"A Child's Book of Saints" was first published in 1898, when Mr. Canton had already found his audience. The book is a near successor indeed to his "W. V.: Her Book," and to "The Invisible Playmate"; and W. V. again acts as guardian elf and guide to this new region of the child's earthly paradise. The Saints are here treated with a simplicity that is almost or altogether childlike, and with an unforced imagination which is only to be learnt by becoming as a child. And this is perhaps why, although comparatively a new book, it has the air of something pleasantly old, and written long ago; and thus wins its way into the children's library of old favourite authors.
Mr. Canton's published works, up to January 1906, comprise:—"A Lost Epic, and other Poems," 1887. "The Invisible Playmate: a Story of the Unseen," 1894, 1897. "W. V., Her Book and Various Verses," 1896. "A Child's Book of Saints," 1898, 1902. "Children's Sayings, Edited, with a Digression on the Small People," 1900. "The True Annals of Fairyland" (The Reign of King Herla), 1900, &c. "In Memory of W. V." (Winifred Vida Canton), 1901. "The Comrades: Poems, Old and New," 1902. "What is the Bible Society?" 1903. "The Story of the Bible Society," 1904. "A History of the British and Foreign Bible Society," 1904. "Little Hands and God's Book: a Sketch of the Bible Society," 1804-1904, 1905.
Contents
[IN THE FOREST OF STONE]
[THE SONG OF THE MINSTER]
[THE PILGRIM OF A NIGHT]
[THE ANCIENT GODS PURSUING]
[THE DREAM OF THE WHITE LARK]
[THE HERMIT OF THE PILLAR]
[KENACH'S LITTLE WOMAN]
[GOLDEN APPLES AND ROSES RED]
[THE SEVEN YEARS OF SEEKING]
[THE GUARDIANS OF THE DOOR]
[ON THE SHORES OF LONGING]
[THE CHILDREN OF SPINALUNGA]
[THE SIN OF THE PRINCE BISHOP]
[THE LITTLE BEDESMAN OF CHRIST]
[THE BURNING OF ABBOT SPIRIDION]
[THE COUNTESS ITHA]
[THE STORY OF THE LOST BROTHER]
[THE KING ORGULOUS]
[THE JOURNEY OF RHEINFRID]
[LIGHTING THE LAMPS]