Dedication
To “Pete” and “Ponsie”
Preface
OUR PURPOSE.—Fun for the “children between the ages of one and one hundred.”
AND INCIDENTALLY—the elimination of deceit and gore in the telling: two elements that enter, we think, too vitally into the construction of most fairy tales.
AS TO THE MORAL.—That is not obtrusive. But if we can suggest to the children that fear alone can harm them through life’s journey; and to silly nurses and thoughtless parents that the serious use of ghost stories, Bogie Men and Bugbears of all kinds for the sheer purpose of frightening or making a child mind is positively wicked; we will admit that the tale has a moral.