Stories Jolly: Stories New: Stories Strange & Stories True: A Series of New and Original Tales for Boys and Girls from Six to Fourteen Years Old

Stories Jolly: Stories New: Stories Strange & Stories True: A Series of New and Original Tales for Boys and Girls from Six to Fourteen Years Old is a collection of children’s short stories written in the late 19th century. The anthology gathers varied moral, adventurous, and imaginative tales—by several well-known writers of the period—about courage, kindness, responsibility, and wonder, set from European gardens and cathedrals to stormy coasts and American prairies. The opening of the collection presents a string of self-contained tales: a lame girl, Herminé, befriends a fountain statue that comes alive at night and finds healing in its waters; a lifeboat-obsessed boy, Edwin, secretly joins a rescue during a sudden storm and helps save passengers, including his mother; a boy’s reckless chloroform “experiment” nearly kills his young cousin before timely adult help brings a hard-earned lesson; an impulsive traveler, Joan, wanders onto a cathedral roof and is guided back from real peril; after an attack on a wagon train, Winnie protects toddler Bobby and treks by night to safety; and on Christmas Eve an Italian orphan survives a night in a bear pit by soothing Bruin with his lute, then finds kindness and a new start. The section closes by beginning “Pea Blossom,” in which a boy named Willy is spellbound by a stage fairy, setting up a tale of enchantment.