CHILDREN'S STORIES.--Hawthorne's _Grandfather's Chair_ (1841) is a series of simple stories of New England history, from the coming of the Mayflower to the death of Samuel Adams in 1803. Hawthorne's greatest success in writing for children is to be found in his _A Wonder Book_ (1851) and _Tanglewood Tales_ (1853). In these volumes he has adapted the old classical myths to the tastes of American children. His unusual version of these myths meets two supreme tests. Children like it, and are benefited by it. Many would rejoice to be young enough again to hear for the first time the story of _The Golden Touch_,--how Midas prized gold above all things, how he secured the golden touch, and how the flies that alighted on his nose fell off little nuggets of gold. What a fine thing we thought the golden touch until he touched his beautiful little daughter, Marygold! No sermon could better have taught us that gold is not the thing above all to be desired. [Illustration: THE HOUSE OF THE SEVEN GABLES] Hawthorne stands in the front rank of a very small number whose writings continue to appeal to the children of succeeding generations. He loved and understood children and shared their experiences. He was one of those whose sixteenth amendment to the Constitution reads, "The rights and caprices of children in the United States shall not be denied or abridged on account of age, sex, or formal condition of tutelage." GREAT ROMANCES.--Hawthorne wrote four long romances: _The Scarlet Letter_ (1850), the scene of which is laid in Boston in Governor Winthrop's time, _The House of the Seven Gables_ (1851), with the scene laid in Salem, _The Marble Faun_ (1860), in Rome, and _The Blithedale Romance_ (1852), in an ideal community similar to Brook Farm. The first three of these works have a great moral truth to present. Accordingly, the details of scene, plot, description, and conversation are handled so as to emphasize this central truth.