The Animal Story Book

Edited by Andrew Lang, this book is an anthology of interesting stories about a wide variety of diffferent animals collected from numerous sources.


00 - Preface



01 - ‘Tom’ an Adventure in the Life of a Bear In Paris by Alexandre Dumas; translated by Miss Blackley



02 - Sai the Panther by John Claudius Loudon



03 - The Buzzard and the Priest by William Bingley



04 - Cowper and His Hares by William Bingley



05 - A Rat Tale by Miss Evelyn Grieve



06 - Snake Stories by Mrs. Lang



07 - What Elephants Can Do by Mrs. Lang



08 - The Dog of Montargis by Miss Eleanor Sellar



09 - How a Beaver Builds a House by William Bingley



10 - The War Horse of Alexander by Plutarch



11 - Stories About Bears by Mrs. Lang



12 - Stories About Ants by Mrs. Lang



13 - The Taming of an Otter by William Bingley



14 - The Story of Androcles and the Lion by Miss Eleanor Sellar



15 - Monsieur Dumas and His Beasts (Chapters 1-3) by Mrs. Lang



16 - Monsieur Dumas and His Beasts (Chapters 4-6) by Mrs. Lang



17 - Monsieur Dumas and His Beasts (Chapters 7-9) by Mrs. Lang



18 - The Adventures of Pyramus by Mrs. Lang



19 - The Story of a Weasel by William Bingley



20 - Stories About Wolves by Mrs. Lang



21 - Two Highland Dogs by Miss Goodrich Freer



22 - Monkey Tricks and Sally at the Zoo



23 - How the Cayman Was Killed by Charles Waterton



24 - The Story of Fido by Miss A. M. Alleyne



25 - Beasts Besieged by Théophile Gautier



26 - Mr. Gully by Miss Elspeth Campbell



27 - Stories from Pliny: How Dogs Love by Pliny



28 - The Strange History of Cagnotte by Théophile Gautier



29 - Still Waters Run Deep; Or the Dancing Dog by Théophile Gautier



30 - Theo and His Horses; Jane, Betsy, and Blanche by Théophile Gautier



31 - Madame Théophile and the Parrot by Théophile Gautier



32 - The Battle of the Mullets and the Dolphins by Mrs. Lang



33 - Monkey Stories by Mrs. Lang



34 - Eccentric Bird Builders by Mr. Jones



35 - The Ship of the Desert by Johann Ludwig Burckhardt



36 - ‘Hame, Hame, Hame, Where I Fain Wad Be' by Mrs. Lang



37 - Nests for Dinner by Mrs. Lang



38 - Fire-eating Djijam



39 - The Story of the Dog Oscar by Miss A. M. Alleyne



40 - Dolphins at Play by Pliny



41 - The Starling of Segringen by Johann Peter Hebel; translated by Mr. Bartells



42 - Grateful Dogs by Mr. Bartells



43 - A Gazelle: Passages in the Life of a Tortoise by Alexandre Dumas; translated by Miss Blackley



44 - Cockatoo Stories



45 - The Otter Who Was Reared By a Cat



46 - Stories About Lions by Mrs. Lang



47 - Builders and Weavers by Mrs. Lang



48 - ‘More Faithful than Favoured’ by Miss Eleanor Sellar



49 - Dolphins, Turtles, and Cod: Stories from Audubon by Robert Williams Buchanan



50 - More About Elephants by James Emerson Tennent



51 - Bungey by Mr. Jesse



52 - Lions and Their Ways by William Bingley



53 - The History of Jacko I by Alexandre Dumas; translated by Miss Blackley



54 - Signora and Lori



55 - Of the Linnet, Popinjay, or Parrot, and Other Birds That Can Speak by Mrs. Lang



56 - Patch and the Chickens by Miss A. M. Alleyne



57 - The Fierce Falcon by Charles St. John



58 - Mr. Bolt, the Scotch Terrier by Mr. Jesse



59 - A Raven's Funeral by Mrs. Lang



60 - A Strange Tiger by William Bingley



61 - Halcyons and Their Biographers by Mrs. Lang



62 - The Story of a Frog by Miss Blackley



63 - The Woodpecker Tapping on the Hollow Oak Tree by Mrs. Lang



64 - Dogs Over the Water by Mrs. Lang



65 - The Capocier and His Mate by Mrs. Lang



66 - Owls and Marmots and Eagles' Nests by Mrs. Lang


Children who have read our Fairy Books may have noticed that there are not so very many fairies in the stories after all. The most common characters are birds, beasts, and fishes, who talk and act like Christians. The reason of this is that the first people who told the stories were not very clever, or, if they were clever, they had never been taught to read and write, or to distinguish between Vegetable, Animal, and Mineral. They took it that all things were ‘much of a muchness:’ they were not proud, and held that beast and bird could talk like themselves, only, of course, in a different language.

After offering, then, so many Fairy Books (though the stories are not all told yet), we now present you (in return for a coin or two) with a book about the friends of children and of fairies—the beasts. The stories are all true, more or less, but it is possible that Monsieur Dumas and Monsieur Théophile Gautier rather improved upon their tales. I own that I have my doubts about the bears and serpents in the tales by the Baron Wogan. This gentleman’s ancestors were famous Irish people. One of them held Cromwell’s soldiers back when they were pursuing Charles II. after Worcester fight. He also led a troop of horse from Dover to the Highlands, where he died of a wound, after fighting for the King. The next Wogan was a friend of Pope and Swift; he escaped from prison after Preston fight, in 1715, and, later, rescued Prince Charlie’s mother from confinement in Austria, and took her to marry King James. He next became Governor of Don Quixote’s province, La Mancha, in Spain, and was still alive and merry in 1752. Baron Wogan, descended from these heroes, saw no longer any king to fight for, so he went to America and fought bears. No doubt he was as brave as his ancestors, but whether all his stories of serpents are absolutely correct I am not so certain. People have also been heard to express doubts about Mr. Waterton and the Cayman. The terrible tale of Mr. Gully and his deeds of war I know to be accurate, and the story of Oscar, the sentimental tyke, is believed in firmly by the lady who wrote it. As for the stories about Greek and Roman beasts, Pliny, who tells them, is a most respectable author. On the whole, then, this is more or less of a true story-book.

There ought to be a moral; if so, it probably is that we should be kind to all sorts of animals, and, above all, knock trout on the head when they are caught, and don’t let the poor things jump about till they die. A chapter of a very learned sort was written about the cleverness of beasts, proving that there must have been great inventive geniuses among beasts long ago, and that now they have rather got into a habit (which I think a very good one) of being content with the discoveries of their ancestors. This led naturally to some observations on Instinct and Reason; but there may be children who are glad that there was no room for this chapter.

The longer stories from Monsieur Dumas were translated from the French by Miss Cheape.

‘A Rat Tale’ is by Miss Evelyn Grieve, who knew the rats.

‘Mr. Gully’ is by Miss Elspeth Campbell, to whom Mr. Gully belonged.

‘The Dog of Montargis,’ ‘More Faithful than Favoured,’ and ‘Androcles’ are by Miss Eleanor Sellar.

Snakes, Bears, Ants, Wolves, Monkeys, and some Lions are by Miss Lang.

‘Two Highland Dogs’ is by Miss Goodrich Freer.

‘Fido’ and ‘Oscar’ and ‘Patch’ are by Miss A. M. Alleyne.

‘Djijam’ is by his master.

‘The Starling of Segringen’ and ‘Grateful Dogs’ are by Mr. Bartells.

‘Tom the Bear,’ ‘The Frog,’ ‘Jacko the Monkey’ and ‘Gazelle’ are from Dumas by Miss Blackley.

All the rest are by Mrs. Lang.

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