Suppose a girl reads nothing but the Elsie books. Very likely one reason is that she knows little about any other kind. In a printed catalog with a scattering "j" between many titles of adult books it is easier to make lists of numbers from the long sets of prolific writers, and those excellent authors who have produced only a few books for children are oftenest overlooked. Suppose in the process of moving the Elsie books are left behind. The little girl comes into the beautiful new children's room. She sees the shining new furniture, the pictures, the comfortable tables and chairs and book cases so planned that any child can reach any book. She finds that there is perfect freedom for every child in this room--that no stern Olympian comes and says, "Don't do this," and "You can't have that," and "Those books aren't for you," but that among all these hundreds of fresh new covers she may take her pick, may sit anywhere, or stand or kneel as she chooses. Do you imagine that, as these unaccustomed delights sink into her mind, any child is going off in a huff when she finds one author is lacking, if the children's librarian uses any tact in introducing her to others adapted to her tastes? I have been asked for Alger and Optic and Elsie, of course, though much less often than I anticipated, but I am perfectly certain that I have never lost a "customer" because I did not display these wares. One little girl exclaimed in doleful tones, "Oh, haven't you the Elsie books? Oh, I'm _terribly_ disappointed! I think those are _grand_ books!" But in spite of this tragic appeal her curiosity and interest proved stronger than her disappointment, and I have the satisfaction of seeing a more wholesome taste develop in a child who must have been on the high road to softening of the brain and moral perversion from association with the insufferable Elsie. If you once put these books on the open shelves, however, and later attempted the weeding out process, a howl would arise which would not be silenced without consequences which I, for one, would not like to face.