Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team THE STORY HOUR A BOOK FOR THE HOME AND THE KINDERGARTEN By Kate Douglas Wiggin and Nora A. Smith Therefore ear and heart open to the genuine story teller, as flowers open to the spring sun and the May rain. FRIEDRICH FROEBEL CONTENTS. INTRODUCTION. Kate Douglas Wiggin PREFACE. Kate Douglas Wiggin and Nora A. Smith THE ORIOLE'S NEST. Kate Douglas Wiggin DICKY SMILY'S BIRTHDAY. Kate Douglas Wiggin AQUA; OR, THE WATER BABY. Kate Douglas Wiggin MOUFFLOU. Adapted from Ouida by Nora A. Smith BENJY IN BEASTLAND. Adapted from Mrs. Ewing by Kate Douglas Wiggin and Nora A. Smith THE PORCELAIN STOVE. Adapted from Ouida by Kate Douglas Wiggin THE BABES IN THE WOOD. E. S. Smith THE STORY OF CHRISTMAS. Nora A. Smith THE FIRST THANKSGIVING DAY. Nora A. Smith LITTLE GEORGE WASHINGTON. Part I. Nora A. Smith GREAT GEORGE WASHINGTON. Part II. Nora A. Smith THE MAPLE-LEAF AND THE VIOLET. Nora A. Smith MRS. CHINCHILLA. Kate Douglas Wiggin A STORY OF THE FOREST. Nora A. Smith PICCOLA. Nora A. Smith THE CHILD AND THE WORLD. Kate Douglas Wiggin WHEN I WAS A LITTLE GIRL. Kate Douglas Wiggin FROEBEL'S BIRTHDAY. Nora A. Smith INTRODUCTION. Story-telling, like letter-writing, is going out of fashion. There are no modern Scheherezades, and the Sultans nowadays have to be amused in a different fashion. But, for that matter, a hundred poetic pastimes of leisure have fled before the relentless Hurry Demon who governs this prosaic nineteenth century. The Wandering Minstrel is gone, and the Troubadour, and the Court of Love, and the King's Fool, and the Round Table, and with them the Story-Teller. “Come, tell us a story!” It is the familiar plea of childhood. Unhappy he who has not been assailed with it again and again. Thrice miserable she who can be consigned to worse than oblivion by the scathing criticism, “She doesn't know any stories!” and thrice blessed she who is recognized at a glance as a person likely to be full to the brim of them. There are few preliminaries and no formalities when the Person with a Story is found. The motherly little sister stands by the side of her chair, two or three of the smaller fry perch on the arms, and the baby climbs up into her lap (such a person always has a capacious lap), and folds his fat hands placidly. Then there is a deep sigh of blissful expectation and an expressive silence, which means, “Now we are ready, please; and if you would be kind enough to begin it with 'Once upon a time,' we should be much obliged; though of course we understand that all the stories in the world can't commence that way, delightful as it would be.”