WORLD STORIES RETOLD
GLAD COMRADESHIP WITH THE GLADNESS OF A CHILD
WORLD STORIES
RETOLD
FOR
MODERN BOYS AND GIRLS
ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTY-SEVEN FIVE-MINUTE CLASSIC STORIES FOR
RETELLING IN HOME, SUNDAY-SCHOOL, CHILDREN’S SERVICES, PUBLIC
SCHOOL GRADES, AND “THE STORY-HOUR” IN PUBLIC LIBRARIES
With Practical Suggestions for Telling
BY
WILLIAM JAMES SLY, PH. D.
Director of Sunday-School and Young People’s Work, and Teacher
of Sunday-School Pedagogy in Colorado Woman’s College
PHILADELPHIA
THE GRIFFITH & ROWLAND PRESS
BOSTONST. LOUIS
CHICAGOTORONTO, CAN.
Copyright 1914 by
A. J. ROWLAND, Secretary
Published December, 1914
TO
Ellsworth
AND
THE HOSTS OF BOYS AND GIRLS SCATTERED
EVERYWHERE TO WHOM I HAVE TOLD
MANY OF THESE STORIES AND FROM
WHOM I HAVE RECEIVED WARM
APPRECIATION AND LOVE
PREFACE
This book is intended chiefly for the home. It is anaid to parents in introducing their children to some of thebest stories in the world. It will be of obvious value alsoto Sunday-school teachers, ministers who preach to children,public-school teachers, kindergartners, librarians,and to all who perceive that the story method is thegolden method of teaching.
“Where can I find suitable stories to tell?” is a frequentquestion asked by lovers of children who takeseriously their cry of soul-hunger, “Tell me a story!”Oral story-telling within recent years has had a remarkablerevival, and a response to both the child’s and theparent’s plea has been made in a number of charming collectionsof children’s stories and manuals on the art ofstory-telling. But it is well known that books of storieswith material in a form readily adapted for telling arevery few. Fewer still have attempted to gather into onevolume those old favorites which should be the heritageof each succeeding generation of children. True, thereare collections in many volumes, such as “The Children’sHour,” in ten volumes; the “Junior Classics,” inten volumes; and the series, “What Every Child ShouldKnow,” in twenty volumes; but these, admirable in manyrespects, are bulky, expensive, and forbidden to all exceptthe favored children of the rich. Mothers frequentlyask for something condensed, comprehensive, and simple.It is to meet such a need, often expressed to him, thatthe author has gathered, during a number of years ofexperience in moral and religious education, these WorldStories for telling to modern boys and girls.
Almost all of the many stories in this book he hashimself told at various times before differing audiencesof children, young people, and adults—audiencesvarying from one or two open-eyed listeners in the home,or the little group in the country Sunday-school or waysideschoolhouse, to the large classes and assemblies inhigh schools, colleges, city libraries, Sunday-schools,churches, and