Front Matter

Introduction

To those who know Miss Maud Lindsay's stories for little children, a new collection needs no heralding. She has proved herself gifted with loving insight, literary ability, and spiritual power. Her stories, whether told in kindergarten, school, or Sunday-school, or perused by little readers, have charmed children and touched their hearts.

The stories in "A Story Garden" are addressed, in the main, to the nursery public—a public in pinafore and rompers,—to the very youngest listeners. Any one who uses them with little children, whether realizing or not the art required for such writing, will find the stories wonderful in their fitness and enduring interest. Repetition only endears them to the listening child, for, unlike many "simple" stories, which are merely pretty little nothings, Miss Lindsay's have point and truth that the young child can understand.

To invite little children and their retinue of loving attendants to enter "A Story Garden" and enjoy its fair blossoms and wholesome fruit, is a privilege of which I gladly avail myself, because I can unqualifiedly commend Miss Lindsay's stories as the very best I know of for little children. They are by far the best literary product (of their kind) that can be traced to the kindergarten or to the new understanding of childhood that marks our time. Trust them. Use them. They will give joy, refine the taste, enrich the imagination, and gently impel the child toward the True, the Beautiful, and the Good.

Preface

Children delight in folk-tale and fairy lore, but the very little child loves best the story which mirrors the familiar. And it is for him, and for the mother who is striving in this age of profusion to guard the innate simplicity of her child's nature, that I have written my little stories.

Sheffield; Ala.