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THE BOOK OF FABLES ANDFOLK STORIES

CINDERELLA AT THE BALL

THE BOOK OFFABLES AND FOLKSTORIESBYHORACE E. SCUDDERILLUSTRATED EDITIONYESTERDAY’S CLASSICSCHAPEL HILL, NORTH CAROLINA

Cover and arrangement 2006 Yesterday’s Classics.This edition, first published in 2006 byYesterday’s Classics, is an unabridged republication of the work originally published byHoughton Mifflin Co. in 1915. For a completelisting of the books published by Yesterday’sClassics, please visit www.yesterdaysclassics.com.Yesterday’s Classics is the publishing arm of theBaldwin Project which presents the complete textof dozens of classic books for children atwww.mainlesson.com under the editorship of LisaM. Ripperton and T. A. Roth.ISBN-10: 1-59915-127-8ISBN-13: 978-1-59915-127-4Yesterday’s ClassicsPO Box 3418Chapel Hill, NC 27515

PREFACE TO ILLUSTRATEDEDITIONIN preparing this illustrated edition of theFables and Folk Stories the aim has been to makethe book more attractive, and so simple that it willappeal to a younger class of readers. Children in theirsecond year of school can read understandingly andenjoy these short stories that have stood the test ofcenturies. The easier and more familiar of these taleshave been placed first; those with the larger andmore difficult vocabulary later. It is hoped that bythis grading of the material the book can be usedsuccessfully one school year earlier than the editionfrom which this is made. The author’s language hasbeen retained in so far as practicable.CHARLES H. MORESMEDFORD, MASS., April, 1906.

PREFACEAS soon as a child has learned to make outsimple sentences, the wise teacher looks about forsomething which it is worth while to read. Theprimer and the reader are necessarily simple, but thesimplicity is, for the most part, below the child’sintelligence. Children can understand by hearing longbefore they can understand by reading; during theperiod when they are mastering the several combinations in which a boy, a rat, and a cat can be placed,and are acquiring the power of reading at sight, theyare listening to books which are by no means so barren in their simplicity, and as soon as they are able toread the little stories which they find in their firstreaders they leave them behind.It is interesting to note, however, that thereare certain parts of their primer which they neverleave behind and never forget. The Mother GooseMelodies and the proverbs which form some of theearly sentences taught them, the quaint nursery taleslike The Story of Chicken Licken, The Old Womanand Her Pig, The Three Bears,—these they remember and separate from the chaff of the ordinaryreading exercises by the winnowing fan of their spiritual judgment. They perceive, even thus early, whatis literature and what is not literature; they hold tothat, and discard this.

THE BOOK OF FABLES AND FOLK STORIESLiterature, for the sake of which the art ofreading is acquired, is never left behind, and itbecomes of importance to give children, as soon asmay be, enduring forms on which they may exercisetheir newly acquired power, and in which they maytake the first draughts of a pleasure as genuine as anyto be enjoyed when they come into the full possession of their blossoming faculty of imagination.There are two forms of literary art whichbelong rightfully to the early period of childhood:the Fable and the Folk Story. The fable is oriental,and it is antique. It is also exceedingly current anduniversal as a coin of speech. The man and the boyboth use it, and while in its full form it seems mostcapable of giving pleasure to the child, its conventionalism enables the mature mind to accept itwithout any sense of condescension to childishthings. It is the most perfect literary instrument ofassociation between the young and the old, andbecomes therefore by right the first possession ofchildren in literature.There are good reasons, from its structure,why the fable should be adapted to the use of children. In the first place, it is short; the child has thepleasure of reading an entire story at one sitting.Then it is of animals, and animals are the naturalcompanions of the child. Again, it is interesting andnovel; it appeals to his imagination, for it representsthe animal as having human properties; and it suggests a plain moral. It is true, the morality of thefable usually is a prudential one, but prudence is avirtue which comes early in the lessons of life. We

PREFACEmay rest with confidence in the worth of storieswhich have been tested by generations and centuriesof use.The child, therefore, who reads the classicfables has begun his acquaintance with permanentliterature. He is reading what the world has chosento remember. He is applying his new powers to thatwhich is worth while. He is beginning to receive theimpressions, which literature has made upon humanlife, and the early impressions which he thus receiveswill never become even consciously faint. That is tosay, there never will come a time in his life when thefable may not still give him pleasure; but the timealready has come when the reading-book which heread last week no longer can excite his interest orhold his attention. Every one will recognize theimportant step which a child has taken when he hasentered the current of the world’s lasting literature.The folk-story is more exclusively the child’s,and is shared by older people rather through memory and association than by continued use. Everypeople of Europe, and the Americans by compositeinheritance, have a body of household tales which,whatever their antiquity, have become the peculiarpossession of Christendom. Scholars have madecomparative studies of these tales, but they havebased such studies upon the stories as they havebeen transmitted, not so much through books asthrough recital, from mother to child, in the courseof generations. While poets were forming the literature which fills our libraries, the unlettered peoplewere repeating to each other these familiar, poetic

THE BOOK OF FABLES AND FOLK STORIEStales. Now and then some romancer would take oneof them and set it forth in finer, more fantastic garb,but for the most part the form was a homely one,which did not vary greatly from one age to another.In preparing this book for use in schools, Ihave drawn upon two volumes I had already published; “The Book of Fables” and “The Book ofFolk-Stories,” and have added others not theregiven. In writing out the fables, so far as they werefrom Æsop, I have endeavored to preserve the exactlines of the original story, and to use phrases whichpresent no extraordinary difficulties to a child. It hasnot been my purpose to turn these fables into wordsof one syllable, for such words and the constructionwhich they compel often produce an artificial effect,of greater difficulty to the young reader than themore natural arrangement of words which may happen to have two syllables or even three.In the case of the folk stories, I have notdeparted knowingly from the generally acceptedstructure. I have tried simply to use words and constructions which present the fewest difficulties. Ishould like to believe that I have succeeded to someextent in thinking out these stories as a child wouldthink them, and so have used that order and choiceof words which would be the natural expression of achild’s mind. By a mingling of the two forms, greatervariety has been secured, and the arrangement hasregard to the order of ease in reading.H. E. SCUDDER.CAMBRIDGE, MASS., August 13, 1890.

CONTENTSLITTLE RED-RIDING-HOOD .1THE GOOSE THAT LAID GOLDEN EGGS .5THE DOG IN THE MANGER .6THE FOX AND THE GRAPES .7LITTLE ONE EYE, LITTLE TWO EYES, AND LITTLETHREE EYES .8THE WIND AND THE SUN . 18THE CROW AND THE PITCHER . 19THE BOYS AND THE FROGS . 20A COUNTRY FELLOW AND THE RIVER . 21PUSS IN BOOTS . 22THE FARMER’S SONS . 29THE LION AND THE BEAR . 30THE LION AND THE MOUSE. 31THE ELVES AND THE SHOEMAKER . 33THE STAG AND THE LION . 37THE STAR-GAZER . 38

THE BOOK OF FABLES AND FOLK STORIESTHE FOX AND THE LION .39THE FARMER AND THE STORK .40THE DOG AND THE WOLF .41THE FOX IN THE WELL.42THE TWO PACKS .43THE DOG AND HIS IMAGE .44THE FOX AND THE STORK .45THE SPENDTHRIFT AND THE SWALLOW .46JACK AND THE BEAN-STALK.47THE FROG AND THE OX.59THE MILLER, HIS SON AND THEIR ASS .61CINDERELLA, OR THE GLASS SLIPPER .63THE WOLF IN SHEEP’S CLOTHING .73THE ARAB AND HIS CAMEL .74TOM THUMB .76THE TORTOISE AND THE HARE .86THE COUNTRY MOUSE AND THE TOWN MOUSE .88THE GNAT AND THE BULL.90THE SLEEPING BEAUTY IN THE WOOD .91THE ANT AND THE GRASSHOPPER .99THE LION AND THE FOX .100

CONTENTSDICK WHITTINGTON AND HIS CAT . 102THE CAT, THE MONKEY, AND THE CHESTNUTS . 113THE LARK AND HER YOUNG ONES . 114THE FLIES AND THE POT OF HONEY . 116BEAUTY AND THE BEAST . 117THE WOLF AND THE LAMB . 130THE TRAVELERS AND THE BEAR . 132THE TORTOISE AND THE EAGLE . 133THE WHITE CAT . 135THE LION, THE ASS, AND THE FOX . 151THE JACKDAW AND THE DOVES . 152THE FOUR BULLS AND THE LION. 153THE COUNTRY MAID AND HER MILK-PAIL . 154THE CAT, THE WEASEL AND THE YOUNG RABBIT . 155THE TRAVELING MUSICIANS . 157BELLING THE CAT . 164THE WOLF AND THE CRANE. 165THE WOLF AND THE SHEPHERD . 166THE FROGS ASK FOR A KING . 167

LITTLE RED-RIDING-HOODONCE upona time there lived ina certain village alittlegirl.Hermother was veryfond of her, andher grandmotherloved her evenmore. This goodold woman madefor her a red cloak,which suited thechild so well thatever after she wascalled Little RedRiding-Hood. One day her mothermade some cakes, and said to LittleRed-Riding-Hood:—“Go, my dear, and see how grandmotherdoes, for I hear that she has been very ill. Carry her acake and a little pot of butter.”Little Red-Riding-Hood set out at once to goto her grandmother, who lived in another village. Asshe was going through the wood she met a largeWolf. He had a very great mind to eat her up; but he1

THE BOOK OF FABLES AND FOLK STORIESdared not, for there were some wood-choppers nearby. So he asked her:—“Where are you going, little girl?” The poorchild did not know that it was dangerous to stop andtalk with the Wolf, and she said:—“I am going to see my grandmother, and carryher a cake and a little pot of butter from mymother.”“Does she live far off?” asked the Wolf.“Oh, yes. It is beyond that mill, at the firsthouse in the village.”“Well,” said the Wolf, “I will go and see her,too. I will go this way; do you go that, and we willsee who will be there soonest.”At this the Wolf began to run as fast as hecould, taking the nearest way, and Little Red-RidingHood went by the farthest. She stopped often tochase a butterfly, or pluck a flower, and so she was agood while on the way. The Wolf was soon at theold woman’s house, and knocked at the door—tap,tap!“Who is there?”“Your grandchild, Little Red-Riding-Hood,”replied the Wolf, changing his voice. “I have broughtyou a cake and a pot of butter from mother.” Thegood grandmother, who was ill in bed, called out:—“Pull the string, and the latch will go up.”The Wolf pulled the string, and the latch wentup. The door opened, and he jumped in, and fell2

LITTLE RED-RIDING-HOODupon the old woman, and ate her up in less than notime, for he had not tasted food for three days. Hethen shut the door, and got into the grandmother’sbed. By and by, Little Red-Riding-Hood came andknocked at the door—tap, tap!“Who is there?”Little Red-Riding-Hood heard the big voice ofthe Wolf, and at first she was afraid. Then shethought her grandmother must have a bad cold, soshe answered:—“Little Red-Riding-Hood. I have brought youa cake and a pot of butter from mother.” The Wolfsoftened his voice as much a

of dozens of classic books for children at www.mainlesson.com under the editorship of Lisa M. Ripperton and T. A. Roth. ISBN-10: 1-59915-127-8 ISBN-13: 978-1-59915-127-4 Yesterday’s Classics PO Box 3418 Chapel Hill, NC 27515 . PREFACE TO ILLUSTRATED EDITION IN preparing this illustrated edition of the Fables and Folk Stories the aim has been to make the book more attractive, and so simple .File Size: 458KBPage Count: 33Explore furtherPrintable Short Stories : Many Short Stories are here for .www.english-for-students.com1 English Short Stories for Beginners, www.really-learn .www.really-learn-english.comAesop's Fables for Children – Illustrated short stories .www.freekidsbooks.orgFolktales from Around the World - School Specialtyeps.schoolspecialty.com4 Short Funny Stories for Kids - Empowered Parentsempoweredparents.coRecommended to you based on what's popular Feedback