INTRODUCTION
Nature stories, legends, and poems appeal to the young reader’s interest in various ways. Some of them suggest or reveal certain facts which stimulate a spirit of investigation and attract the child’s attention to the beauty and mystery of the world. Others serve an excellent purpose by quickening his sense of humour.
Seedtime and harvest have always been seasons of absorbing interest and have furnished the story-teller with rich themes. The selections in “The Emerald Story Book” emphasize the hope and premise of the spring; the stories, legends, and poems in this volume, “The Topaz Story Book,” express the joy and blessing which attend the harvest-time when the fields are rich in golden grain and the orchard boughs bend low with mellow fruit. “The year’s work is done. She walks in gorgeous apparel, looking upon her long labour and her serene eye saith, ‘It is good.’”
The editors’ thanks are due to the following authors and publishers for the use of valuable material in this book:
To Dr. Carl S. Patton of the First Congregational Church, Columbus, Ohio, for permission to include his story, “The Pretending Woodchuck”; to Frances Jenkins Olcott for “The Green Corn Dance,” retold from “The Journal of American Folk-Lore,” published by Houghton, Mifflin Company; to Ernest Thompson Seton and the Century Company for “How the Chestnut Burrs Became”; to Dr. J. Dynelly Prince for permission to retell the legend of “Nipon” from “Kuloskap the Master”; to Thomas Nelson and Sons for “Weeds,” by Carl Ewald; to William Herbert Carruth for the selection from “Each In His Own Tongue”; to Josephine K. Dodge for two poems by Mary Mapes Dodge; to A. Flanagan Company for “Golden-rod and Purple Aster,” from “Nature Myths and Stories,” by Flora J. Cooke; to J. B. Lippincott Company for “The Willow and the Bamboo,” from “Myths and Legends of the Flowers and Trees,” by Chas. M. Skinner; to Bobbs, Merrill Company for the selection by James Whitcomb Riley; to Lothrop, Lee, and Shepard Company for “The Pumpkin Giant,” from “The Pot of Gold,” by Mary Wilkins Freeman; to Raymond Macdonald Alden for “Lost: The Summer”; to the Youth’s Companion for “A Turkey for the Stuffing,” by Katherine Grace Hulbert, and “The News,” by Persis Gardiner; to John S. P. Alcott for “Queen Aster,” by Louisa M. Alcott; to G. P. Putnam’s Sons for two poems from “Red Apples and Silver Bells,” by Hamish Henry; to Francis Curtis and St. Nicholas for “The Debut of Daniel Webster,” by Isabel Gordon Curtis; to Emma F. Bush and Mothers’ Magazine for “The Little Pumpkin”; to Phila Butler Bowman and Mothers’ Magazine for “The Queer Little Baker Man”; to the Independent for “The Crown of the Year,” by Celia Thaxter; to Ginn and Company for “Winter’s Herald,” from Andrew’s “The Story of My Four Friends”; to Frederick A. Stokes Company for “Lady White and Lady Yellow,” from “Myths and Legends of Japan”; to the State Museum, Albany, New York, for permission to reprint the legend “O-na-tah, Spirit of the Corn,” published in the Museum Bulletin; to Houghton, Mifflin Company for “The Sickle Moon,” by Abbie Farwell Brown; “Autumn Among the Birds” and “Autumn Fashions” by Edith M. Thomas, “The Nutcrackers of Nutcracker Lodge” by Harriet Beecher Stowe, and “The Three Golden Apples” by Nathaniel Hawthorne; and to Duffield and Company for “The Story of the Opal” by Ann de Morgan.
| CONTENTS | ||
INTRODUCTION | ||
AUTUMN STORIES AND LEGENDS | ||
| PAGE | ||
| Each in His Own Tongue (selection)— | William Herbert Carruth | [ 2] |
| Nipon and the King of the Northland (Algonquin Legend) | ||
| Retold from Leland and Prince— | Eleanor L. Skinner | [ 3] |
| Prince Autumn (Translated from the Danish | ||
| by Alexandre Teixeira de Mattos) | Carl Ewald | [12] |
| The Scarf of the Lady (adapted) (Translated from the French by Hermine de Nagy) | [24] | |
| The Sickle Moon (Tyrolean harvest legend)— | Abbie Farwell Brown | [30] |
| Winter’s Herald | Jane Andrews | [35] |
| Jack Frost (poem) | [42] | |
| The Pumpkin Giant | Mary Wilkins Freeman | [44] |
| Lady White and Lady Yellow (Japanese Legend)— | Frederick Hadland Davis | [62] |
| The Shet-up Posy | Ann Trumbull Slosson | [66] |
| The Gay Little King | Mary Stewart | [73] |
| The Story of the Opal | Ann de Morgan | [83] |
| Selection | Celia Thaxter | [97] |
| Lost: The Summer (poem)— | Raymond Macdonald Alden | [98] |
| By the Wayside (poem) | William Cullen Bryant | [99] |
| The King’s Candles (German legend)— | Eleanor L. Skinner | [100] |
| A Legend of the Golden-Rod— | Frances Weld Danielson | [106] |
| Golden-Rod (poem) | Anna E. Skinner | [109] |
| The Little Weed | [110] | |
| Golden-Rod and Purple Aster (adapted)— | Flora J. Cooke | [112] |
| Wild Asters (poem) | [115] | |
| Silver-rod | Edith M. Thomas | [116] |
| Pimpernel, the Shepherd’s Clock (poem) | [118] | |
| A Legend of the Gentian (Hungarian) | Ada M. Skinner | [119] |
| Queen Aster | Louisa M. Alcott | [121] |
| The Weeds | Carl Ewald | [134] |
| Autumn Fires (poem) | Robert Louis Stevenson | [144] |
AMONG THE TREES | ||
| To An Autumn Leaf (poem) | [146] | |
| Why the Autumn Leaves Are Red (Indian legend)— | ||
| Retold and adapted by | Eleanor Newcomb Partridge | [147] |
| The Anxious Leaf | Henry Ward Beecher | [154] |
| How the Chestnut Burrs Became— | Ernest Thompson-Seton | [156] |
| The Merry Wind (poem) | Mary Mapes Dodge | [158] |
| Autumn Among the Birds | Edith M. Thomas | [159] |
| The Kind Old Oak | Selected | [163] |
| The Tree (poem) | Björnstjerne Björnson | [165] |
| Coming and Going | Henry Ward Beecher | [166] |
| A Legend of the Willow Tree (Japanese) | [170] | |
| Autumn Fashions (poem) | Edith M. Thomas | [173] |
| Pomona’s Best Gift (Old English Song) | [175] | |
| Pomona (Greek myth retold from Ovid)— | Ada M. Skinner | [176] |
| In the Orchard (poem) | George Weatherby | [180] |
| Johnny Appleseed | Josephine Scribner Gates | [181] |
| Red Apple (poem) | Hamish Hendry | [185] |
| The Three Golden Apples | Nathaniel Hawthorne | [186] |
| October: Orchard of the Year | Selected | [211] |
| November | [212] | |
WOODLAND ANIMALS | ||
| The Pretending Woodchuck | Dr. Carl S. Patton | [215] |
| Mrs. Bunny’s Dinner Party | Anna E. Skinner | [228] |
| The Nutcrackers of Nutcracker Lodge (adapted)— | Harriet Beecher Stowe | [234] |
| Bushy’s Bravery | Ada M. Skinner | [243] |
| Nut Gatherers (poem) | Hamish Hendry | [248] |
HARVEST FIELDS | ||
| When the Frost is on the Pumpkin— | James Whitcomb Riley | [250] |
| Origin of Indian Corn (Indian legend)— | Eleanor L. Skinner | [251] |
| Song of Hiawatha | Henry W. Longfellow | [254] |
| O-na-tah, the Spirit of the Corn Fields— | Harriet Converse | [255] |
| Mondamin (poem) | Henry W. Longfellow | [258] |
| The Discontented Pumpkin | Ada M. Skinner | [259] |
| Bob White (poem) | George Cooper | [263] |
| The Little Pumpkin | Emma Florence Bush | [265] |
| Autumn (poem) | Edmund Spenser | [270] |
CHEERFUL CHIRPERS | ||
| The News (poem) | Persis Gardiner | [272] |
| How There Came To Be a Katy-did | Patten Beard | [273] |
| Old Dame Cricket (poem) | [276] | |
| Miss Katy-did and Miss Cricket (adapted)— | Harriet Beecher Stowe | [277] |
| The Cricket (poem) | William Cowper | [284] |
ALL HALLOWE’EN | ||
| Shadow March (poem) | Robert Louis Stevenson | [286] |
| Twinkling Feet’s Hallowe’en (adapted from a Cornwall legend) | Eleanor L. Skinner | [287] |
| Jack-o’-Lantern (poem) | [298] | |
| The Elfin Knight (old ballad retold)— | Eleanor L. Skinner | [299] |
| The Courteous Prince (Scotch legend)— | Eleanor L. Skinner | [307] |
| Jack-o’-Lantern Song | [314] | |
A HARVEST OF THANKSGIVING STORIES | ||
| Selection | Henry Van Dyke | [318] |
| The Queer Little Baker Man | Phila Butler Bowman | [319] |
| A Turkey for the Stuffing | Katherine Grace Hulbert | [327] |
| Pumpkin Pie (poem) | Mary Mapes Dodge | [333] |
| Mrs. November’s Party | Agnes Carr | [335] |
| The Debut of Dan’l Webster | Isabel Gordon Curtis | [345] |
| The Green Corn Dance | Frances Jenkins Olcott | [365] |
| Thanksgiving (poem) | Amelie E. Barr | [373] |
| The Two Alms, or The Thanksgiving Day Gift | ||
| (Translated and adapted from the French)— | Eleanor L. Skinner | [375] |
| Thanksgiving Psalm | Bible | [380] |
| The Crown of the Year (poem) | Celia Thaxter | [381] |