Little poems, lullabies, pretty things that children love are dropped into the pages here and there. Children seem to fear poetry after they have been in school a little while, largely because they have so much trouble in reading it aloud under the criticisms of the teacher and because the form has made the meaning a little difficult. It is, however, a great misfortune if a person grows up without an appreciation of poetry when it is so simple a matter to give the young an abiding love for it. A little help now and then, a word of appreciation, a manifestation of pleasure when reading it and almost without effort the child begins to read and love poetry as he does good prose. The beginnings of nature study appear in the second volume in the form of beautiful selections that encourage a love for birds and other animals, and _Tom, The Water Baby_, is a delightful story, half fairy tale, half natural history romance. In this volume also is found _The King of the Golden River_, perhaps the best fairy story ever written. _Volume Three._ A glance at the table of contents in the third volume will show the general nature of the selections. Fairy stories or tales with a highly imaginative basis predominate. There are some that are humorous, as for instance the selections from the writings of Lewis Carroll, and one or two of the poems. The long selection from _The Swiss Family Robinson_ is a good introduction to nature literature and contains all of the book that is worth reading by anyone. The two tales from _The Arabian Nights_ are among the best in that collection and are perhaps the ones most frequently referred to in general literature and in conversation. The story of Beowulf and Grendel is a prose rendering of the oldest poem in the English language, and valuable for that reason. While it is rather terrifying in some of its details its unreality saves it from harmful possibilities. Parents and teachers are inclined rather to overestimate the unpleasant consequences of reading terrifying things when they are of this character. Few, if any, children will read the story if it displeases them and those who do will not retain the disagreeable impression it makes for any great length of time. In this volume we begin our acquaintance with the legendary heroes of the great nations. _Frithiof_, _Siegfried_, _Robin Hood_ and _Roland_ are all in this book, to be followed by _Cid Campeador_ in Volume IV.