Not long ago, I happened upon an instance of the teaching power of these nonsense tales, so amusing and convincing that I cannot forbear to share it.  A primary teacher who heard me tell “Epaminondas” one evening, told it to her pupils the next morning, with great effect.  A young teacher who was observing in the room at the time told me what befell.  She said the children laughed very heartily over the story, and evidently liked it much.  About an hour later, one of them was sent to the board to do a little problem.  It happened that the child made an excessively foolish mistake, and did not notice it.  As he glanced at the teacher for the familiar smile of encouragement, she simply raised her hands, and ejaculated “`For the law’s sake!’”

It was sufficient.  The child took the cue instantly.  He looked hastily at his work, broke into an irrepressible giggle, rubbed the figures out, without a word, and began again.  And the whole class entered into the joke with the gusto of fellow-fools, for once wise.

It is safe to assume that the child in question will make fewer needless mistakes for a long time because of the wholesome reminder of his likeness with one who “ain’t got the sense he was born with.”  And what occurred so visibly in his case goes on quietly in the hidden recesses of the mind in many cases.  One “Epaminondas” is worth three lectures.

I wish there were more of such funny little tales in the world’s literature, all ready, as this one is, for telling to the youngest of our listeners.  But masterpieces are few in any line, and stories for telling are no exception; it took generations, probably, to make this one.  The demand for new sources of supply comes steadily from teachers and mothers, and is the more insistent because so often met by the disappointing recommendations of books which prove to be for reading only, rather than for telling.  It would be a delight to print a list of fifty, twenty-five, even ten books which would be found full of stories to tell without much adapting.  But I am grateful to have found even fewer than the ten, to which I am sure the teacher can turn with real profit.  The following names are, of course, additional to the list contained in “How to Tell Stories to Children.”

All about Johnnie Jones.  By Carolyn Verhoeff.  Milton Bradley Co., Springfield, Mass.  Valuable for kindergartners as a supply of realistic stories with practical lessons in simplest form.

Old deccan days.  By Mary Frere.  Joseph McDonough, Albany, New York.  A splendid collection of Hindu folk tales, adaptable for all ages.

The silver crown.  By Laura E. Richards.  Little, Brown & Co., Boston.  Poetic fables with beautiful suggestions of ethical truths.

The children’s hour.  By Eva March Tappan.  Houghton, Mifflin & Co., Boston, New York, and Chicago.  A classified collection, in ten volumes, of fairy, folk tales, fables, realistic, historical, and poetical stories.