Front Matter

Introduction

There is no richer theme for children's stories than the miracle of Spring. The selections in "The Emerald Story Book" aim to serve the young reader's interest in three ways. Some of the myths and legends are interesting or amusing because flowers, insects, or birds are presented as personalities and emphasise human qualities or feelings. Some of the stories and poems contribute to the child's store of knowledge by attracting his attention to some fact, beauty, or blessing in nature which may have escaped his notice. Still others make an appeal by suggesting or arming the abiding hope symbolised in the thought, "See the land her Easter keeping."

The child's heart is filled with the joy of spring,—with the fapture expressed in the thrush's song which Mrs. Ewing describes. "Fresh water and green woods, ambrosial sunshine and sun-flecked shade, chattering brooks and rustling leaves, glade and sward and dell. Lichens and cool mosses, feathered ferns and flowers. Green leaves! Green leaves! Joy! Joy!"

The editors' thanks are due to Mrs. Katherine Tynan-Hinckson for permission to use her poem, "Sheep and Lambs"; Miss Lucy Wheelock for her story, "A Little Acorn"; to Mr. Bliss Carman for "A Lyric of Joy"; Mr. Clinton Scollard for "The Little Brown Wren"; Mr. James Whitcomb Riley for the quotation from "Mister Hop-Toad"; Mrs. Agnes McClelland Daulton and Rand, McNally & Co., for two stories, "A Great Family" and "Jolly Little Tars"; Mr. Warren J. Brier for "Mr. Pine and Mr. Maple"; Mrs. Margaret Deland for her poem, "Jonquils"; Miss Helen Keller for "Edith and the Bees"; Mrs. Annie Trumbull Slosson for "A Child's Easter"; and Mr. Alfred Noyes for his poem "Little Boy Blue"; and to the following publishers who have granted permission to reprint selections in this collection from works bearing their copyright: to G. P. Putnam's Sons for "The Selfish Giant," by Oscar Wilde; to Houghton Mifflin Co., for the poem, "Talking in Their Sleep," by Edith M. Thomas; to the Atlantic Monthly  and Silver Burdette Company for "The Maple Seed"; to A. Flanagan and Co., of Chicago, for "The Promised Plant," from "Child's Christ-Tales," by Andrea Hofer Proudfoot, and "Pussy Willow," from "Little People's Doings and Misdoings" by Kate Louise Brown; to Doubleday, Page & Co., for "The House Wren," from "Birds Every Child Should Know," by Neltje Blanchan, and "Briar Rose" from "The Fairy Ring," edited by Kate Douglas Wiggin and Nora Archibald Smith; to Grace Duffield Godwin for "An Eastern Legend," from Houjon Songs, published by Sherman, French & Co.; to Henry Holt & Co., for the selection, "Buzz and Hum," by Maurice Noel; The Churchman  for "In the Garden: An Easter Prelude"; Fleming H. Revell Co., for "When Thou Comest Unto Thy Kingdom"; to The Sunday School Times  for the "Story of Blue-Wings" and "The Wind, a Helper"; to The Youth's Companion  and Miss Helen Keller for the selection, "The Spirit of Easter"; to Messrs. Dodd, Mead and Co., and Mr. Paul R. Reynolds, for the selection from "The Children's Bluebird," by Maurice Maeterlinck.