The Crystal Palace and Other Legends

RETOLD BY MARIE H. FRARY AND CHARLES M. STEBBINS
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY HERBERT E. MARTINI
STEBBINS AND COMPANY NEW YORK PUBLISHERS
Copyright, 1909 BY STEBBINS AND COMPANY
Legends have a fascination for all classes of people, but they possess a peculiar charm for children. They constitute, in fact, a form of literature particularly fitting to the mental world of the child. In them fact and fancy are happily blended. Around the bare facts of recorded or unrecorded history, are woven the poetic ideals of a romantic people.
Nothing could be more worth a child’s reading than a story of the past that conveys not only an idea of the everyday life of real people, but represents them also as striving after ideals in various forms of beauty.
No influence is greater than the moral force of beauty. In the present volume the purpose of the writers has been to present only such legends as reveal simplicity, strength, and beauty. These qualities make their inevitable appeal to the child fancy.
The subject matter of the book has been graded for children of eight or ten years. It is, therefore, well suited for use as a supplementary reader in the fourth or fifth grade.

Many, many years ago there lived in the village of Zurdorf, a queer little old woman. She was a very kind old lady and a good nurse. Often she was called upon to care for the boys and girls of the village.
They quite enjoyed being ill because she knew so many interesting stories. She told them of great knights and ladies, of castles and fairies, of the wood nymphs and the water sprites; but best of all was the story of old Father Rhine.
One night as she sat knitting, a knock came at the cottage door. She opened it and there stood a strange man, carrying a lantern of curious pattern. He did not speak, but motioned to her to follow him.