Excerpt from Heroes of the Nations Dear Girls and Boys: You have been working away with the queer, crooked marks printed in books until now you know how to read. How many splendid stories are waiting for you! To be sure they are locked up in books, but whoever can read has the magic key which opens the books. Will you enjoy this book? That depends upon what you like. Some of these stories are about girls and boys. Most of them learned to read and write, though their languages were very different from ours. They enjoyed fine stories as you do. Brave Joan of Arc could not read; but she could pray; and her prayers saved France. Of course you love your mother and father very dearly, and they love you. So you will understand why Ulysses went to war rather than hurt his baby boy. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.