Story-telling for upper grade teachers

Preface

This book has been planned with a view to extending the usefulness of the oral story to groups of young people somewhat older than those usually appealed to by the collections which have been issued by earlier authors and compilers. We are convinced also that there are many teachers who need to be instructed in matters pertaining to : How to tell stories, What stories to tell, Stories appropriate to certain seasons and occasions, Stories suitable to Boy Scouts and Campfire Girls, etc. In short, there seemed to be still ground enough left untouched by the books already in the field to warrant the making of another volume. The book will be found to contain a few well known stories, but in the main the illustrative material and stories for telling will be welcomed because they are fresh and unhackneyed.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

In addition to a few friends who have given us valuable suggestions and advice, and whom we have thanked personally, we feel under deep obligation to the authors and publishers whose generosity has made it possible for us to include in this volume a wealth of stories suitable for oral telling. We wish to express our gratitude for these courtesies to the following: Walter Taylor Field, Ida M. Moffat, Amy Steedman, Catherine Turner Bryce, Lyon Sharman, Richard T. Wyche, Walter A. Dyer, and Henry van Dyke; and to the Storytellers' Magazine, Rand, McNally & Co., Henry Holt & Co., P. F. Collier and Son, Perry Mason & Co., Paul Elder and Company, Houghton Mifflin Co., Milton Bradley & Co., and Charles Scribners' Sons.

A. C.

Gkeeley, Colorado, N M S

September, 1917.

TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter I

PAGE

The Limits of Interest in Story-Telling 11

Stories for Little Children 11

Stories for Intermediate and Upper Grades. 12

The Appeal of the Oral Story 13

Stories with an Ethical Purpose 14

History in Oral Story 16

Stories to Illustrate Truths of Science 16

Humorous Stories for Entertainment Alone 17

Creating an Interest in an Author 18

Stories and Seasonal Atmosphere 18

Stories Outside the Schoolroom 19

The Story-Hour at Home 20

The Jew's Tale, by Walter Taylor Field 20

The Legend of the Yucca Plant, by Ida M. Moffat 25

The Monk and the Bird, by Horace Scudder 28

Chapter II How TO Arrange and Tell Stories 33

Reading, Reciting, and Telling 33

Experimentation with Incidents 36

A Substitute for Memorizing 36

Tell Only Stories You Like. 38

Imagined Pictures 39

The Story Plan, or Plot 40

Simplicity 41

Preparation 41

Telling the Story 43

The Bear as a Humorist, by Joaquin Miller 44

Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata, Adapted 46 g TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter III page

Fairy Tales 51

Myths and Folk Lore 54

Legends 57

Historical Tales 59

Ethical Stories 61

Biblical Stories 63

Isaac, the Child of Promise, retold by Nellie Margaret

Statler 69

Isaac and Rebekah, retold by N. M. S 71

Isaac and His Sons, retold by N. M. S 73

Deborah, retold by N. M. S 76

Ruth and Naomi, retold by N. M. S 79

David and Jonathan, retold by N. M. S 82

Queen Esther and the Feast of Purim, retold by N. M. S . . 85

The Prodigal Son, retold by N. M. S 90

Helping the Master, by Eveleen Harrison 94

Saul's Journey to Damascus, retold by N. M. S 98

Chapter IV Uses of the Story in the Schoolroom 102

Fostering a Love for Good Literature 102

Cultivating an Acquaintance with Good Writers 102

Dramatization 109

A Trip Into the Rocky Mountains, by Laurence Clark 103

The Landing of the Pilgrims (A Dramatization) by Wilma

Hamilton 110

Saint Nicholas, by Amy Steedman 116

Saint Nicholas and The Nobleman's Son, by Amy Steedman 122

The Emperor's Vision, by Selma Lagerlof 128

Blind Bartimaeus, by Catherine Turner Bryce 137

The Worker in Sandal-Wood, by Marjorie L. C. Pickthall. . 145

Madam Cecropia, by Allen Cross 153

The Home-Made Flag, by Lyon Sharman 157

How June Pound Massa Linkum, by Elizabeth Stuart

Phelps 163

TABLE OF CONTENTS 9

Chapter V PAGE

Stories and Picture Study ' 174

The Life of Christ in Pictures 175

The Master Artists 175

Methods of Using Pictures in the Schoolroom 182

A Short List of Masterpieces of Art 185

Christ in the Temple, retold by N. M. S 186

The Story of Saint Christopher, as told by Richard Thomas

Wyche 188

Chapter VI Stories for Boy Scouts and Campfire Girls 195

The Scout Law, with a list of titles of stories to illustrate

the points of the Law 196

The Law of Campfire, with a list of titles of stories to

illustrate the points of the Law 198

The Holy Grail: An Interpretation of the Abbey Pictures. 201

Where Love Is, There God Is Also, by Lyof N. Tolstoy 207

Old Pipes and the Dryad, by Frank R. Stocton 219

The Story of a Forest Fire, by Raymond S. Spears 233

Merry Twinkle and the Dwarf, by Allen Cross 239

The Vision of Anton, the Clock-Maker, by Walter A. Dyer. 249

The Closing Door, by Maud Lindsay , 255

The Selfish Giant, by Oscar Wilde 258

Books on Story-Telling, and Collections of Stories for

Telling — A Bibliography 265

A List of Stories for Telling, Arranged by School Grades 270

Chapter I The Limits Of Interest In Oral Stories

Stories for Httle children. Oral story-telling is naturally associated with little children. "When you think of the story hour, your mind pictures a mother telling a story to a four-year-old child, a big brother or big sister telling stories between the evening meal and bedtime to brothers or sisters not yet old enough to be going to school. Or if one speaks of story-telling in the schools, the image called up is of a teacher entertaining a kindergarten or primary school with stories of " The Gingerbread Boy " or " The Old Woman and Her Pig." The oral story has, indeed, a very large place in the education of little children. Without doubt it furnishes the chief means of using the imaginations of children in the direction of a wider mental horizon, and fills a larger place in the day's program in the primary school than in any other year or grade in a child's school life.

Mothers and primary teachers have never needed to be shown that stories provide a very attractive means for educating little children; at least, we may assume that this has been recognized from the time when it became a teaching virtue to have a child happy while he was being educated. Perhaps,, if one should look into the matter very closely, one might find tlie skeleton of a story (rather dry bones, however) even in the New England Primer.

Zaccheus he

Did climb a tree

His Lord to see,

may not be a very engrossing narrative, but it is narrative of a kind and goes to prove that in seeking to interest children while teaching them, the makers of that now funny little old book were almost human in their instincts about education, although admittedly not so in their convictions.

But oral story-telling is not for the primary child alone. The use of stories for little children is in such general practice, and the collections of good stories for the very young are so numerous and so well selected and edited that it seems unnecessary here to elaborate upon the technic of story-telling in elementary grades or upon the value of different types of stories for these groups of children.

Stories for intermediate and upper grades. Teachers have assumed that the oral story was to be used only to supply the wants of children too young to read for themselves. The theory has been that it was in every way desirable for a boy or girl to get his stories for himself as soon as he had sufficiently mastered the art of reading to pick his painful way through the stories in his reader. This is excellent in both theory and practice, but it is

LIMITS OF INTEEEST IN ORAL STUDIES 13

not all that is desirable. Most progressive teachers now agree that there is a place for the oral story in any school grade, no matter how proficient the pupils may be in silent or oral reading. What can the related story give to the pupil beyond what he gets out of it through the process of reading? What kinds of stories appeal to children in the intermediate and upper grades? What are the sources of interest which one may depend upon in selecting stories for the advanced pupils in the elementary schools?

Anyone who has made the trial knows that the told story will interest older children just as much as it does the primary group. The story-teller may find when she makes her first effort to initiate an eighth grade into the wonderland of the oral story that the pupils themselves have a tendency to relegate stories to the lower grades, and to view all the imagination of the story world with scepticism, either suppressed or openly exhibited. There is no reason, however, why this attitude should persist. If suitable stories are selected and then told effectively, these children soon become as interested and attentive as any group of little children who are listening for the first time to the story of Cinderella or Sleeping Beauty.

The appeal of the oraJ story. The most obvious gain of the oral story over the story read by the pupil is the release of the recipient of the story from the mechanical effort necessary to get the story for himself. Not having to do the reading, he can focus his attention upon the content of the story alone. Consequently, the story appears to him to be a more vital thing. The teacher's voice gives vitality to the words. The story grows in dramatic and emotional appeal. Last of all, and in this case the last point seems the most important, the teller of the story seems to be creating the story as she speaks. She has not memorized what she tells. She attempts to reproduce the incidents of the original written story and to preserve its emotional qualities, its tone and spirit, but the words are her own except where she unconsciously falls into the diction of the author. Thus she appears to be not a reader, second-hand, of what someone else has written, but a creator — " a maker of literature." In these ways, then, the told story gains interest through the ease with which it comes to the hearer, the emotional heightening it acquires on account of the dramatic handling, and the vitality which the apparent spontaneous invention of the teller gives to it.

Stories with an ethical purpose. Stories which set forth the triumph of Truth and Justice appeal to children of the upper school grades. Consider such a story as ' ' The Prominent Man," one of the stories from Laura E. Richards' Fables for Old and Young called " The Golden Windows." The ethical element set forth in this story will make just as strong an impression upon the mind of an eighth grade boy as the narrative effect of ' ' The Pig Brother " in the same collection makes upon the younger child.

The youth has had an experience with the world large enough to convince him that there are two distinct powers or instincts within him, each contending for the mastery of his life — one, the spirit of good, and the other, of evil. And so, while the older child knows as a matter of fact that a golden statue cannot speak, he is capable of realizing the larger truth in such a story as Oscar Wilde's " The Happy Prince." He understands the experience of the statue first as a happy youth bounded by garden walls, and then as a statue on the public square, where all the misery of the world passes before his sapphire eyes. The little sparrow that acts as the messenger gives the listener a pleasing picture of the Nile, and his unselfish devotion, which finally causes his death, makes possible the fulfillment of the desires of the golden statue. The bird itself portrays a type of unselfishness and cheerfulness. Another story with a similar theme is Tolstoy's " "Where Love Is, There God Is Also." In this case the purpose of the story is to show that the best way to serve God is to serve mankind. The scene is quite different from that of " The Happy Prince." While the one is idealistic and imaginative in its setting, and the other is modern and realistic, both will be found interesting to adolescent boys and girls. Now and then you may find a very matter-of-fact youth who will want to know whether Martin really heard the voice of the Master. Answer him with another question. Have you never heard a voice as of a power above and beyond you, approving you for some good action you have done?

The most common means used by Jesus to carry an ethical, moral, or social lesson was the parable. This form of story is still very effective with both children and adults for this purpose. How easy it is to hold in mind a fact or a lesson if it has been presented to us at first in an interesting setting. Not only do lessons which come in the form of a story or parable make a pleasing appeal, but the impression is deeper and, therefore, more permanent than if the precept had come in the didactic form.

History in oral story. The possibility of emphasizing the facts of history by means of story-telling should not be forgotten. Perhaps the upper grade student is working through European geography. The geography and history of the Rhine provinces are inseparable. Can you think of any better device for fixing the conclusion of the Franco-Prussian War and the transfer of Alsace-Lorraine from France to the German Empire than Sara Cone Bryant's adaptation of Alphonse Daudet's '' The Last Lesson? " The child who knows that story can never forget that Alsace-Lorraine, has been German, politically, since 1870, but that the people are French. And if the story-teller is not afraid to teach an obvious political fact, here is an opportunity to teach the very foundation of patriotism. Unless a people consent to be governed, an imposed sovereignty is profitless to the governing power. It is futile, for it is without love or inward loyalty.

Stories to illustrate truths of science. Isaac Newton and the Apple, James Watt and the Giant under the Teakettle Lid, and similar stories will suggest to the resourceful teacher the possibilities of oral stories in the t I teaching of scientific f^cts to intermediate and upper grade children.

Humoraus stories for entertainment alone. Children in the primary grades do not see the point in a joke unless it is an obvious one ; but in the higher grades stories whose main interest is humor may be used frequently for the mere fun of it. If a teacher has a sense of humor and can tell a story with a humorous turn, her popularity and ultimate success with her pupils is assured. What child has not laughed over the adventures of Brer Rabbit and the other creatures, as these have been detailed to the little boy by wise old Uncle Remus ? Humor, like beauty, is its own excuse for being, but stories like these have a meaning, a philosophy, in addition to a wholesome humor, and this makes the stories so much the more worth while. When Brer Rabbit is down in the well fishin' for suckers, in more senses than one, he passes the fox on his way up out of the well and calls out to him,

" Good bye, Brer Fox, take keer yo cloze. This is the way the ol' worl' goes: Some goes up and some goes down, You'll git ter de bottom all safe en soun'."

Children will laugh over the rhyme, and it may well be also that they see the truth of Brer Rabbit's philosophy. Selections from Mark Twain's " Tom Sawyer " and " Huckleberry Finn " may be used also as an addition to the group of humorous stories. Nor are Mark Twain and Joel Chandler Harris the only possibilities. Piggy Pennington's escapades in love and war and the pursuits of peace are an unfailing source of humor that appeals to older boys and girls as well as to adults. Stories of this kind are unusually good because the fun is shared by both the hearers and the teller as she adds her personality and her interpretation to the printed story in the telling.

Creating an interest in an author. A wisely chosen selection from the work of a standard author, such as Dickens, or Thackeray, or Stevenson, may be an incentive to the student to become interested in other work of the author. There are many incidents in " David Copperfield," for example, which might be used as story units. Recently a seventh grade boy, after having heard a story from " Treasure Island," took the novel and read it two or three times. He then dramatized it, choosing the characters, planning the scenes, and writing the dialog. Finally he induced a group of his schoolmates to take the parts. All this was done outside of school, but an appreciative teacher learned of it and had him give a public performance before the school. This was a crude play, no doubt, but it served to interest all who took part in it in Robert Louis Stevenson, And all this started with an oral story from " Treasure Island." Under judicious direction from a wise teacher, what better exercise in motivated oral and written composition would you have?

Stories and seasonal atmosphere. When the Thanksgiving, Christmas, or Easter time comes, you are not con-

LIMITS OF INTEEEST IN ORAL STUDIES 19

tent to pass them by with a program on a set day. Such an exercise is detached. It cannot mean much. The tone of the season can be induced by the telling of Christmas stories for several days before the actual celebration of the day. And so it is with the other days. You may combine your stories, your music, and your pictures in such a way as to create an atmosphere in keeping with the particular holiday. Is it the Easter season? Van Dyke's " A Handful of Clay " gives, without sermonizing, the hope of a transmutation into a continued life. A resourceful teacher who has any command at all of the literature suited to her children will not be at a loss to find stories appropriate to any of the significant days of the school year, patriotic, historic, or religious.

Stories outside the schoolroom. The school is not the only place suited to story-telling. Wherever young people come together, either for amusement or for some more serious purpose, stories may be told. Story hours are growing in popularity in city libraries, in playground activities, in Boy Scout and Campfire Girls' organizations. Even the department stores find it commercially advantageous to entertain the children while the mothers are shopping. The psychology of business seems to say that a contented mother who knows that her children are being happily entertained carries a purse with a looser string than one who goes about with three or four fretful children in her wake. In Sunday schools more and more emphasis is being placed upon oral narrative as a means of teaching the Bible lesson. The spirit of the narrative is considered more important than the word ; and so the stories are presented in the language of the child, the beauty of the scriptural language being preserved wherever possible.

The story-hour at home. The ideal place for storytelling is the home ; and fortunate indeed are the children who have heard the classic fairy tales, the wonder stories, Bible stories, and all other tales dear to the child heart, told around their own firesides by their fathers and mothers. But there are too many homes, it must be regretfully admitted, where there is no time, no knowledge, no inclination to make possible the intimate children's hour; and so it is necessary still to make the school the chief agent for entertaining and instructing children through the medium of the oral narrative.

The Jew 's Tale *

When Abdallah, the Bedouin youth, was a baby, as he lay cradled with the son of the Egyptian merchant, a dervish was called in to read the horoscope of the Egyptian's son. As the astrologer was passing out, Halima, Abdallah 's mother, asked concerning the future of her son and expressed the wish that he might be honest and happy here on earth.

' ' Honest and happy ! ' ' said the dervish with a strange laugh ; ' ' and you ask this of me ! Good woman, it is the four-leaved clover that you want. Since Adam's time no

* Reprinted from " The Quest of the Four Leaf Clover," by permission Walter Taylor Field and Ginn & Co. Copyrighted.

one has seen it. Let your son seek for it, and when he shall have found it, you may be sure he will lack nothing. ' '

When Abdallah grew older, his mother told him of the strange saying of the dervish. Abdallah pondered upon the mystery of the four-leaved clover, and every stranger who came upon his path he questioned concerning the meaning. Hafiz, the uncle of the lad, saw only the hand of the Evil One in the words of the dervish and urged his nephew to think no more upon it. But Abdallah was not to be satisfied in this manner.

One day an old Jew entered the door asking for food. After he had been fed and cared for, Abdallah listened with interest as the old man told of his travels, for he had been everywhere. Abdallah resolved to ask him the question which was always uppermost in his mind.

' ' My father, ' ' asked the young Bedouin, trembling with eagerness, " has your learning taught you of a mystic leaf which gives to him who possesses it wisdom and happiness? "

'' Surely," replied the old man, smiling; "it is mentioned in the Zohar, among other marvels."

" It is the four-leaved clover, is it not? "

" Perhaps," said the Jew, with a frown; " but where did you hear this name ? ' '

When Abdallah had finished his story, the old man looked at him tenderly. " My son," said he, " the poor often repay hospitality better than the rich, for it is God who pays their debts. The secret which you seek I discovered long ago in Persia. If God has guided my steps to your tent, it is doubtless because he has chosen me to bring you the truth. Listen, then, and write on your heart what I shall tell you."

Hafiz and Abdallah drew close to the old man, who, in a low, mysterious voice told them this legend:

'' When our first parent, Adam, was driven out of paradise, he was allowed to take with him into the world the date palm for his food, and the camel, made of the same clay as himself, for his helper. ' '

" That is true," said Hafiz. " The camel is made for us, and we for the camel."

" When the flaming sword drove before it those first sinful ones, Adam cast backward a look of despair at the home which he was forced to leave, and as a parting souvenir he plucked a branch of myrtle. The angel permitted it, for he remembered that at God's command he had once done homage to the man whom, now, he pitied. ' '

" True," said Hafiz, " it was the same branch that Hobab gave, long afterwards, to his son-in-law, Moses; it was the staff with which the prophet kept his fiocks, and with which, later, he performed the miracles in Egypt."

" Eve, also," said the old man, " paused, in tears, before those flowers and trees which she should never see again, but the sword was pitiless, and she was obliged to flee. Just as she went out, she snatched one of the blessed herbs that grew in paradise. The angel shut his eyes, as he had done with Adam. What was this herb? Eve did not know. She had seized it in her flight and had it shut tight in her hand. She would have been wise to have kept it so, but her curiosity was stronger than her prudence, and as she crossed the threshold she opened her hand to look at it. The plant was the brightest of all the herbs of paradise. It was the four-leaved clover. One of the leaves was red, like copper; another was white, like silver ; a third was yellow as gold ; while the fourth glittered like a diamond. Eve stopped to look at her treasure, but the flame touched her. She started; her hand trembled ; the diamond leaf fell inside the gate ; and the other three, driven by the wind, were scattered abroad, "Where they fell God only knows ! ' '

' ' What ! ' ' cried Abdallah, ' ' have they never since been seen? "

" I think not," said the Jew, " and it is possible that this story is only an allegory which covers some deep truth."

" No, no," said Abdallah, ''that cannot be. Try to remember. Perhaps you can find some new clew. I must have this plant, cost what it may. I long for it, and with God's help I will have it."

The old man hid his face in his hands and for a long time remained wrapped in thought. Abdallah scarcely dared to breathe, for fear of disturbing him.

" I have thought long and closely," he said at length, " and I can remember nothing more. Perhaps my book will tell me something." So saying, he drew from his girdle a yellow manuscript with a greasy black cover. He turned the leaves slowly, one by one, examining a number of geometric figures, squares, concentric circles, numerals and alphabets, some of which began with aleph, while others began with tau. " There is," said he, "a bit of verse which is often repeated in the Sudan. It may interest you, but I do not know whether or not it refers to the legend I have told you:

*' There's an herb of mystic power;

But 'tis not to mortals given To behold it, leaf or flower.

Seek it not ; it blooms in heaven !

Patience ! patience ! " he added, noticing Abdallah 's excitement. " The words have more than one meaning. The ignorant seek for truth upon the surface, but the wise follow it to the depths and capture it, thanks to. God ! Do you not know what one of our great teachers, the rabbi Halaphta, son of Dozzi, says?

" Seek not for heaven in yon far azure skies Where pales the moon, where glows the burning sun, For heaven is in the reach of every one,

And a pure heart, my child, is paradise.

Yes," he continued, lifting his voice, "I see a light. If God brought us together, it was doubtless because he wished to grant your wish, but beware of anticipating his will by vain curiosity. Obey his law ; follow his commandments; make a heaven in your soul; perhaps some day when you least expect it you will find the prize which you desire. This, at least, is all that my knowledge can tell you."

' ' Well said, old man ! ' ' cried Hafiz. Then putting his hand on Abdallah 's shoulder, he added : ' ' God is the master of the hour. Be obedient and wait."

How Abdallah toiled unceasing, of the wonderful gifts which he gave to his people, and how he found first the copper leaf, then the silver leaf, the gold leaf, and finally how, at the very threshhold of Paradise, the diamond leaf became his own, is another story.

— Walter Taylor Field.

The Legend of the Yucca Plant *

A dusky Indian maiden named Ocalenta dwelt on the treeless plains of the far West with her father, Owinkapum, who was the chief of the tribe and the most important man of the village. Ocalenta grew into a slender, graceful girl, roaming over the prairies and basking in the sunlit air until she grew to womanhood.

In an Indian village a few miles away lived another chief, Wampumita, and his son, Unakola, who were very hostile to her father's tribe.

The maiden and the youth met, and then she knew a woman's grief, for she loved Unakola.

She often stole forth at eventide with noiseless footsteps to meet her bronzed brave. Her father followed her path one gloomy evening, and when he found her with the

* Reprinted from the Storytellers' Magazine, July, 1914, son of his enemy, his heart was fierce with rage. He made her go home, and thus he spoke :

' ' Thou shalt never go to the wigwam of thy lover as his wife, I would sooner send the poisoned arrow to thy heart. Yet, I will give you one condition difficult to accomplish. It is this. You may dwell within his lodge door as his wife if you will weave aid shape and fashion from the skin of wolf and bear twenty robes, trimmed with beads of many colors, no leather thongs, barbed hedgehog quills, or berries to be entwined. These must be done ere seven moons gleam on my wigwam. ' '

Poor Ocalenta was defiant at her doom, and very much disheartened. She wandered forth in the gloom of evenings to ponder on what she should do. She knelt down in the twilight among the yuccas to tell them her sorrow. She heard a voice from the " happy hunting ground " say: " Courage, courage, Ocalenta, for in seven moons thou may est make from bear skins, twenty robes, and weave the beads of many colors, and plait and twist and shape them by plucking from the yucca when night is darkest, the silver thread and sharp needles, working hardest after the night is sped."