Part 2 (1/2)

I have often heard objections raised to this theory by teachers dealing with children whose knowledge of objects outside their own circle is so scanty that words we use without a suspicion that they are unfan expressions to them Such words as sea, woods, fields,to them, unless some explanation were offered To these objections I have replied that where we are dealing with objects that can actually be seen with the bodily eyes, then it is quite legitiin the story, so that the distraction between the actual and oing example shoe should endeavor to accustowith abstract qualities we must rely solely on the power and choice of words and dramatic qualities of presentation, and we need not feel anxious if the response is not ier[7]

7 _The danger of obscuring the point of the story with too many details_ is not peculiar to teachers, nor is it shown only in the narrative form I have often heard really brilliant after-dinner stories marred by this defect One remembers the attempt made by Sancho Panza to tell a story to Don Quixote I have always felt a keen sympathy with the latter in his ie of Estraoatherd--which shepherd or goatherd as my story says, was called Lope Ruiz--and this Lope Ruiz was in love with a shepherdess called Torralva, as daughter to a rich herdsman, and this rich herdsman---”

”If this be thy story, Sancho,” said Don Quixote, ”thou wilt not have done these two days Tell it concisely, like a man of sense, or else say no more”

”I tell it in the manner they tell all stories in my country,”

answered Sancho, ”and I cannot tell it otherwise, nor ought your Worshi+p to require me to make new customs”

”Tell it as thou wilt, then,” said Don Quixote, ”since it is the will of fate that I should here it, go on”

Sancho continued:

”He looked about him until he espied a fisherman with a boat near hioat The fisheroat; he returned and carried another; he caain and carried another Pray, sir, keep an account of the goats which the fisherle one, the story ends, and it will be io on, thenHe returned for another goat, and another, and another and another---”

”_Suppose_ them all carried over,” said Don Quixote, ”or thou wilt not have finished carrying them this twelve months!”

”Tell me, how many have passed already?” said Sancho

”How should I know?” answered Don Quixote

”See there, now! Did I not tell thee to keep an exact account? There is an end of the story I can go no further”

”How can this be?” said Don Quixote ”Is it so essential to the story to know the exact nuoats that passed over, that if one error be made the story can proceed no further?”

”Even so,” said Sancho Panza

8 _The danger of overexplanation_ is fatal to the artistic success of any story, but it is even more serious in connection with stories told froination of the listener, and since the develop these stories, we must leave free play, we must not test the effect, as I have said before, by thequestions My own experience is that the fewer explanations you offer, provided you have been careful with the choice of your material and artistic in the presentation, thepohat is necessary for the understanding of the story

Queyrat says: ”A child has no need of seizing on the exactof words; on the contrary, a certain lack of precision seeorously, since it gives him a broader liberty and fir the standard_ of the story in order to appeal to the undeveloped taste of the child is a special one I a here only to the story which is presented from the educational point of view There are moments of relaxation in a child's life, as in that of an adult, when a lighter taste can be gratified I allude now to the standard of story for school purposes

There is one develop which seems to have been very little considered, either in A of stories to _old_ people, and that not only in institutions or in quiet country villages, but in the heart of the busy cities and in the ho people are able to enjoy outside amusements, the old people, necessarily confined to the chiht return to the joy of their childhood by hearing some of the old stories told thehtful occupation for those of the leisured class who have the gift, and a ory, in talking to the workhouse folk in Ireland, was e contrast between the poverty of the tellers and the splendors of the tale She says:

”The stories they love are of quite visionary things; of swans that turn into kings' daughters, and of castles with crowns over the doors, and of lovers' flights on the backs of eagles, andwitches, and journeys to the other world, and sleeps that last for seven hundred years”

I fear it is only the Celtic ilory in such romantic material; but I am sure the men and women of the poorhouse are much more interested than we are apt to think in stories outside the small circle of their lives

CHAPTER II THE ESSENTIALS OF THE STORY