kindergarten would proclaim to the Montessori System the place of _guidance of freedom_ in the child's growth. _The Elves and the Shoemaker_ offers to a first grade a pleasing opportunity for the _fairy tale to unite with the dramatic game_. One child may act as narrator, standing to tell the story from the beginning to the end of the evening's conversation, "I should like to sit up tonight and see who it is that makes the shoes." At this point, noiselessly a dozen or more Elves may troop in, and seating themselves sing and act the first part of the _Dramatic Game of Little Elves_, one form of which is given by Miss Crawford. After they have stitched, rapped, and tapped quickly, and the shoes are made, they depart hurriedly. The narrator now continues the story, telling how the Shoemaker and his wife made little clothes for the Elves, ending with what happened on Christmas Eve, when they put the gay jackets and caps on the table and hid in the corner to watch. At this point the Elves come in a second time, donning their new clothes; and sing and dance the second part of the dramatic game. As they dance out of sight the narrator concludes the story. If the primary children made these clothes or if the kindergarten children bought them at Christmas time to give to the poor, the play[3] would take on a real human value. _Sleeping Beauty_, another tale suited to the first grade, is admirably adapted for dramatization.--In all this work the children do the planning but the teacher directs their impulses, criticizes their plans, and shows them what they have done. She leads them to see the tale in the correct acts and scenes, to put together what belongs together. _Sleeping Beauty_ naturally outlines itself into the ten main incidents we have noted before. If the story has been presented according to the standards given here, the children will see the story in those main incidents. In the dramatization they might work together narration of the story and the dramatic game, _Dornröschen_. A wide circle of children might be the chorus while the players take their places in the center of the circle. The narrator, one of the circle, stands apart from it as he narrates. The version here used is the McLoughlin one, illustrated by Johann and Leinweber. _Sleeping Beauty_ _Place: Castle_. King, Queen, and courtiers take their places within the circle. The circle moves to waltz step, singing stanza I, of the dramatic game:-- The Princess was so beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, etc. At the conclusion of stanza I, the circle stops, the narrator steps forth and tells the story to the end of the words, "one had to stay at home." _Scene i. The Feast_. Twelve fairies enter, each presenting her gift and making a speech. The wicked thirteenth comes in and pronounces her curse, and the twelfth fairy softens it to sleep. The King proclaims his decree, that all spindles in the land be destroyed.