And that consuming grief for my dear child,
Which poisoned all the life of me, is dead.
To-day my heart is healed, my yearning stayed,
Perfected the deliverance wrought in me.”
NOTES FOR TEACHERS
The following notes are intended for teachers who may wish to use this collection as a class text book. In all these stories we have the idea of the Indian God in various re-incarnations until he has attained full Buddhahood. Beyond occasionally mentioning the fact of Re-birth in introducing the story (so as to preserve the Oriental flavor) I do not insist on this, nor do I introduce the name of the Buddha into the actual table of contents at the beginning of the book, as it might seem abstruse to the younger readers. But because I wish to appeal to scholars in the higher sense as well as to boys and girls, I have tried in many instances to preserve the language as given in the translation from the Pali. I have also tried to avoid cutting out any important episodes; this sometimes happens in the popular adaptation of these deeply ethical stories. I have tried to keep as far as possible the Eastern point of view, since the book is sponsored by one of the foremost of Oriental Scholars, Dr. Rhys Davids, who has helped me with his advice, and taught me the spirit of the whole conception.
THE HARE THAT RAN AWAY
This is the only story I have completely re-adapted for quite small children, and I have found it among the most popular. I often tell it in connection with Hans C. Andersen’s story of the “Scandal in the Poultry Yard,” of which the subject is practically the same: the first being simple and direct, the second veiled in gentle satire.