This companion to The Century Book for Young Americans, issued under the auspices of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution, gives a description of the pilgrimage of the same young people to historic homes. It is fully illustrated.

As one who had a hand in shaping the destinies and securing the independence of his native land, by word and pen, by brain and hand, it is most fitting that the story of his life should be retold for young Americans.--Preface.

The volume contains many pictures.

Being ignorant is not so much a shame as being unwilling to learn.--Poor Richard's Almanac.

The whole life of Lafayette was a long struggle for constitutional liberty, the freedom he had seen America secure and which he so ardently desired for France.--Preface.

Mr. Brooks's account emphasizes the great Frenchman's disinterested services to our country at a time of dire need. Many illustrations add to the book's value.

"And as those of us who are men and women look with reverent and smiling interest upon the outgrown garments, and books, and toys, of our childhood, even so I think must Christendom ever look upon these outgrown beliefs of an earlier day. There is not one of the stories we can yet afford to lose. For we find, as we arrange the allegory and romance, and the real, historic bits, in a way to suit our wiser time, that the lessons they hold are as true for us as they were for the childlike people who cherished them a thousand years ago."

The lives and legends of Saint George, Saint Denis, Saint Nicholas, Saint Elizabeth, and others less well known in the great brotherhood of all lands, are told with dignity and simplicity. The illustrations are taken from old pictures.

In this volume an attempt has been made to give a concise, plain, and authentic narrative of the principal battles of the Revolution as witnessed by those who took part in them.--Preface.

A companion to Old Times in the Colonies, with maps and many pictures.

Mr. Coffin's writings are full of reliable historical information, interestingly told. This, the first of a series, takes us from the discovery of San Salvador to the surrender of Montreal to General Amherst, in 1760. There are maps and many illustrations.

There is no reason why history should not be made delightful, though it so often fails in this respect. This little book of Mrs. Mandell Creighton's, with its good maps, and illustrations, many of them from old prints, is truly interesting to children.

The term Making of the American Nation, as used in the title of the present volume, is intended to mean the process by which the loosely connected American communities outgrew their colonial condition of social and political life, and developed into a nation.--Preface.

This is the first of four readers which portray the life and conditions of our country at different periods by means of extracts from contemporary sources, freely edited. Many illustrations are given.

The stories are the same in substance as when they were first told, two and three centuries ago; but their garb has been changed without adding a detail or altering a statement of fact.--Introduction.

In writing this ponderous tome, the author's desire has been to describe the eminent characters and remarkable events of our annals in such a form and style that the YOUNG may make acquaintance with them of their own accord. For this purpose, while ostensibly relating the adventures of a chair, he has endeavored to keep a distinct and unbroken thread of authentic history.... The author, it is true, has sometimes assumed the license of filling up the outline of history with details for which he has none but imaginative authority, but which, he hopes, do not violate nor give a false coloring to the truth.--Preface.

Grandfather's Chair records, in narrative form, New England chronicles from 1620 to the War for Independence. Biographical Stories are tales of West, Newton, Johnson, Cromwell, Franklin, and Queen Christina, told to a little boy with defective sight. The book has a biographical sketch, notes, and illustrations.

Here the history of New York City is told as a story, in few words. The effort has been to make it accurate and interesting. The illustrations are largely from old prints and wood engravings. Few dates are used. Instead, a Table of Events has been added which can readily be referred to. The Index to Chapters also gives the years in which the story of each chapter occurs.--Preface.

An interesting account of the methods used in extinguishing fires and the thrilling experiences of the firemen in the city of New York, which will enthrall boys.

This book has been written in the belief that a primary history of the United States should be short, as interesting as possible, and well illustrated.... The illustrations are historically authentic.--Preface.

The deeds of great men belonging to different nomadic peoples are recounted. We are told about Abraham, Moses, Prince Siddartha, Clovis, Attila, Godwin, and Knut.

As stated in the preface, this narrative of the life of the famous king is the result of a thoughtful study of his character and an earnest effort to be as accurate as the scantiness of material and the thousand years' interval would permit.

Of all the sovereigns that have worn the crown of England, Queen Elizabeth is the most puzzling, the most fascinating, the most blindly praised, and the most unjustly blamed.... At a distance of three hundred years it is not easy to balance these claims to censure and to admiration, but at least no one should forget that the little white hand of which she was so vain guided the ship of state with most consummate skill in its perilous passage through the troubled waters of the latter half of the sixteenth century.--Preface.

The book is illustrated from well-known paintings.

The story of William the Conqueror is the story of the man who for more than a quarter of a century was the most prominent personage of Western Europe.... Whatever in the character of the Conqueror the twentieth century may find worthy of blame or of praise, no student of his life will deny that his faults were those of his time, that his virtues were his own.--Preface.

Geography, Travel, And Description

London Town is described, there are two chapters on Father Thames, and we are led through old Wessex, Warwickshire, the Broads and Fen-country, and the beautiful Lakeland. Twelve plates in color are given.

This account of peasant homes and the life of the people throughout the year makes many allusions in the Gospel story easily understood. There are chapters on Jerusalem and Bethlehem, and one entitled From Nazareth to Galilee. The volume contains twelve colored plates.

Although from its nature and size this book can give only a glimpse of each country, yet it does seem to convey, in moderate compass, a general view of the world, and quite a vivid impression of the different lands is absorbed from the colored pictures, which children always enjoy. The plates are thirty-seven in number.

A pleasant account of the manners and customs, the costumes and feast-days, of Water land. The twelve colored plates add to the book's attraction.

Charming accounts of the legends, stories, and customs, of the Flowery Kingdom, related by a little Japanese boy to his child friends in America.

This small volume contains a series of brief articles, by different persons, on Mexico and South America. Some of the subjects touched on are A Venezuelan Railway, The Land of the Llama, and The Argentine Capital.

This companion volume to Strange Lands Near Home tells us of life in China, Japan, Korea, Borneo, and other Eastern countries. There is an interesting chapter on Housekeeping in East India, by Sara Jeannette Duncan.

Hygiene

A clear statement of facts concerning the body and the attention that should be given to it. There are chapters on fresh air, eyesight, the ear, the care of the nails, hair, and teeth, and valuable information about tobacco and alcohol, and their effects on animals as well as people.

Mythology, Folk-lore, Legends, And Fairy Tales

This romance tells of the great Charlemagne, and of his warriors, Roland and Oliver and Ogier the Dane, all companions in arms. As James Baldwin states, Roland is unknown to history, yet he is the typical knight, the greatest hero of the Middle Ages. The story is culled from the song-writers and poets of five centuries and of as many languages.

From the many versions, Elder and Younger Edda, Volsunga Saga, and Nibelungen Lied, including modern sources, Mr. Baldwin has reshaped this ancient tale. Though he sometimes draws material from his own imagination, the essential parts of the myth remain unaltered.

The famous wanderings are retold from Virgil in simple language. Twelve illustrations in color accompany the text.

In a straightforward manner Mr. Church relates the incidents of the great siege. The volume contains twelve colored illustrations.

This second book of folk-lore is supplementary to Uncle Remus; His Songs and His Sayings, and gives a large number of additional myths and legends of the South.

In adding one more to the innumerable collections of stories from the Greek, I have hoped to break fresh ground by reproducing the myths of Pindar's Odes, as far as possible in a free translation, and with such additions only as were needed to form a framework. Some of these legends are already wholly or partly familiar, but several will be new, I think, to English readers.--Preface.

These old tales are rendered in exquisite language. They include, among others, the stories of Tantalus, the Heavenly Twins, Jason, and the Pansy Baby. The poet was bidden to prepare the Ode, from which this last story is taken, in honor of a friend's victory in the Olympic Games. The illustrations are in terra-cotta and black.

Telling more of Mowgli, the child of the jungle, and his brethren the wild creatures of the forest; together with other marvellous animal stories.

"Now these are the Laws of the Jungle, and many and mighty
are they;
But the head and the hoof of the Law and the haunch and
the hump is--Obey!"

It has been our aim in this book to reproduce the substance of Homer's Odyssey in simple modern English. We have not hesitated to omit and compress where we thought fit, but we have done our best to make a faithful translation within our limits, and to keep what we could of the Homeric spirit.--Preface.

Henry II and Queen Eleanor, the Lord Bishop of Hereford, the Sheriff of Nottingham, and Richard of the Lion's Heart, come forth from the land of mingled fact and fancy, with Robin Hood and his merry train, and live for us. While the text of this luxurious volume is dignified and somewhat archaic, children delight in reading it, nevertheless. There are many full-page illustrations.

Poetry, Collections Of Poetry And Prose, And Stories Adapted From Great Authors

Let it be understood that all I have attempted to do is to tell a well-known story in print, as one who loves it would seek to tell it in words to those around his own fireside; in the hope that some may gather from this story that there is a vast storehouse of humour and wisdom awaiting them in the book itself.--Preface.

How the Old Horse Won the Bet, and The Broomstick Train, are the other poems.

"You see, of course, if you're not a dunce,
How it went to pieces all at once--
All at once, and nothing first--
Just as bubbles do when they burst."

Do we not most of us belong to the group "who at present know nothing or next to nothing of what is certainly one of the masterpieces of English literature"?

The tale of Spenser's great poem is simply related in acceptable prose.

The imagination is the supreme intellectual faculty, and yet it is of all the one which receives least attention in our common systems of education.--Preface.

Religion And Ethics

This small volume presents a general view of the early history of the Jews, in accordance with the results of the best Biblical and historical criticism. In addition to the maps and illustrations, there are six full-page plates from famous paintings.

Science, Out-of-door Books, And Stories Of Animals

The Royal Institution of Great Britain each year provides at Christmas-time a course of lectures for children. In 1881 and 1887 Sir R.S. Ball gave talks on astronomy, and on them the present volume is founded.

Mr. Burroughs states that this book, which describes one hundred and fifty of our more common birds, is reliable, and is written in a vivacious strain by a real bird-lover, and should prove helpful and stimulating to any one who seeks by the aid of its pages to become better acquainted with our songsters. There are forty-eight plates in color.

Mrs. Doubleday has classified over five hundred flowers according to color, months of blooming, their preferred localities or habitats, and finally according to their proper families--by the classification adopted by the International Botanical Congress. Special attention has been given to the flowers' insect visitors. This large volume contains thirty-two pages of color plates, and forty-eight in black and white. Children learn so much from association with a book of this sort that it has been placed, because of the pictures, under a younger heading than the text alone would warrant.

Mr. Dugmore's very beautiful photographs in color from the living flowers, and the no less exquisite portraits from life in black and white by Mr. Troth, cannot but prove the most attractive, as they are the most useful, feature of this book.--Preface.

This wise old nature-lover tells us in his delightful way of the fox, mink, skunk, weasel, porcupine, muskrat, and other wild creatures. There are fifteen colored illustrations reduced from Audubon's large pictures.

A boy of eleven once asked me, in the midst of a schoolroom talk on the uses of participles, where a grasshopper's ears were.... I did not wonder that he found grasshoppers more interesting than participles--I do myself--and so, I am sure, do the young people for whom, most of all, this book has been written..--Preface.

Butterflies, moths, and insects, are described, and full directions for collecting, preserving, and studying them, given in this satisfactory volume, which contains many illustrations. A list of popular and scientific names is included.

Creatures mythical and real, extinct monsters and animals of to-day, dwell at peace within this book of many tales. Adventures of famous men, experiences of animal trainers, and stories of a quieter nature, are included.

To learn so easily and pleasantly about the wasp from an authority may keep boys from destroying their nests and wantonly annoying them.

A plain and easy guide to the knowledge of the constellations, showing, in twelve maps, the position for the United States of the principal star groups night after night throughout the year, with introduction and a separate explanation of each map.--Title-page.

Stories

Four boys cruise in a large rowboat up the Hudson River and on some of the Adirondack Lakes, camping out, and having many funny and exciting experiences.

This volume is given because of the first of these two stories, which is not published separately. It tells of the fishing experiences of four Scotch brothers, and shows how much plucky lads can accomplish. In An Adventure in Thule two boys discover a young Frenchwoman stranded on an island, and succeed in rescuing her.

An abundance of information about Greek life and customs is woven interestingly into the fabric of this tale. The battles of Marathon and Salamis are fought anew for the children by old men who were participants therein, and the Isthmian games are also described.

To Five

Six of us once, my darlings, played together
Beneath green boughs, which faded long ago,
Made merry in the golden summer weather,
Pelted each other with new-fallen snow.
* * * * *
So, darlings, take this little childish story,
In which some gleams of the old sunshine play,
And, as with careless hands you turn the pages,
Look back and smile, as here I smile to-day.

This account of the lively doings of the six little Carrs is full of action and interest. In the midst of her happy life poor Katy has to stop and learn, through the invalidism which comes as the result of an accident, the great lessons of patience, cheerfulness, and living for others. Happily, in the end, after her battle has been won, full health returns to her.

The illustrations are the result of a special trip to the island of Tobago, the scene of the great narrative, and are from sketches made on the island.

First published in 1865, and since translated into many languages, this book still stands as the picture of life in Holland to give to boys and girls.

School life in town and village of the Middle West, in 1850. First published in 1883, the story has retained popularity.

Rob and Nelly leave their New England home and journey with their parents to Colorado. There they have many interesting experiences in the silver mining country, which are told in Mrs. Jackson's charming natural style.

Fifteen-year-old Betty spends a happy and satisfactory summer at Tideshead with her two aged aunts, bringing brightness and pleasure into their quiet lives.

Phaeton was so inventive that he was always in hot water. Boys love to read of his pranks and pleasures.

The atmosphere of these eleven tales is decidedly English, but they are so unusually good that our children will read them with enjoyment notwithstanding the unfamiliar setting. The Thousand Threepenny Bits, The Anti-Burglars, and the uncommonly funny one called The Monkey's Revenge, are among the number.

As children we parents learned to love old Masterman, the faithful and resourceful friend of the good Seagraves. Even now our eyes grow a little misty as we think of his brave death.

Marryat began a continuation of The Swiss Family Robinson for his children, at their request, but its geographical anachronisms were too much for him, and he decided to write this story instead. No one will find fault with the change of plan.

This account of pioneer days is essentially true, having been gathered from family records which tell how, in 1811, "Parson Craig," with his wife, six children, and a number of friends, made the four-hundred-mile journey from North Carolina into Tennessee.

While this description of the life of two boys on a Southern plantation during the Civil War is dramatic and full of pathos, it is hardly necessary to say that Mr. Page, with his unerring touch, has not overdrawn a single detail of those days, happily long gone.

Every girl will love impulsive, careless Gypsy with her many faults and the many more winning qualities of her warm-hearted nature.

Wherever there is mischief, there is Gypsy. Yet, wherever there is fun, and health, and hope, and happiness--and I think, wherever there is truthfulness and generosity--there is Gypsy, too.--Preface.

Gypsy didn't want Joy to come and live with them at all, neither did she care for her at first, but through forbearance, gentleness, and Joy's great sorrow, they grew to love each other warmly.

The hero, midshipman on the Constellation, in the fight between that ship and the French frigate Vengeance, gave his life with notable bravery in the service of his country.

A faithful description of farm life among the hills of Western Massachusetts seventy-five years ago.

Before these times become wholly traditional, it seems good to picture them, as vividly as may be, for the benefit of the young folks who will grow up under influences differing so widely from those that shaped the youth of their ancestors.... They, and such as they, made the old New England the New England of glorious history and memories.--Preface.

Little girls of our own country will enjoy reading these three sketches which tell of faithful Gypsy Mairi of Scotland, English Molly of Sussex, and Irish Maureen. Each one of the three is natural, lovable, and worth knowing.

This old-fashioned story of the country mouse and the city mouse possesses charm, and abounds in homely common-sense. Mothers, fortunately, no longer bring up their daughters in the foolish way in which Emily Proudie was reared. The second story is included only because there is no other edition of Pussy Willow.