INTRODUCTION
Reading edition
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