Off to Story-Land!

Many years ago people had no books at all, and so the boys and girls could never read interesting stories such as you read today. But they knew many stories, even if they could not read them out of books. For in those days there were men who went from town to town, and from country to country, telling wonderful tales. These tales the people would tell over and over again to each other after the story-teller was gone.

This book is like one of the old story-tellers, because its tales, too, come from everywhere. Some of them are stories that boys and girls have loved for many years, and perhaps you will find one or two that are your very best friends. Others are new stories, and we hope you will learn to love them, too.

And now you are ready to read the first tales in your book, which will take you from animal-town to kings' castles.