Tales by Various Authors
Fairy Tales Every Child Should Know
The fairy tale belongs to the child and ought always to be within his reach, not only because it is his special literary form and his nature craves it, but because it is one of the most vital of the textbooks offered to him in the school of life. In ultimate importance it outranks the arithmetic, the grammar, the geography, the manuals of science; for without the aid of the imagination none of these books is really comprehensible.
As to whether there are really any fairies or not, that is a difficult question. Some people think there are none, others think they exist. There are people who will tell you they have seen them and heard their music. So, if there are really no fairies, why do people believe in them, all over the world? The ancient Greeks believed, so did the old Egyptians, and the Hindus, and the Native people, and is it likely, if there are no fairies, that so many different peoples would have seen and heard them? For these reasons, we think that there are certainly fairies, but they never do anyone any harm; and, in some countries, they have been frightened away by smoke and schoolmasters.
As to Giants, they have died out, but real Dwarfs are common all over the world. Probably a good many stories not perfectly true have been told about fairies, but such stories have also been told about Napoleon, Claverhouse, Julius Caesar, and Joan of Arc, all of whom certainly existed. A wise child will, therefore, remember that, if he grows up and becomes a member of the Folk Lore Society, all the tales presented here were not offered to him as absolutely truthful, but were intended merely for his entertainment. The exact facts he can learn later, or he can leave them alone.
Click on the links below to read fairy tales from our FREE collection:
The White Cat (From the tale by the Comtesse d'Aulnoy)
Beauty and the Beast (Tale by Madame Gabrielle de Villeneuve)
The Light Princess (From George MacDonald)
The Fair One with the Golden Locks (Tale by Comtesse d'Aulnoy)
Tom Thumb (First written in prose in 1621 by Richard Johnson)
The Witch (From Andrew Lang Compilation)
The Three Bears (From Robert Southey)
The Hazel-nut Child (From Andrew Lang Compilation)
The Story of the Three Little Pigs (By Leslie Brooke)
Other Fairy Tales and Related Links:
Classic Tales of Ancient Greece
Stories from Arabian Nights' Entertainments
Children's Health
Signs that will help you determine whether or not your child is ill...Improving Eyesight - Understanding Astigmatism
Astigmatism is normal as people age. Astigmatism happens when the eyeball loses its roundness and vision starts to become hazy. Astigmatism can also be caused by years of stress and strain on the eyes. The eye is surrounded by tiny muscles that help the eye ball elongate and contract. Years of tension, can weaken these muscles and cause problems when the eyes need to change shape.
The eyes are never ever truly round; they are constantly changing shapes depending on the situation. Everyone has astigmatism every once in awhile. In fact, you can create the illusion of astigmatism right now by pulling on the eye lids and blurring the vision. The eyes will usually fix themselves in a few hours or days; without the use of glasses. Artificial lenses mask the problem and prevent the eyes from healing themselves.
The eyes are amazing organs and they are the first line of defense against tension; we just tend to ignore those signs. If vision because blurry or distorted, your eyes are telling you to relax and take it easy.