In Russia, as elsewhere in the world, folklore is rapidly scattering before the practical spirit of modern progress. The traveling peasant bard or storyteller, and the devoted "nyanya", the beloved nurse of many a generation, are rapidly dying out, and with them, the tales and legends, the last echoes of the nation's early joys and sufferings, hopes, and fears, are passing away. The student of folklore knows that the time has come when haste is needed to catch these vanishing songs of the nation's youth and preserve them for the delight of future generations. In sending forth the stories in the present volume, all of which are here set down in print for the first time, it is my hope that they may enable American children to share with the children of Russia the pleasure of glancing into the magic world of the old Slavic nation.