Good Stories For Great Holidays
 Frances Jenkins Olcott
GOOD STORIES FOR GREAT HOLIDAYS
FRANCES JENKINS OLCOTT

ARRANGED FOR
STORY-TELLING AND READING ALOUD
AND FOR
THE CHILDREN'S OWN READING



TO THE STORY-TELLER

This volume, though intended also for the children's
own reading and for reading aloud, is especially
planned for story-telling. The latter is
a delightful way of arousing a gladsome holiday
spirit, and of showing the inner meanings of
different holidays. As stories used for this purpose
are scattered through many volumes, and as they
are not always in the concrete form required for
story-telling, I have endeavored to bring together
myths, legends, tales, and historical stories
suitable to holiday occasions.

There are here collected one hundred and
twenty stories for seventeen holidays--stories
grave, gay, humorous, or fanciful; also some that
are spiritual in feeling, and others that give the
delicious thrill of horror so craved by boys and
girls at Halloween time. The range of selection
is wide, and touches all sides of wholesome boy
and girl nature, and the tales have the power to
arouse an appropriate holiday spirit.

As far as possible the stories are presented in
their original form. When, however, they are too
long for inclusion, or too loose in structure for
story-telling purposes, they are adapted.

Adapted stories are of two sorts. Condensed:
in which case a piece of literature is shortened,
scarcely any changes being made in the original
language. Rewritten: here the plot, imagery,
language, and style of the original are retained as
far as possible, while the whole is moulded into
form suitable for story-telling. Some few stories
are built up on a slight framework of original
matter.

Thus it may be seen that the tales in this
volume have not been reduced to the necessarily
limited vocabulary and uniform style of one editor,
but that they are varied in treatment and
language, and are the products of many minds.

A glance at the table of contents will show that
not only have selections been made from modern
authors and from the folklore of different races,
but that some quaint old literary sources have
been drawn on. Among the men and books contributing
to these pages are the Gesta Romanorum,
Il Libro d'Oro, Xenophon, Ovid, Lucian, the
Venerable Bede, William of Malmesbury. John of
Hildesheim, William Caxton, and the more modern
Washington Irving, Hugh Miller, Charles Dickens,
and Henry Cabot Lodge; also those immortals,
Hans Andersen, the Brothers Grimm, Horace E.
Scudder, and others.

The stories are arranged to meet the needs of
story-telling in the graded schools. Reading-
lists, showing where to find additional material
for story-telling and collateral reading, are added.
Grades in which the recommended stories are
useful are indicated.

The number of selections in the volume, as
well as the references to other books, is limited
by the amount and character of available material.
For instance, there is little to be found for
Saint Valentine's Day, while there is an
overwhelming abundance of fine stories for the
Christmas season. Stories like Dickens's ``Christmas
Carol,'' Ouida's ``Dog of Flanders,'' and
Hawthorne's tales, which are too long for inclusion
and would lose their literary beauty if
condensed, are referred to in the lists. Volumes
containing these stories may be procured at the
public library.

A subject index is appended. This indicates
the ethical, historical, and other subject-matter
of interest to the teacher, thus making the volume
serviceable for other occasions besides holidays.

In learning her tale the story-teller is advised
not to commit it to memory. Such a method is
apt to produce a wooden or glib manner of presentation.
It is better for her to read the story
over and over again until its plot, imagery, style,
and vocabulary become her own, and then to retell
it, as Miss Bryant says, ``simply, vitally, joyously.''






CONTENTS

NEW YEAR'S DAY (January 1)

THE FAIRY'S NEW YEAR GIFT: Emilie Poulsson, In the Child's World

THE LITTLE MATCH GIRL: Hans Christian Andersen, Stories and Tales

THE TWELVE MONTHS: Alexander Chodsvko, Slav Fairy Tales

THE MAIL-COACH PASSENGERS: Hans Christian Andersen, Fairy Tales

LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY (February 10)

HE RESCUES THE BIRDS: Noah Brooks, Abraham Lincoln

LINCOLN AND THE LITTLE GIRL: Charles W. Moores,
Life of Abraham Lincoln for Boys and Girls

TRAINING FOR THE PRESIDENCY: Orison Swett Matden, Winning Out

WHY LINCOLN WAS CALLED ``HONEST ABE'': Noah Brooks, Abraham Lincoln

A STRANGER AT FIVE-POINTS: Adapted

A SOLOMON COME TO JUDGMENT: Charles W. Moores,
Life of Abraham Lincoln for Boys and Girls

GEORGE PICKETT'S FRIEND: Charles W. Moores,
Life of Abraham Lincoln for Boys and Girls

LINCOLN THE LAWYER: Z. A. Mudge, The Forest Boy

THE COURAGE OF HIS CONVICTIONS: Adapted

MR. LINCOLN AND THE BIBLE: Z. A. Mudge, The Forest Boy

HIS SPRINGFIELD FAREWELL ADDRESS [Lincoln]

SAINT VALENTINE'S DAY (February 14)

SAINT VALENTINE

SAINT VALENTINE: Millicent Olmsted

A GIRL'S VALENTINE CHARM: The Connoisseur, 1775

MR. PEPYS HIS VALENTINE: Samuel Pepys, Diary

CUPID AND PSYCHE: Josephine Preston Peabody,
Old Greek Folk Stories

WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY (February 22)

THREE OLD TALES: M. L. Weems, Life of
George Washington, with Curious Anecdotes

YOUNG GEORGE AND THE COLT: Horace E. Scudder,
George Washington

WASHINGTON THE ATHLETE: Albert F. Blaisdell and Francis R. Ball,
Hero Stories from American History

WASHINGTON'S MODESTY: Henry Cabot Lodge, George Washington

WASHINGTON AT YORKTOWN: Henry Cabot lodge, George Washington

RESURRECTION DAY (Easter Sunday) (March or April)

A LESSON OF FAITH: Mrs. Alfred Gatty, Parables from Nature

A CHILD'S DREAM OF A STAR: Charles Dickens

THE LOVELIEST ROSE IN THE WORLD:
Hans Christian Andersen, Stories and Tales

MAY DAY (May 1)
THE SNOWDROP: Hans Christian Andersen;
Adapted by Bailey and Lewis

THE THREE LITTLE BUTTERFLY BROTHERS: From the German


THE WATER DROP: Friedrich Wilhelm Carove,
Story without an End, translated by Sarah Austin

THE SPRING BEAUTY: Henry R. Schoolcraft, The Myth of Hiawatha

THE FAIRY TULIPS: English Folk-Tale

THE STREAM THAT RAN AWAY: Mary Austin, The Basket Woman

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