The question of lions came up, but Charlotte wanted none of it. "No, thank you," she said, firmly; "you'll be chained up till I'm quite close to you, and then you'll be loose, and you'll tear me in pieces. I know your lions " "No, I won't; I swear I won't," protested Edward. "I'll be quite a new lion this time, -- something you can't even imagine. . . ." *Imagine The Wind in the Willows with real children in place of Kenneth Grahame's storybook animals, and you'll get a picture of this book, Grahame's The Golden Age (1895). It is a story of children in late Victorian England -- a marvel that views the world in ways that would confound the adults around them. Grahame's elegant writing make The Golden Age a joy to read and reread. He had a wonderful knack for presenting the child's view of the world, and this book brings it to full flower. The Golden Age is a collection of reminiscences of childhood, written by Kenneth Grahame and originally published in book form in 1895. Widely praised upon its first appearance Algernon Charles Swinburne, writing in the Daily Chronicle, called it "one of the few books which are well-nigh too praiseworthy for praise" the book has come to be regarded as a classic in its genre."