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pictures of this sort are general and typical in character rather than local in interest. The good old stories which have been retold from time immemorial retain their hold upon us because they deal with the typical elements of human nature and child life. They have no local color to fix the time and place. So with story pictures. If they reach the heart of child life, they last forever, but if they depend too much upon transient elements, the next generation will not understand them. I can best explain my meaning by illustrations. About three hundred years ago the Spanish artist Murillo painted some groups of beggar boys playing in the street. They were ragged and unkempt, not particularly pretty and not over-clean, but they were full of the joy of life. Happy-go-lucky as the birds of the air, they are feasting on melons and grapes, and kings of the earth might envy them. There are at least eight of these subjects, the best-known being the group in the Munich Gallery, and they are among the most popular and delightful pictures in the world. Though painted three centuries ago in Seville, you can find their counterparts to-day in the streets of New York, or Boston, or Chicago. To the end of time boys will flock together to loaf in the sun, devour stolen fruit, and play games on the ground. Murillo’s pictures will never need explanation and will never go by. Now many story pictures which seem very funny and clever at first sight lose their interest as time passes, because the details are too definitely localized. In the latter part of the nineteenth century there were vari-