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.