[11] I have tried to give this story in the most familiar form; it varies a good deal in the hands of different story-tellers, but this is substantially the version I was "brought up on."
[12] The four stories of the little Jackal, in this book, are adapted from stories in Old Deccan Days, by Mary Frere (John Murray), a collection of orally transmitted Hindu folk tales, which every teacher would gain by knowing. In the Hindu animal legends the Jackal seems to play the rôle assigned in Germanic lore to Reynard the Fox, and to "Bre'r Rabbit" in the negro stories of Southern America; he is the clever and humorous trickster who usually comes out of an encounter with a whole skin, and turns the laugh on his enemy, however mighty he may be.
[13] The following story of the two mice, with the similar fables of The Boy who cried Wolf, The Frog King, and The Sun and the Wind, are given here with the hope that they may be of use to the many teachers who find the over-familiar material of the fables difficult to adapt, and who are yet aware of the great usefulness of the stories to young minds. A certain degree of vividness and amplitude must be added to the compact statement of the famous collections, and yet it is not wise to change the style-effect of a fable, wholly. I venture to give these versions, not as perfect models, of course, but as renderings which have been acceptable to children, and which I believe retain the original point simply and strongly.
[14] Based on Theodor Storm's story of Der Kleine Häwelmann (George Westermann, Braunschweig). Very freely adapted from the German story.
[15] Adapted from two tales included in the records of the American Folk-Lore Society.
[16] From Celia Thaxter's Stories and Poems for Children.
[17] By William Allingham.
[18] Adapted from the verse version, by Horace E. Scudder, which follows this as an alternative.
[19] A Negro nonsense tale from the Southern States of America.
[20] From Louisa M. Alcott's Life, Letters and Journals.