Page 311. "Thor Goes a-Fishing" is from Mabie's _Norse Stories_ (Rand-McNally & Co., Chicago, 1902. Copyright, 1900, 1901, by Dodd, Mead & Co.). It is printed here through special arrangement with the holders of the copyright.

Page 315. "Baldur" is Chapter VI of _The Heroes of Asgard_, revised and abridged by Charles H. Morss (Macmillan Company, New York, 1909). The preface states that "this volume is really an abridgment of Keary's _The Heroes of Asgard_, adapting it to cla.s.sroom use for pupils of about the fourth and fifth grades." The selection is presented here as a splendid specimen of "made-over" literature, as well as, in its own right, a masterpiece of story-telling for children.

Page 327. The story of William Wallace is from _The Tales of a Grandfather_ (Adam and Charles Black, Edinburgh, 1889). This edition is "reprinted from the latest edition published in the lifetime of Mr.

Lockhart, and probably under his immediate supervision."

Page 339. "The Tempest" is from _Tales from Shakespeare_, with introductions and additions by F. J. Furnivall (Raphael Tuck & Sons, London, 1901). The "Tales" are very uneven in merit, the Comedies being superior, in the editor's opinion, to the Tragedies, and "The Tempest"

being considerably the best of the Comedies. It is generally understood that it was Mary Lamb who told the Comedies and Charles who had charge of the Tragedies.

Page 349. "The Purple Jar" is from "Rosamond" in a volume ent.i.tled _Frank, Rosamond, Harry, and Lucy_ (Frederick Warne & Co., London, n. d.). This is an inexpensive volume containing all of Miss Edgeworth's good stories except those in _The Parent's a.s.sistant_.

One may not care for tales of this sort; but they have their value, both as morality and literature, and "The Purple Jar" is one of the most effective specimens of its kind.

Pages 354, 356. The two didactic stories by Aiken and Barbauld are from _Evenings at Home; or, the Juvenile Budget opened: consisting of a variety of miscellaneous pieces for the instruction and amus.e.m.e.nt of young persons_ (Henry Washbourne, London, 1847). This edition is described as "newly arranged." "Eyes and No Eyes" has been admired and praised by thousands of readers of past generations, among whom Oliver Wendell Holmes and Charles Kingsley are preeminent.

Page 363. "Rab and His Friends" is the first sketch in _Horae Subsecivae_, First Series (Frederick A. Stokes Company, New York, 1893). An accurate and inexpensive edition is that in the Canterbury Cla.s.sics (Rand-McNally & Co., Chicago). It is one of the most pathetic stories in all literature, conforming precisely to Ruskin's theory that a child's story should be "sad and sweet."

Page 375. Mrs. Miller's story of the blue jay is one of the most charming of the stories in _True Bird Stories_ (Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, 1903). It is reprinted in this collection with the permission of the publishers.

Page 378. "A Cry in the Night" is the second story in _Wood Folk at School_ (Ginn & Co., Boston, 1903). It is printed here by special arrangement with the publishers. Mr. Long's studies of wild animal life are among the few distinctive contributions to children's literature within this generation.

Page 389. The selections from the Bible are from the King James Version. The verse divisions in this version have been ignored in this reprint, as having little literary significance, and the paragraphs indicated by the paragraph marks in the original have been used as the natural units of thought--though the paragraphing does not always represent the thought divisions. Quotation marks have been inserted throughout.

From the story of Joseph, Genesis 37-50, it has been thought best to omit the following: all of Chapter 38, Chapter 39: 7-19; Chapter 46: 8- 27; Chapter 49; 1-28. From the story of Samson, Judges 13:24 to end of Chapter 17, one clause in the first verse of Chapter 16 has been omitted. From the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5:1-7:29, verses 27-32 from Chapter 5 have been omitted. The discourse of Paul on Charity, First Corinthians, Chapter 13, has been separated into paragraphs.

Page 421. The letter of Lewis Carroll is from _Life and Letters of Lewis Carroll_, by S. Dodgson Collingwood (T. Fisher Unwin, London, 1898). Hood's letter is from _Thomas Hood: His Life and Times_ (London, 1907). d.i.c.kens's letter is from _Letters of Charles d.i.c.kens_ (London, 1880).

Page 425. Irving's essay on "Indian Character" is reprinted from _The Sketch Book_, Author's Revised Edition (G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York, 1888).

Page 434. "Of Studies" is from _The Essays of Francis Bacon_ (Longmans, Green & Co., London, 1907). The text is that of Aldis Wright, but the spelling and punctuation have been modernized.

Page 435. Theodore Roosevelt's spirited and characteristic essay on "The American Boy" is to be found among the essays and addresses in _The Strenuous Life_ (Century Company, New York, 1911), and is here used by permission of author and publisher.

Page 441. Patrick Henry's celebrated oration is from _Sketches of the Life of Patrick Henry_, by William Wirt, third edition, corrected by the author, Philadelphia, 1818, which is the first printed version of the speech. No one really knows how much of it is Henry's, how much is Wirt's. Wirt gives much of the oration in the third person, with many "he said's." It is here given in the first person, following almost precisely the version given in Tyler's _Patrick Henry_ (Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, 1898), which, of course, is based on Wirt's version. All the evidence bears out the contention that Wirt's account of the oration is authentic.

Page 443. The "Supposed Speech of John Adams" is taken from the _Works of Daniel Webster_ (Little, Brown & Co., Boston, 1853). The speech is really a portion of Webster's oration on Adams and Jefferson, delivered in Faneuil Hall, Boston, August 2, 1826, less than a month after the death of Adams and Jefferson. The "Supposed Speech" is Webster's conception of how Adams might have answered a speaker who had argued against the pa.s.sing of the Declaration of Independence.

Page 446. This reading of the "Gettysburg Address" is taken, punctuation and all, from the autographed copy of the address written for the Baltimore Fair and signed November 19, 1863. The facsimile lithographed copy of this is to be found in _Autograph Leaves of Our Country's Authors_ (Cushings & Bailey, Baltimore, 1864). A full and accurate account of the three versions of the address is found in the _Century_ magazine for February, 1894.