In this simple-hearted story-teller I have tried to reproduce some lineaments of the peasant mother to whom, he tells us, Dr. Kraus owes his first impulse to folk-lore research. She was one of nine children of a poor pedler, brought up in a village of charcoal burners, deep in a Slavonian forest. She was illiterate, like our Russian grandmother, but like her intelligent and learned in the wonder-lore of her people. Her son pays her a lovely tribute in the preface to the first volume of his collection: She grew up like a flower in the hedge-row, among the simple peasant folk whose manners and spirit she made entirely her own. The villagers, who had a little education, therefore called her, contemptuously, baba vracana (the little old sorceress), but the illiterate peasants lovingly named her nasá baba Eva (our little mother Eve). But for once the villagers were right, my mother is a sorceress; else, how comes it that I so constantly fall under the spell of her enchantments ... I solemnly declare that if there is a true word in metempsychosis, and it is left to our choice to return to the present state of existence, nothing would so sorely tempt me back, no crown, not even that of learning--as the simple assurance of the All-Father that he would give me again the same dear mother, though I were to go begging with her through the world. L. S. H. New York, September 1, 1906. CONTENTS CHAPTER I. The Little Boy and the Grandmother The Wolf as a Roman II. The Mother's Fête-Day The Sick Lion III. Saturday Afternoon Whiteling's War with Isegrim IV. The Fire of Shavings The Bear, the Boar, and the Fox V. Frost-Bitten Toes The Man, the Hare, the Fox, and the Bear VI. After Supper Reinecke's Revenge on Isegrim VII. The Snowy Day The Bird, the Fox, and the Dog The Fox and the Dove VIII. The Election Meeting The Fox and the Hedgehog Master Reinecke and Gockeling, the Cock The Disappointed Bear IX. Cat and Dog Why the Dog Cannot Endure the Cat, nor the Cat the Mouse X. A Pleasant Surprise The Fox and the Badger The Stag and the Hedgehog XI. The Patient Little Boy The Cock and the Hen XII. The Sheep-Play The Beg and the Fox XIII. Getting Ready The Seven Stars XIV. Mother's-Mother The Vila of Muhlenberg XV. The Little Boy Homesick A Short Story The Golden Apple-Tree and the Nine Peahens The Wonderful Story The Youth and the Vila XVI. The Little Boy Sleepless The Vila in the Golden Castle XVII. Home Again Prince Hedgehog XVIII. The Betrothal The Deserter XIX. In the Fields The Hunter The Watch-Tower between Earth and Heaven The Bridge