to be a
failure as a success. It must be compounded with the greatest care,
and the scientific facts must be generously diluted and mixed in small
proportions with other and more attractive elements, or it will be
rejected by the mental stomach; or, if received in one ear, will be
unceremoniously ushered from the other with an "Avaunt! cold fact!
What have thou and I in common!"

Did you ever tell a story of this kind and watch its effect upon
children? Did you ever note that fatal moment when it BEGAN to BEGIN
to dawn upon the intelligence of the dullest member of your flock that
your narrative was a "whited sepulchre," and that he was being
instructed within an inch of his life?

"Treat me at least with honesty, my good woman!" he cries in his
spirit. "Read me lessons if you will, but do not make a pretense of
amusing me at the same moment!"

This obvious attitude of criticism is very disagreeable to you, but
never mind, it will be a salutary lesson. Did you think, O clumsy
visitor in childhood land, that simply because you called your stuffed
dolls "Prince" and "Princess" you could conduct them straight through
the mineral kingdom, and allow them to converse with all the metals
with impunity? Nest time make your scientific fact an integral part of
the story, and do not try to introduce too much knowledge in one dose.
All children love Nature and sympathize with her (or if they do not,
"then despair of them, O Philanthropy!"), and all stories that bring
them nearer to the dear mother's heart bring them at the same time
nearer to God; therefore lead them gently to a loving observation of

"The hills
Rock-ribbed and ancient as the sun; the vales
Stretching in pensive quietness between;
The venerable woods; rivers that move
In majesty, and the complaining brooks
That make the meadows green."

Stories bring the force of example to bear upon children in the very
best possible way. Here we can speak to the newly awakened soul and
touch it to nobler issues. This can be done with very little of that
abstract moralizing which is generally so ineffective. A moral "lugged
in" by the heels, so to speak, without any sense of perspective on the
part of the Story-Teller, can no more incline a child to nobler living
than cold victuals can serve as a fillip to the appetite. The facts
themselves should suffice to exert the moral influence; the deeds
should speak louder than the words, and in clearer, fuller tones. At
the end of such a story, "Go thou and do likewise" sounds in the
child's heart, and a new throb of tenderness and aspiration, of desire
to do, to grow, and to be, stirs gently there and wakes the soul to
higher ideals. In such a story the canting, vapid, or didactic little
moral, tacked like a tag on the end, for fear we shall not read the
lesson aright, is nothing short of an insult to the better feelings.
It used to be very much in vogue, but we have learned better nowadays,
and we recognize (to paraphrase Mrs. Whitney's bright speech) that we
have often vaccinated children with morality for fear of their taking
it the natural way.

It is a curious fact that children sympathize with the imaginary woes
of birds and butterflies and plants much more readily than with the
sufferings of human beings; and they are melted to tears much more
quickly by simple incidents from the manifold life of nature, than by
the tragedies of human experience which surround them on every side.
Robert Louis Stevenson says in his essay on "Child's Play," "Once,
when I was groaning aloud with physical pain, a young gentleman came
into the room and nonchalantly inquired if I had seen his bow and
arrow. He made no account of my groans, which he accepted, as he had
to accept so much else, as a piece of the inexplicable conduct of his
elders. Those elders, who care so little for rational enjoyment, and
are even the enemies of rational enjoyment for others, he had accepted
without understanding and without complaint, as the rest of us accept
the scheme of the universe." Miss Anna Buckland quotes in this
connection a story of a little boy to whom his mother showed a picture
of Daniel in the lions' den. The child sighed and looked much
distressed, whereupon his mother hastened to assure him that Daniel
was such a good man that God did not let the lions hurt him. "Oh,"
replied the little fellow, "I was not thinking of that; but I was
afraid that those big lions were going to eat all of him themselves,
and that they would not give the poor little lion down in the corner
any of him!"

It is well to remember the details with which you surrounded your
story when first you told it, and hold to them strictly on all other
occasions. The children allow you no latitude in this matter; they
draw the line absolutely upon all change. Woe unto you, scribes and
Pharisees, if you speak of Jimmy when "his name was Johnny;" or if,
when you are depicting the fearful results of disobedience, you lose
Jane in a cranberry bog instead of the heart of a forest! Personally
you do not care much for little Jane, and it is a matter of no moment
to you where you lost her; but an error such as this undermines the
very foundations of the universe in the children's minds. "Can Jane be
lost in two places?" they exclaim mentally," or are there two Janes,
and are they both lost? because if so, it must be a fatality to be
named Jane."

Perez relates the following incident: "A certain child was fond of a
story about a young bird, which, having left its nest, although its
mother had forbidden it to do so, flew to the top of a chimney, fell
down the flue into the fire, and died a victim to his disobedience.
The person who told the story thought it necessary to embellish it
from his own imagination. 'That's not right,' said the child at the
first change which was made, 'the mother said this and did that.' His
cousin, not remembering the story word for word, was obliged to have
recourse to invention to fill up gaps. But the child could not stand
it. He slid down from his cousin's knees, and with tears in his eyes,
and indignant gestures, exclaimed, 'It's not true! The little bird
said, coui, coui, coui, coui, before he fell into the fire, to make
his mother hear; but the mother did not hear him, and he burnt his
wings, his claws, and his beak, and he died, poor little bird.' And
the child ran away, crying as if he had been beaten. He had been worse
than beaten; he had been deceived, or at least he thought so; his
story had been spoiled by being altered." So seriously do children for
a long time take fiction for reality.

If you find the attention of the children wandering, you can
frequently win it gently back by showing some object illustrative of
your story, by drawing a hasty sketch on a blackboard, or by questions
to the children. You sometimes receive more answers than you bargained
for; sometimes these answers will be confounded with the real facts;
and sometimes they will fall very wide of the mark.

I was once telling the exciting tale of the Shepherd's Child lost in
the mountains, and of the sagacious dog who finally found him. When I
reached the thrilling episode of the search, I followed the dog as he
started from the shepherd's hut with the bit of breakfast for his
little master. The shepherd sees the faithful creature, and seized by
a sudden inspiration follows in his path. Up, up the mountain sides
they climb, the father full of hope, the mother trembling with fear.
The dog rushes ahead, quite out of sight; the anxious villagers press
forward in hot pursuit. The situation grows more and more intense;
they round a little point of rocks, and there, under the shadow of a
great gray crag, they find--

"What do you suppose they found?"

"FI' CENTS!!" shouted Benny in a transport of excitement. "BET YER
THEY FOUND FI' CENTS!!"

You would imagine that such a preposterous idea could not find favor
in any sane community; but so altogether seductive a guess did this
appear to be, that a chorus of "Fi' cents!" "Fi' cents!" sounded on
every side; and when the tumult was hushed, the discovery of an
ordinary flesh and blood child fell like an anti-climax on a public
thoroughly in love with its own incongruities. Let the psychologist
explain Benny's mental processes; we prefer to leave them undisturbed
and unclassified.

If you have no children of your own, dear Person with a Story, go into
the highways and by-ways and gather together the little ones whose
mothers' lips are dumb; sealed by dull poverty, hard work, and
constant life in atmospheres where graceful fancies are blighted as
soon as they are born. There is no fireside, and no chimney corner in
those crowded tenements. There is no silver-haired grandsire full of
years and wisdom, with memory that runs back to the good old times
that are no more. There is no cheerful grandame with pocket full of
goodies and a store of dear old reminiscences all beginning with that
enchanting phrase, "When I was a little girl."

Brighten these sordid lives a little with your pretty thoughts, your
lovely imaginations, your tender pictures. Speak to them simply, for
their minds grope feebly in the dim twilight of their restricted
lives. The old, old stories will do; stories of love and heroism and
sacrifice; of faith and courage and fidelity. Kindle in tired hearts a
gentler thought of life; open the eyes that see not and the ears that
hear not; interpret to them something of the beauty that has been
revealed to you. You do not need talent, only sympathy, "the one poor
word that includes all our best insight and our best love."

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