The dwarf was so scared at the idea of being left alone in the snowdrift that he said, “I’ll say to you on bended knees, Thank you, sir, and if you please.” Then the chair rocked the little dwarf safely home, and ever after he was so polite that if he even met a squirrel in the woods he would stop and say, “Excuse me, sir, am I disturbing you? Thank you, sir, I will come this way again, if you please!” This was the end of the story and the Ink-Bottle Babies set up a shout as usual. “What became of the magic rocking-chair?” they all shouted together. Then they clapped their hands softly, for they saw something rocking toward them! What do you suppose it was? It was the magic rocking-chair! Then the dwarf who had told the story said, “Tell the chair where you want to go; Ride away, ride away, singing ho! ho!” Then the Ink-Bottle Babies all climbed into the rocking-chair, and they shouted as they waved their twenty-five little pocket handkerchiefs, “We wave good-bye with backward looks; We will ride into the story books!” The magic chair began to rock, and it rocked the Ink-Bottle Babies away, away, away, into the Land of Story Books. If you use your eyes well, you may see the Ink-Bottle Babies some day! Did they ever come out of the books? Did they ever come home again? I did not remember to ask them any questions. Perhaps you will meet them in school. [Illustration: “_We wave good-bye_”] The last I saw of them they were rocking away and they sang this song, “Vacation time! Vacation time! ’Tis an hour for song and rhyme; We are very happy, for what do you think? We all came out of a bottle of ink! The Ink-Bottle Babies in every clime, Cry, ‘Hurrah! hurrah! for vacation time!’” Fairy Tales of Long Ago By Julia Darrow Cowles Grades 3-4 Cloth Binding 128 Pages Colored Illustrations Price, 60 Cents a Copy, Postpaid Train a child’s imagination by feeding it with the fancies of great story-tellers, is a truism familiar to all teachers. There is nothing like the old fairy tales for nourishing young imaginations. This group of tales Mrs. Cowles has gathered from many sources and retold in charming fashion. That they have gained, rather than lost, by the retelling, will soon become apparent to teachers; for only the simplest words and phrases are used, and the narrative is so handled as to emphasize the homely lesson in manners or morals concealed in the story. These tales are full of action and delicious nonsense which accord with the child’s mode of living and thinking. Besides teaching the children to read, and furnishing them with much fine entertainment, these stories inculcate lessons in good-fellowship, usefulness, politeness, and agreeable wholesome living. The volume comprises fifteen stories, five of which are dramatized for schoolroom use. CONTENTS