Page:The art of story-telling, with nearly half a hundred stories, y Julia Darrow Cowles .. (IA artofstorytellin00cowl).pdf/75

 "universal spiritual truth." Does our story contain such?

Two very familiar nursery tales which owe their origin to the folk-lore of old—namely, "Jack, the Giant Killer," and "Cinderella"—have recently been brought into question upon the ground of their moral teaching. The critics in question look upon Jack as a thief and a murderer, who "lived happily ever after" upon his ill-gotten gains. For my own part, I find less to condemn in Jack's treatment of the Giant, than in making a hero of a boy who was lazy and disobedient. The Giant had robbed and killed Jack's father, and he was wicked and cruel to all, and Jack could scarcely be blamed for trying to regain his father's stolen wealth, or for cutting down the bean-stalk when the Giant was descending for the purpose of killing him and, in all probability, his mother. But the false note in the story, to my mind, lies in selecting a boy who was avowedly lazy, idle, disobedient, and neglectful of his mother, for the hero of a tale of such marvelous deeds. The tale of Jack, the Giant Killer, however, has many versions, and there is no need whatever, when telling the story, of giv