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+The Project Gutenberg eBook of The book of the child, by Frederick
+Douglas How
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
+most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
+whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
+of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
+www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you
+will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before
+using this eBook.
+
+Title: The book of the child
+       An attempt to set down what is in the mind of children
+
+Author: Frederick Douglas How
+
+Release Date: January 29, 2023 [eBook #69896]
+
+Language: English
+
+Produced by: Bob Taylor and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+             https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images
+             generously made available by The Internet Archive)
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BOOK OF THE CHILD ***
+
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber’s Note
+Italic text displayed as: _italic_
+
+
+
+
+                        The Book of the Child
+
+
+
+
+                                 The
+
+                          Book of the Child
+
+                    An Attempt to set down what
+                     is in the mind of Children
+
+
+                      By Frederick Douglas How
+
+
+                      E. P. DUTTON AND COMPANY
+                   31 WEST 23RD STREET, NEW YORK
+                                1907
+
+
+
+
+                             PRINTED BY
+                   SIR ISAAC PITMAN & SONS, LTD.,
+                           BATH, ENGLAND.
+                               (2319)
+
+
+
+
+                               Preface
+
+
+I am rather shy about this little book.
+
+If it were not for the kindness of some few friends whose knowledge
+of children far exceeds my own, it would never have seen the light.
+
+For their encouragement and for the gift of their experiences and
+advice I am deeply grateful. I know that they would rather I did not
+mention them by name.
+
+The thoughts which I have tried to put together have been growing in
+my mind for years. Some, in fact, I have quoted from articles I wrote
+some time ago for a magazine no longer in existence.
+
+Perhaps my best excuse for letting this book appear is that, though I
+have no children of my own, other people’s children have always been
+very good to me.
+
+                                                           F. D. HOW.
+
+_May, 1907._
+
+
+
+
+                              Contents
+
+
+            CHAP.                             PAGE
+               I. THE CHILD—ITS ARRIVAL          9
+
+              II. THE CHILD—ITS MEMORY          24
+
+             III. THE CHILD—ITS IMAGINATION     37
+
+              IV. THE CHILD—ITS RELIGION        66
+
+               V. THE CHILD—ITS IMITATION       96
+
+              VI. THE CHILD—ITS PLEASURES      112
+
+             VII. THE CHILD—ITS PATHOS         136
+
+            VIII. WAYSIDE CHILDREN             162
+
+              IX. CHILDREN’S MEETINGS          176
+
+               X. APPENDIX                     187
+
+
+
+
+                        The Book of the Child
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER I
+
+                        THE CHILD—ITS ARRIVAL
+
+
+Children have come into greater prominence during the last quarter
+of a century than ever before in the history of this country. Many
+things have been written about them, many things have been done
+for them,—some foolish and some wise, but all suggested by a newly
+aroused sense of the vital importance attached to their proper
+upbringing.
+
+[Sidenote: The Cause of the Children.]
+
+[Sidenote: Legislation for Children.]
+
+It is, of course, true that the Cause of the Children has been used
+by both political parties for their own purposes, but, for all
+that, there has been a large amount of most valuable legislation
+on the subject during the last twenty years.[1] The helplessness
+of children and their rights as citizens of this country have been
+better understood and provided for, while their impressionable nature
+has been realised, and the rigour of their training and discipline
+considerably modified.
+
+[Sidenote: The Better Position of Children.]
+
+It may be that there has been too great a change in some directions.
+There may be a freedom of intercourse between children and their
+parents or teachers that borders on disrespect. But taking one thing
+with another the position of children has altered for the better,
+and it is no bad thing that few subjects have greater interest at
+the present day than that of Children. It is an interest, too, that
+has come to stay. Of a distinctly softening and refining nature like
+the taste for gardening, which has brought into the world so many
+books during the last few years, it is only now beginning to reveal
+its true importance, and it will increase as from year to year more
+people perceive its fascination and trace its results.
+
+[Sidenote: Old-fashioned Discipline.]
+
+Sixty or seventy years ago the chief interest in children shown by
+parents and teachers was of an extremely disciplinary nature. Many
+children were not allowed to sit down without permission when in
+their parents’ presence, and it was in many families the rule that
+the father and mother should be addressed as “Sir” and “Ma’am.”
+Teachers of both sexes ruled mainly by fear, and allowed no intimacy
+between themselves and their pupils. The rigour of such upbringing
+and education must have withered many a tender-natured child as a
+cold black wind in spring will shrivel the opening blossoms of the
+fruit trees.
+
+[Sidenote: Children of the Poor.]
+
+[Sidenote: Metropolitan Working Classes’ Association.]
+
+Among the working classes, until the Church began to establish its
+schools, the children grew up anyhow, and could in few cases read or
+write. Infant mortality and unhealthy conditions of childhood were
+prevalent. So much was this the case that in 1847, while little was
+yet being thought or written about Children, the Metropolitan Working
+Classes’ Association for Improving the Public Health actually put
+out a pamphlet on their proper rearing and training. This document
+had some considerable circulation, but its usefulness must have been
+greatly curtailed by the inability of so many people in those days to
+read.
+
+[Sidenote: Literature Concerning Children.]
+
+Before this publication the literature on the subject of children was
+extremely scanty. Not only was this the case but those people who did
+from time to time write on the subject seem to have been ashamed
+of doing so, and their works, appearing once or twice in a century,
+are for the most part anonymous.
+
+[Sidenote: The Office of Christian Parents.]
+
+There exists a treatise printed by Cantrell Legge, printer to
+the University of Cambridge, in the year 1616, with the title
+“The Office of Christian Parents, showing how Children are to be
+governed throughout all ages and times of their life. With a brief
+Admonitorie addition unto children to answer in dutie to their
+Parents’ office.”
+
+[Sidenote: Personal Care of the Mother.]
+
+[Sidenote: Possible Extinction of Boarding Schools.]
+
+The writer, whoever he may have been, appears to have at that very
+early date grasped the importance of his subject, for he says, “The
+Parent is put in trust to governe the chiefest creature under heaven,
+to train up that which is called the Generation of God.” Being thus
+impressed with the value of children, it is natural to find the
+author of the treatise giving advice that is being more and more
+strongly urged upon parents at the present day. Eminent doctors
+insist upon the advantage to infants of being personally cared for
+by the mother, and not handed over wholesale to a nurse. Educational
+experts are more and more inclined to take the view that children
+should be kept at home as long as possible. So far, indeed, has this
+theory advanced that there is a suggestion of the ultimate extinction
+of our great public boarding schools in favour of a larger number of
+schools so situated that children may attend them as day scholars
+while still living at home under parental care and influence.
+
+[Sidenote: Interference of the Grandmother.]
+
+The old writer of 1616 made a strong point of the child being cared
+for by its parents from birth onwards. He (possibly from personal
+experience) did not even approve of the interference of the
+grandmother, for he quaintly observes, “In some places there comes in
+the child-wive’s mother. She will not have her daughter troubled with
+the noursing: and the Father cannot abide the crying of the child:
+therefore a nurse is sent for in all hast”—a course of action of
+which he entirely disapproves.
+
+When the child is a little older he still thinks that its committal
+to the care of a servant should be avoided.
+
+“When a child beginneth to know his mother from another, there
+groweth two absurdities, either the mother’s fondness maketh it a
+crying child and restless, or els her careless committing it to a
+servant spills it.”
+
+[Sidenote: The Spoiling of Children.]
+
+Here comes in also his first advice as to the disciplining of a
+child. He appears to have held strong views as to the necessity of
+firmness, but not to have been in favour of the great severity which
+often obtained in those days. His observations are too valuable even
+now to be passed over. What could be better than the following? “Here
+cometh in the cockling of the parents to give the child the sway of
+his owne desires to have whatsoever it pointeth to, and so it maketh
+the parents and all the house slaves, and there is no end of noyse,
+of crying, and wraling; or els there is such severitie as the heart
+of the child is utterly broken.” Or again, “When parents do either
+too much cockle their children, or by home example do draw them to
+worser things, or els neglect the due discipline and good order, what
+I pray you can come to passe? but as we see in trees which beeing
+neglected at the first are crooked and unfruitful; contrarily, they
+which by the hand and art of the husbandman are proined, stayed up,
+and watered, are made upright, faire, and fruitfull.”
+
+[Sidenote: Parents to Superintend their Children’s Upbringing.]
+
+It will be observed that this writer implies in all the advice he
+gives that the parent is the proper person to bring up a child, not
+a servant at home or a teacher at a distance. “Parents,” he says,
+“should watch and attend upon their children for the avoiding of evil
+occasions and to see all duties rightly performed.”
+
+How far have we got nowadays from this ideal! How greatly modern
+habits of life have interfered with any such possibility! What the
+ancient moralist quoted above would have said to the upbringing of
+most children at the present day it is difficult to imagine. He sums
+up his own point of view very pithily in the words, “The egges are
+badly hatched when the bird is away; and the children are unluckily
+nurtured whose parents are made careles, being absent through
+pleasure.”
+
+[Sidenote: Old-fashioned Severity Leads to Dissimulation.]
+
+More than a century later, in 1748, there appeared another anonymous
+publication on the subject. This had for its title “Dialogues on the
+Passions, Habits, and Affections peculiar to Children.” The writer
+was imbued with ideas so far in advance of his time that fear of
+ridicule may have caused him to conceal his name. His sentiments
+about the proper treatment of children are very much those at which
+most people have arrived to-day, when the subject has received much
+prominent attention for a quarter of a century. He combats the
+prevailing opinion of that date that the right way to deal with
+children is by a system of formal repression and severity. Thus he
+makes one of his characters say, “I think it necessary that Children
+should be kept at some distance. They are apt to grow pert, sawcy,
+and ungovernable if we make too free with them, or permit them the
+full liberty of speech in our Company.” To this the reply is made:
+“To discover the Diseases of the mind ought to be and must be your
+principal study. But in this you will never be successful if you set
+out with a practice which teaches them to conceal every bad symptom.”
+
+[Sidenote: A Phase of Lying.]
+
+The truth contained in these words is very generally recognised
+nowadays. If a parent wants to make a child untruthful it can be
+done at once by causing fear, under the guise perhaps of respect,
+to be the ruling sentiment. Children are only too ready to learn!
+“As soon as they are born they go astray and speak lies.” It is a
+tendency of childhood in every class. A gentleman whose work consists
+in preparing little boys for the great public schools once said that
+almost every small boy passes through a phase of lying. The mistress
+of a little village school declared not long ago that there was only
+one child there upon whose word she could absolutely rely.
+
+It follows then that those in charge of children, and especially the
+parents, should note the advice of the writer of the Dialogues. He
+insists again and again upon the evil effects of fear.
+
+[Sidenote: Children Susceptible of Fear.]
+
+“Fear,” he says, “I think is the first Passion which we can
+distinctly trace in the Mind of a Child. They are susceptible of it
+almost sooner than they can conceive the Nature of Danger; and it
+is the Misfortune of Numbers that the Nurses find this so easily
+improved to their purposes that Children find the effects of this
+passion as long as they live.”
+
+Again, “As to Dread of Punishment which I have observed to be the
+lowest and most grovelling kind of Fear, you must by gentle usage
+remove it from the apprehension of such as have imbibed it from harsh
+Parents or tyrannical Nurses.”
+
+It is exceedingly remarkable to find a writer in the middle of the
+eighteenth century who had studied children to such purpose, and who
+ventured to advance opinions such as those quoted above.
+
+[Sidenote: Literature of the last Half Century.]
+
+The latter part of the nineteenth century saw a rush of literature
+concerning children. It is possible that the great public efforts
+made by the various agencies for bettering the lot of homeless,
+starving, and ill-treated children began to call special attention to
+the treatment of all children. It may be that the general tendency
+of the age to level all distinctions between one and another helped
+to gain greater consideration for the younger members of the
+community. It may even be that a more general appreciation of the
+Gospel teaching helped forward this result. Or, as some will say,
+it may be simply that a wave of sentiment swept over the country and
+brought with it a tenderer regard for little children. It does not
+much matter what was the cause. The fact remains that a new interest
+was awakened, the people of England wanted to understand childhood
+better, and books and magazine articles on the subject appeared in
+considerable numbers.
+
+This result, even though some people have thought the supply
+excessive, has been of great service. The future of a country largely
+depends upon the proper upbringing of its children. This in its turn
+depends upon a proper knowledge of the nature of childhood. This
+knowledge has been stimulated and increased to an unprecedented
+degree by the works of the best of the writers who have recently
+dealt with the subject of children.
+
+[Sidenote: Books About Children.]
+
+To mention only two or three. Which of us has not been the wiser and
+the better for the books of Kenneth Graham, for such an inimitable
+character study as the Rebecca of Kate Douglas Wiggin, and for the
+marvellously tender insight into the mystery of the mind of a little
+child which has been shown by William Canton in the “Invisible
+Playmate” and “W. V. her Book”?
+
+It may be hoped that what is practically a new science may be studied
+with even greater diligence in the future, and may be given its
+proper position as of paramount importance.
+
+Up to the present date more time and pains have been expended and
+more literature published on the rearing and training of horses and
+dogs than of the little children upon whom the future destiny of the
+world depends.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] See Appendix.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER II
+
+                        THE CHILD—ITS MEMORY
+
+
+[Sidenote: A Baby’s Earliest Impressions.]
+
+[Sidenote: Bishop Berkeley on Blind Boys.]
+
+It is just this—the memory of a child—that makes it so important to
+begin the process of training at once. The waxen tablets of a baby’s
+mind are very soft. It is impossible to say how soon impressions
+are made upon them, or how deep those impressions may be. It is
+not impossible that with the very beginning of separate existence
+some vague markings are made upon these unsullied tablets. It is
+exceedingly interesting to try to imagine what the very earliest
+impressions are like. Are they first produced by the sense of sight
+or the sense of touch? It has been conclusively proved that the
+senses aid one another to a large extent in the early stages of their
+use. Bishop Berkeley in an appendix to one of his treatises gives
+the reports of two cases of boys born blind with what is called
+congenital cataract. Both cases were cured, one at the age of nine,
+the other at thirteen or fourteen. Neither of these boys when first
+able to see had the least idea what he was looking at. They both
+thought that all objects touched their eyes, and neither had any
+conception of the shape or distance of an object. They were perfectly
+familiar with differences in shape and material by the process of
+touch, but when they first obtained sight the appearance of things
+meant nothing to them until they had handled them.
+
+But in these cases the sense of touch had existed for years and been
+greatly cultivated. It was, therefore, natural that the familiar
+sense should come to the aid of the unfamiliar.
+
+[Sidenote: Memory Markings.]
+
+In newborn babies the circumstances are altogether different. All
+senses alike are novel, and it would be of great interest, if such a
+thing were possible, to determine whether the earlier memory markings
+are caused by the vision of light, the sound of voices, or the touch
+of the hands that first come in contact with the infant form.
+
+[Sidenote: Precocious Infants.]
+
+But it seems altogether out of our power to determine this question
+with any sort of certainty. None of us is able to remember the
+impressions of early infancy, and insufficient observation of the
+results of ocular, aural, or other contact with external things on
+the part of babies has resulted in an absence of data upon which to
+argue. Mothers, nurses, and maiden aunts are often ridiculed for
+declaring that “baby” has shown some astoundingly precocious power
+of observation or recognition, and no doubt these manifestations are
+in a large number of cases accounted for by a desire on the part of
+the narrator to be able to claim a special share of the infantile
+affection, or a special power of imparting infantile accomplishments.
+
+[Sidenote: Case of Very Early Memory.]
+
+At the same time there is every probability that infants observe and
+think more accurately than would be generally allowed by their casual
+male acquaintances. The present writer can vouch for at least one
+case where a permanent impression was made upon the mind of a very
+young child, and memory markings were indented which certainly lasted
+for several years. The facts are these: A man who shall be called
+A. B. was invalided and ordered to spend a winter at the seaside.
+While there a young married couple with their first baby shared his
+lodgings. The child, a boy, was just six months old, and for some
+eighteen weeks he was the frequent companion of A. B., especially
+when the weather prevented either from going out. During many an
+hour the baby boy lay on the cushions of a low basket chair kicking
+and crowing with delight while his man friend talked or sang to him,
+and so a firm friendship grew up between the two, though its verbal
+expression was entirely confined to the elder of them.
+
+When the baby was ten months old the inevitable parting came, and for
+about two years they saw nothing of one another. At last, however, it
+became possible for the child’s mother to bring him to a house where
+his old friend was staying. During the journey she said to the little
+chap, “Do you know who you are going to see? You are going to see A.
+B.” Without a moment’s hesitation the boy said, “A. B. with beard?”
+showing that he remembered what was no doubt to him the most striking
+item in his friend’s appearance, though at the time that the memory
+mark was made on his mind he was too young to pronounce the word
+describing the thing that made the impression. But further evidence
+of the child’s memory was forthcoming, for as soon as he was set down
+on arrival at the front door of the house he ran straight to A. B.
+with every mark of affectionate joy at seeing him again.
+
+Here is an instance of infant memory that is absolutely true, and, as
+the boy was in no way precocious or unnatural, it is fair to assume
+that there must be plenty of cases where the impressions made upon
+an infant’s mind during the period when its age is marked by months
+and not by years are of a far more permanent nature than is generally
+assumed.
+
+[Sidenote: Memory at a Later Age.]
+
+But for most illustrations of children’s memory we are compelled to
+begin at a later age. Few people remember much that happened before
+they were three years old, but from about that time it is common to
+find a remarkably clear recollection of certain scattered events or
+experiences.
+
+It is a usual thing to hear it said by those who have passed middle
+age, that their remembrance of their childhood grows clearer as time
+goes on. This is accounted for by the fact that _fewer_ impressions
+were made upon their minds during their earliest years, whereas in
+later life the memory tablets get crowded with all sorts and kinds of
+markings which become confused and partially unintelligible in a very
+short time.
+
+[Sidenote: Emotions of Surprise, Pleasure, or Pain.]
+
+Besides being fewer in number it is also probable that in early
+childhood the memory markings that endure are those of such
+experiences as caused strong emotions of surprise, pleasure, or pain.
+One of the very earliest recollections of the writer is of attending
+a wedding when he was three years old. But none of the usual
+incidents impressed him at all. The dresses of the bridesmaids, the
+appearance of the bride, the bouquets, bells and other accompaniments
+of a wedding have been completely forgotten. No remembrance of any
+single person or circumstance remains excepting two things which
+struck him with astonishment. First of all, he, in common with others
+attending the service, was taken across a wide river in a boat, and,
+secondly, he was put to stand close against the back of a harmonium,
+the noise of which at such close quarters was to him extraordinary
+and rather disagreeable.
+
+[Sidenote: Joys Better Remembered than Griefs.]
+
+The complete obliteration of everything connected with this visit—for
+the ceremony took place a day’s journey from his home—seems to point
+clearly to the fact that the unusual is not by itself enough to
+permanently impress a child’s mind, but it must be coupled with
+sensations of peculiar surprise, or special pleasure or pain. With
+regard to the two latter it is a beneficent provision that the joys
+of early life are remembered long after its sadnesses have been
+forgotten.
+
+[Sidenote: Summer Days at a Country Rectory.]
+
+A man looks back on the summers he spent as a child in a country
+rectory. It appears to him that the days were ever sunny: he recalls
+the sharp hiss of the whetstone on the scythe, which told him as
+he lay in his little bed that the parson’s man was mowing the
+lawn before the dew was off the grass; he can remember the wild
+strawberries in the less conventional part of the garden; he can
+in fancy take his way to the cowhouse, mug in hand, to get a drink
+of new and frothy milk; he can climb about the lower branches of a
+favourite tree; he can rake and water his little square of garden;
+he can come home atop of the last load of hay from the glebe fields;
+but it is always in the dancing sunlight that he moves; it would seem
+to him that there could never have been any single day in all his
+childhood when rain came down and skies were grey and cold.
+
+[Sidenote: The Old Nursery.]
+
+And so, too, of the life indoors. He remembers much of this in
+comparison with the later years. He remembers exactly where each
+piece of furniture stood in the old nursery. He can tell you with
+what colour the ottoman was covered in which his brothers’ and
+sisters’ outdoor things were kept, and he vividly remembers standing
+upon it to look out of the window and watch the gardener at work. He
+can recall exactly how much of the spout was broken belonging to the
+old grey teapot in which was brewed the senna tea, but he cannot tell
+you what the stuff tasted of—though he is sure that it was nasty.
+The nursery, the stairs, and the passages are in his memory so many
+playgrounds; he forgets the many childish tears that he shed, and the
+childish tragedies that befell him, while the games and the laughter
+and the pleasantness of his early surroundings are easily recalled.
+
+But if he examines carefully into his early impressions he will find
+that the events which older persons might be expected to remember are
+forgotten, while the little matters that brought to his babyhood’s
+experience sensations of pain or pleasure—but especially the
+latter—are clear. That is to say, the memory markings made in early
+childhood do not include the greater number of things which came in
+contact with the various senses of the child, but are really few in
+number and connected invariably with special sensations.
+
+It is a vast mistake to measure the importance of a child’s
+interests by those of a grown-up person. It is easy for the latter to
+forget every detail of a house in which he has passed some months or
+even years of middle age, but he will remember a shallow step leading
+down from one of his nurseries to the other.
+
+How small a thing! Yes, but it was productive of great sensations.
+It was the first step he had ever known—by it was revealed to him
+the entirely new idea that one room could be on a different level
+from another. Then he found that it was a splendid place to sit
+upon—just the right height for him—and a still better place upon
+which to set up bricks and toys in order to knock them down and hear
+the crash of their fall. But, best of all, it was the place where
+his first deed of daring was performed. There came a day when he
+ventured to jump down! It was the first time that he had really cared
+for spectators: it was the first time that he had looked round for
+applause. For all these reasons—all connected with new sensations of
+pleasure—that little shallow wooden step made a deeper memory mark
+upon his mind than many subsequent places or events that have perhaps
+helped to turn the current of his life. But, after all is said, it is
+impossible not to feel that the unknown is so largely in excess of
+the known, in this as in many other subjects, that the only thing to
+be done is to try to induce those who have to do with little children
+to remember that much is possible and even probable—to act, that is,
+as if the youngest child may possibly remember for its good or ill
+any smallest fact or object with which its senses are brought into
+contact.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER III
+
+                      THE CHILD—ITS IMAGINATION
+
+
+The imagination of the poet, of the novelist, of the advertiser of a
+patent medicine, is as nothing compared with that of a little child.
+No one who is unable to realise this will understand children or be
+really successful in their upbringing.
+
+[Sidenote: The Riotous Imagination of Children.]
+
+[Sidenote: Unimaginative Parents.]
+
+Whence come all the marvellous ideas that people the brain of a
+mere baby of two or three years? Is it that it has descended but a
+step or two down the staircase and still has a mind to some extent
+untrammelled by human limitations and the hard dry facts of earth?
+Or is it that, possessed of a keenly receptive power, it has not
+learnt to control or arrange the multitudes of facts that present
+themselves daily to its senses? This wonderful imagination is no
+doubt closely allied with the early powers of memory of which mention
+has been made, and may also have something at least to do with the
+early propensity to untruthfulness. Many a child has suffered at the
+hands of an unimaginative parent for words which have been ruthlessly
+called lies though they have been so strongly prompted by a vivid
+imagination that they have seemed as true to the utterer as much that
+is unintelligible but has to be accepted.
+
+[Sidenote: Arrangement of the Numerals.]
+
+[Sidenote: The Circle of the Months.]
+
+A moment’s thought will show at what an early age imagination came
+into play with most people. By far the greater number have by its aid
+clothed certain abstract ideas in definite concrete forms, and have
+done this when so young that it is impossible for them to remember
+the time when these things first took shape. For instance, most
+people have a definite arrangement of the numerals. A common form for
+this to take is that of the numbers one to twelve appearing to run
+slightly upwards and towards the right, those from twelve to twenty
+taking a downward turn in the same direction. At the number twenty a
+sharp turn is taken to the left, and from that point to one hundred
+they run uphill with an increasing steepness. Many other directions
+and shapes are discovered by questioning people on this subject, but
+it is very rare to find an example of the numerals being nothing but
+an abstract idea. The same thing occurs with the months. To most
+people they appear in a circle, winter being in some cases at the
+top, and summer in others. In one case a person imagines them in a
+semicircle, and in another (the strangest yet met with) they are in
+a zig-zag, three months running up, and three down, and so on, the
+form being like that of a rather straggling M.
+
+[Sidenote: Effects of Colour.]
+
+Colour also is occasionally imagined, and there is no doubt that
+children are specially susceptible to its influence at a very early
+age. A writer in the eighteenth century to whom allusion has been
+made in Chapter I makes the following observation: “There are some
+children so tenderly organised that many kinds of sounds are harsh
+to their Infant Ears and apt to fright them, and some colours strike
+them with too great and quick a Glare and have the same Effect till
+by Custom they are made familiar to their Organs.”
+
+[Sidenote: Colour of the Days.]
+
+It is certain at all events that colour has played an important part
+in the imagination of many people from their earliest years. A lady
+declares that all her life long the days of the week have appeared
+to her to be of certain definite colours. Thus, Sunday is brick red,
+Monday the same, Tuesday lilac, Wednesday white, Thursday dark brown,
+Friday grey, and Saturday mauve and yellow. All this imagining took
+place so near the start of her life that the colour, form, etc., of
+the days appear to this lady to be facts dating from the beginning
+of time itself. It should be noted that in these and all similar
+instances the imagination is apparently independent of outside
+influences such as pictures or descriptions which might be supposed
+to have affected a little child.
+
+[Sidenote: The Imaginary Child-Friend.]
+
+It is possible to go further than this and to say that the most vivid
+imaginings are as a rule those which a child produces absolutely
+and apart from the suggestion of others. Under this head comes the
+imaginary child-friend called into existence in most cases by one
+who has no playmate of similar age. The grown-up people in the
+house know nothing of this imaginary friend until the real child is
+overheard talking to it and calling it by name. It is remarkable to
+notice how nothing seems to disturb the commonplace reality of the
+whole thing in the mind of the child. When the imaginary friend is
+in the room his or her presence is never for a moment forgotten, and
+plans are gravely made to suit the convenience not of one only but of
+_both_ the children.
+
+Next in importance to the unsuggested imaginings are those to which
+a sensitive child gives way on the slightest hint. This is a very
+practical matter, and one to which those who have to do with children
+should take heed.
+
+[Sidenote: Imaginary Terrors.]
+
+It is impossible to say at how early an age a suggestion of any kind
+may bear fruit. A lady once said that her childhood was one long
+misery owing to a vivid imagination of the terrors that awaited her
+for having committed a certain fault when a baby in the nursery. It
+was not, she said, that much had been made of it at the time, but
+there was some suggestion of an awful unknown punishment, which her
+childish brain worked upon and developed until she dared not be left
+alone and became a thoroughly morbid and wretched little being.
+
+It is obvious that too great care cannot possibly be taken by those
+to whom children are entrusted, inasmuch as a chance word may set a
+child’s imagination working and affect the tendency of its thoughts
+and actions for years.
+
+[Sidenote: Untruthfulness and Imagination.]
+
+It was suggested at the beginning of this chapter that there is
+probably some relation between this power of imagination and the
+tendency to untruthfulness which is found in so many children. It is
+one of the most difficult things possible to define exactly where
+the knowledge of untruthfulness comes in. Probably no two children
+are alike in this, and it requires the utmost tact and a close
+knowledge of a particular child’s character to determine the point
+where the one thing ends and the other begins.
+
+Here is an example. A short time ago a little boy still in the
+nursery was taken out by his father in the carriage for a drive. When
+they arrived at the farther end of the town the little chap was sent
+home in the carriage by himself, his father having been deposited at
+his place of business. When the carriage arrived back at the door of
+the house the parlourmaid came out and carried the child indoors,
+being surprised to find him in tears. Struggling out of her arms he
+set off upstairs to the nursery, sobbing bitterly all the way. “What
+is the matter, dear?” said the nurse. “I’se had to walk by mine own
+self all froo the town, and I was dreffly frightened,” was the reply.
+“How ever did you get across the High Street, my poor darling?”
+“There was lots of cabs and cawwiages and things, and I knewed I
+would be runned over!” All this with many sobs and much burying
+of his head in nurse’s lap. Hearing the wailing in the nursery up
+came the parlourmaid, to whom the nurse poured out her indignation.
+“Just fancy! Making this poor lamb walk home all through the town
+by himself! It’s a mercy he was not killed again and again!” “Walk
+through the town! Why, whatever do you mean? Why, I lifted him out of
+the carriage at this very door not ten minutes ago!”
+
+Well, the temptation to punish the little fellow must have been
+great. One hopes it was resisted. There can be small doubt that a
+vivid imagination had mastered him as he drove home alone. It was
+all “what might have been,” and it became so real to him that it
+seemed to be “what was.”
+
+[Sidenote: Confession of an Imaginary Sin.]
+
+Again, a case recurs to the recollection of the writer where a small
+child was summoned into the presence of an angry parent who listened
+to no excuses, but insisted so strongly and so often on the guilt
+of the small boy, that at last he actually seemed convinced by the
+reiterated accusation and, imagining that his parent must know best,
+actually confessed to a sin which subsequent events proved the
+impossibility of his having committed.
+
+Now for an example where it is probable that the imagination of the
+child is used for ulterior purposes and the borderland between fancy
+and untruthfulness is likely to be crossed.
+
+[Sidenote: Jinks.]
+
+There is a little girl who a few years ago was possessed of many
+dolls, but the supreme favourite was an old monkey-doll by name
+“Jinks.” He was so much hugged and cuddled from the first that he
+soon became shabby. He quickly lost all his hair except a tuft on
+each side of his face, and his clothes were reduced to a pair of dark
+blue trousers and a sort of shabby white jersey. But the shabbier he
+became the more she loved him, and in time, being an ingenious little
+person, she began to make use of him, as is often the case among
+grown-up people. The first instance on record is of the simplest
+kind, but showed much insight into human nature. The little girl had
+been disobedient and was being duly lectured on her fault. She stood
+there looking very serious with “Jinks” tightly clasped in her arms.
+All of a sudden the length of the lecture became more than she could
+bear. Something must be done. Suddenly she held up the ugly old doll
+and with a pleasant smile upon her face remarked, “Look at Jinks! ’ow
+’e’s laughing!” It was an ingenious and effective ruse, but a ruse it
+was and not mere play of imagination.
+
+On another more recent occasion she made use of “Jinks” in a rather
+more elaborate fashion. Her everyday gloves were knitted woollen
+ones and these she disliked intensely. One day she was seen starting
+out in a pair which were properly kept for Sundays. She was stopped
+and asked why she had put on her best gloves. “Why,” she answered at
+once, “You see when I was getting ready I thought p’raps I should
+meet Jinks on the stairs—and he can’t _bear_ to see me in those
+woolly gloves!”
+
+Most people who have little children among their friends can remember
+similar instances, and these are just the cases where firm but
+sympathetic interference is necessary to prevent confusion between
+imagination and want of truth.
+
+[Sidenote: The Idea of Death.]
+
+[Sidenote: Desire for a Legacy.]
+
+Possessed as they are of such great powers of imagination in many
+directions it is curious to notice how often children seem unable
+to realise or picture to themselves matters with which they will be
+familiar enough in after life. Take, for instance, the subject of
+death. A child will imagine the death of a doll. This is a fancy that
+occurs rarely, and the imagination goes as a rule no further. A child
+does not picture to itself the sorrow and loss commonly caused by the
+death of a real person. A little girl of three years old was sitting
+on her godfather’s knee. There was an immense affection between the
+two, and either would have missed the other sadly. An old man in
+the village known by sight to the little girl had lately died, and
+she had just remarked to her godfather quite as a bit of cheerful
+gossip, “Old John is dead.” The conversation then turned upon a
+certain gold watch which the little maiden desired more than anything
+in the world. Once more she was told, “No, I really can’t give it
+to you; I want it so badly myself.” Then followed these apparently
+callous words. “Your hair is _rather_ white like old John’s. I s’pect
+you will be dead soon. Then can I have the watch?”
+
+At first sight this sounds heartless and calculating, but as a matter
+of fact it was certainly not the former. The subject of death was too
+big for her imagination, that was all.
+
+[Sidenote: Small Imagination of Suffering.]
+
+In this same connection it is found that pain as affecting others
+is often very slightly realised by children, and they seem to be
+unable to imagine suffering such as has not come within their own
+experience. It is for this reason that little children often inflict
+tortures on animals, especially on flies and other small creatures
+which are at their mercy. It is not from a love of cruelty as some
+people have said, but simply because their imagination falls short in
+this direction, and they do not realise the effects of their actions.
+
+But, with certain exceptions, a child has invariably an immense
+capability for imagining. As has been stated, the most vivid fancies
+seem to spring up unbidden, but it is equally true that it is
+possible in a large degree to influence the _kind_ of imagination.
+Happiness is an essential atmosphere for the upbringing of a child,
+and happiness is to a large extent dependent in childhood upon
+imagination. By supplying this atmosphere the best kind of imaginings
+can be ensured.
+
+[Sidenote: Parental Sympathy.]
+
+A child whose parents are occupied entirely with themselves and their
+own affairs and have no sympathy with childish fancies will shrink
+up into itself and have a stunted mental and spiritual growth: the
+terrified child will grow up amid horrible imaginings; it is only the
+child to whom gentleness and sympathy are as the very air it breathes
+who will imagine happy and beautiful things, and live to enjoy the
+fulfilment of them here and hereafter.
+
+[Sidenote: Poetic Imaginings.]
+
+This leads naturally to the poetic imaginings of many children who
+have outgrown their babyhood, but have not yet had their fancies
+blurred and obscured by the tasks and troubles of the world. They
+possess a gift which all may envy—the gift of endowing all manner
+of things, both those which are beautiful in themselves and those
+which are not, with a glory not their own. This gift comes from the
+power of connecting one thought with another, or perhaps of allowing
+one idea unconsciously to suggest another, which is the root of all
+imagination. It is a gift that has brought sunshine and happiness to
+thousands of children, and is preserved by some in after life. All
+our great poets and painters have kept hold of this power, and many
+persons share vicariously in its delights as they read the glorious
+thoughts or gaze on the exquisite pictures that have been thus
+inspired.
+
+And yet there are some who scoff. They have forgotten their
+childhood’s gift, and are too self-satisfied to regret it. Not so the
+old poet Wordsworth. He felt the power leaving him. The brightness of
+his poetic imagination was on the wane, and he thus lamented it:—
+
+  There was a time when meadow, grove and stream,
+  The earth and every common sight,
+          To me did seem
+  Apparell’d in celestial light,
+  The glory and the freshness of a dream.
+  It is not now as it hath been of yore;
+          Turn wheresoe’er I may
+          By night or day,
+  The things which I have seen I now can see no more.
+
+There are many people who have never troubled to understand children
+and who are mightily sceptical as to the powers and the charm that is
+claimed for them. It is hardly possible to do better here than to ask
+such persons to read the example given below of a child’s poetical
+imaginings.
+
+The story is told in the first person, and is in the main literally
+true. It is called
+
+                             “I WONDERS”
+
+[Sidenote: “I Wonders”]
+
+“It was a lovely September day. I had any number of duties to fulfil
+at home. There was a pile of letters waiting to be answered, there
+was a magazine article hardly begun for which I had received an
+urgent demand from the publishers only that morning, and there was a
+meeting of school managers which my conscience told me I ought on no
+account to miss. But, as I said before, it was a simply lovely day
+and nature (human and the other) cried shame on staying indoors.
+Whether I should have had sufficient strength of mind to have
+resisted the temptation had I been left to fight it out with nature
+I shall never know, for the enemy received a sudden reinforcement
+before which I yielded ignominiously and at once. I had gone so far
+as to clear my blotting-pad of loose letters and to open my ink
+bottle when there came a tiny tap at the study door. ‘Come in!’ I
+called, and there ensued a curious twisting at the handle of the
+door, productive of no result. ‘Come in!’ I called again, and this
+time there was no further delay.
+
+“With a little burst the door flew open and revealed that my visitor
+was no less and no greater a person than Helen.
+
+[Sidenote: Helen.]
+
+“Now Helen needs some description, and no better time for giving it
+could be found than as she stood there at the top of the three or
+four steps which lead up to my sanctum, her face flushed with her
+struggle with the door handle.
+
+“Helen was a town-bred child of five years old, and the colour gave
+her usually pale face an added charm. Charm is the right word to use,
+for, though she did not possess any very great beauty (excepting her
+large dark eyes and lashes), it was impossible not to fall under her
+charm. She fascinated by her various moods, often serious almost
+to melancholy, but suddenly bursting out into utter and abandoned
+joyousness. She fascinated again by her vivid imagination, by the
+sensitiveness with which she shrank from an unresponsive look or
+word, and by the gradual unfolding of her nature to anyone who
+_understood_. She had come to stay with us in our completely country
+house, and was entranced with the mystery and delight of all she saw.
+
+“On that particular morning she had come to demand that I should
+fulfil a promise to go out and pick blackberries, for had not I said
+that I had passed quantities of big ones, all ripe and ready, only
+the day before? There she stood in her white sun bonnet and her short
+red flannel jacket, beneath which came the bottom of her white frock
+and a little pair of legs which country sun and air were already
+beginning to assimilate to those of our village bairns in colour
+though not in thickness.
+
+“‘Well?’ I said, to which her only reply was to hold up and shake at
+me an empty basket with which she had provided herself. ‘What’s that
+for?’ said I. ‘I wonders!’ she answered, using an expression with
+which we had already become familiar. ‘Well,’ I said, ‘you had better
+tell me.’ ‘Can’t you guess?’—with some scorn—and then triumphantly,
+‘Backberwies, o’ course!’
+
+“There was very little more to be said. Nature might have been
+resisted alone, but nature _and_ Helen would have proved too much for
+a stronger and more reluctant man than I. And so it was arranged.
+Helen was to meet me in the hall in a quarter of an hour, which would
+give me time to scribble a couple of notes, one (by the way) to the
+publishers to say that great pressure prevented my finishing the
+article that day, which was true—in a sense!
+
+“I have been many walks with many people, but none that I can compare
+with the one upon which Helen and I started that sunny September
+morning. I have walked as an undergraduate with learned dons who
+discoursed of matters beyond my ken. I have walked with ladies of
+sentiment, who vainly appealed to my sympathy and imagination. But
+never till that morning did I walk with a companion who carried me
+with her into another world and who obtained complete sway over my
+every thought and action. This did not begin all at once.
+
+[Sidenote: Through the Village.]
+
+“There was a little bit of the village through which we must pass,
+and here there were sundry dangers. Old Sawyer’s black and white
+sow had got loose and certainly looked formidably large and fierce
+as she shoved her snout with deep grunts into the ditch beside the
+road. Then a farmer’s collie-dog—a particular friend of mine, but a
+stranger and therefore a possible foe to my companion—came prancing
+up. These and other sources of terror, such as the village flock of
+geese, made it essential that we should proceed with caution and with
+such strength as a union of hands might afford. However, it did not
+take long to bring us to the end of the cottages and out on to the
+road beside which I had seen the blackberries hanging all ready to
+be picked. It was a good wide road with a broad strip of grass on
+either side, along one of which was a row of telegraph posts which
+brought the single wire by which we were connected with the busy
+world. The hedges were high and bushy—full of honeysuckle, now out of
+bloom, wild roses by this time showing only their scarlet fruit, wild
+hops climbing everywhere with rapid eager growth, clematis giving
+promise of a hoary show of old man’s beard, and in and out and over
+and through it all the long thorny brambles with their many-coloured
+leaves and their shiny black and red and green berries.
+
+[Sidenote: The Backberwy People.]
+
+“With just one look round to assure herself that nobody and nothing
+was about, Helen let go my hand and rushed off like a mad thing along
+the grass, just recovering herself with a gasp from a bad stumble
+over a dried and hidden heap of road scrapings. All of a sudden
+she stopped. She had caught sight of the ‘backberwies’ and of the
+numberless other brilliant and tempting objects in the hedge. In a
+moment her imagination had caught fire. ‘I wonders!’ she said as I
+came up. Then, when her breath was quite recovered, she added very
+earnestly, ‘Can us get them backberwy people? It’s vewy dangewous,
+isn’t it? Look at them nettles and fistles! Is them the backberwies’
+policemen—I wonders?’
+
+“If they were, they proved very useful as far as warding off attacks
+on the part of a little bare-legged maiden went. However, by dint of
+_very_ careful steering she managed to get close up to a splendid
+cluster of fruit and had picked some four or five when one of the
+sharp hooky thorns tore her finger and brought tears into her eyes.
+Even so, the play went on. ‘Oh! the backberwies’ dog has bit me!’ she
+cried, as she held up the poor little finger for me to see. It was
+really a nasty prick, and I could see that it hurt her a good deal,
+so I tied her handkerchief round it, and said we would try to find a
+place further on where the dogs were not so savage.
+
+[Sidenote: The Backberwy Ball.]
+
+“We went on a yard or two and passed close to one of the telegraph
+posts through which a light breeze was humming. Helen stopped short
+with eyes dilated and open mouth. ‘Oh! I _wonders_!’ she cried.
+‘What is it?’ I asked her. She whispered to me to keep quite still
+while she went to see, and proceeded to put her ear against the
+post, holding up one finger of the injured hand in warning to me not
+to stir. ‘There’s beautiful music,’ she said at last very softly,
+‘there’s a ball, and all the little backberwies is dancing!’ I said
+that if the old blackberries let the young ones go to a ball without
+them it served them right if they got picked themselves. I then
+suggested that we should go on to the next post and see what was
+going on there. As we went Helen noticed that near each one there was
+a heap of stones and a bare gravelly patch of ground. ‘Them is the
+backberwy houses,’ she said, ‘and all the backberwies are out, and
+the children are gone to a dancing class, so the old backberwies send
+them by theirselves.’ So the little difficulty which I had mentioned
+was explained away, though to the vividness of her imagination it had
+evidently presented a real difficulty and had not been forgotten.
+
+“Presently, after listening to the music in several telegraph posts,
+saying that there was an organ in one and fiddles in another, while
+in a third she declared that the blackberries were singing, she
+returned to the hedge and the more serious duty of filling her little
+basket. All the time, however, she kept up a comment upon what she
+saw. The red hips and haws were ‘the backberwies’ soldiers,’ the
+elderberries were their clergymen, and the sloes were guards. Every
+few minutes she stopped in a sort of ecstasy at all that was around
+her, and gazing in one direction and another would softly say, ‘Oh! I
+wonders!’ It was evidently a revelation of beauty to her, and at the
+same time a scene of mystery, a sort of fairyland where everything
+thought and lived and breathed.
+
+[Sidenote: The Wicked Soldiers.]
+
+“At last the basket was getting nearly full, and in stretching up
+for some specially fine berries a dog-rose thorn tore the back of my
+hand, leaving a long scratch. Helen’s anger knew no bounds.
+
+“‘The wicked, wicked soldiers,’ she said, and then taking several of
+the bright red hips she tore them into fragments and threw them away.
+And now we had wandered backwards and forwards along that special
+bit of hedge until all the blackberries within reach were picked, and
+only the baby green ones were left. ‘Will they die if we leaves them
+all alone?’ she said, and then she gathered as many as possible, and
+carrying them in her two hands placed them in little heaps near each
+telegraph post that they might be noticed when the balls and concerts
+were over.
+
+“I said that I wondered what the young blackberries would do when
+they came out and found all their fathers and mothers gone, and only
+the little babies left. And Helen said ‘I wonders.’”
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER IV
+
+                       THE CHILD—ITS RELIGION
+
+
+[Sidenote: Three Kinds of Parents.]
+
+[Sidenote: A French Work on Children.]
+
+Probably one of the earliest perplexities that presents itself to
+a parent is the question of the child’s religion. And yet it is
+doubtful whether in the generality of cases the matter is considered
+early enough. There are, evidently, three kinds of parents taking
+three separate views of the question. There are those who hold
+distinctly materialistic opinions, and who therefore deliberately
+decline to enter into the subject at all. They agree with the
+sentiments expressed in a French work on children published some
+quarter of a century ago in which the following passages occur:
+“We may boldly assert that the sense of religion exists no more in
+the intelligence of a little child than does the supernatural in
+nature.” And again: “In our opinion parents are very much mistaken in
+thinking it their duty to instruct their little ones in such things,
+which have no real interest for them—as who made them, who created
+the world, what is the soul, what is its present and future destiny,
+and so forth.”
+
+It is a happiness to believe that few English parents endorse these
+views. The extraordinary stir made by an Education Bill, the chief
+concern of which was to affect the religious teaching of children, is
+evidence of a widespread belief in the necessity of such teaching.
+
+[Sidenote: Careless Parents.]
+
+But, in the second place, there are some parents who are simply
+careless. They would be rather shocked at being told that they
+themselves were irreligious, but, when they forget all about their
+children’s religion, it cannot be supposed that their own is of much
+real concern to them.
+
+[Sidenote: Anxious Parents.]
+
+[Sidenote: Early Impressions of Good and Evil.]
+
+Thirdly, there are the parents who desire beyond all things that
+their children shall lead religious lives, and are anxious to do
+their utmost to start the little feet on the right path. It is this
+class of parent who is often perplexed to know what is best. The
+difficulties are certainly great. Children differ so widely that what
+is good for one child may be harmful for another. But in almost all
+cases the tendency is to put off religious teaching too long. The
+mind of a very young child—one who would be commonly described as a
+baby—has been proved again and again to be remarkably receptive of
+evil as well as of good influences and impressions, and the earlier
+a baby’s mind can be filled with the very simplest religious truths
+the less room there will be for evil, and the greater the likelihood
+of a firm belief in truths that have been absorbed almost with the
+mother’s milk.
+
+This leads to the question of how far a very young child has
+any direct personal religion; any feeling, that is, of a direct
+communication even of the most elementary kind between itself and its
+GOD without the intervention of any human being.
+
+[Sidenote: A Child’s Direct Personal Religion.]
+
+[Sidenote: Religion through the Mother.]
+
+It would probably be true to say that _at first_ this is impossible,
+but that at a very early age the sense can be imparted. To quote the
+words of a mother who has brought up a number of children in the fear
+and love of GOD, personal religion in children “of course begins by
+being mixed up with _Mother_, who, if she is a real mother, is to her
+babies the representative of warmth, comfort, love, and everything
+that they want.” When, in addition to this a child has depended for
+months upon its mother for food, and has constantly slept in her
+arms, the influence of that mother is so great that her religion
+naturally becomes the religion of the child, who accepts every word
+she says absolutely. Thus, the “GOD bless you” and the words of
+loving prayer which come so often and so naturally to a mother’s lips
+are absorbed by the child until its faith in some unconscious way
+grows into its life and becomes a real thing between itself and its
+GOD.
+
+Thus, it will be seen that there is a certain truth underlying a
+statement made by the French author quoted above when he says:
+“Children’s reverence and love attaches itself to the human beings
+who are kind to them, but to nothing which is invisible or distinct
+from their species. Their instinct of finality is wholly objective
+and utilitarian.” It is true that in the first instance a baby’s
+reverence and love attaches itself to the mother, but to assert
+that afterwards it rejects anything invisible or apart from its own
+species is to deny the influence of a religious feeling flowing
+through the mother to the child, and to limit the power of the Spirit
+of GOD who can surely dwell in the heart of a very little child.
+
+An example of the way in which children of very tender years can and
+often do grasp the great truths of the religion which they inherit
+from their parents has lately been told to the writer by the mother
+of the child in question.
+
+[Sidenote: Where She was Heavened.]
+
+She was a little girl of three and a half years old, and was taken
+one day by her father into the church in which she had been baptized.
+Pointing to the font, he said, “Do you know what happened to you
+there?” For a moment the child looked perplexed, and nestling up to
+her father said, “_You_ tell me, daddy.” “No,” he replied, “I want
+you to tell me.” There was another moment’s hesitation, and then she
+looked up at him and very solemnly said, “I was _heavened_ there!”
+
+Probably no answer that she could have made would have been so
+comprehensive and so convincing of the real grasp of the truth as
+this word her baby intelligence had coined.
+
+Examples can easily be found to show at how early an age a child may
+be influenced for good or evil. “I have seen,” says a parent, “a baby
+trained to habits of cleanliness in six weeks of life,” and it is
+doubtless true that the difference between good and evil first of all
+means to a child what is allowed or what is forbidden. But together
+with this it must always be remembered that there is the sense of
+safety and of love which, originally connected with “Mother,” is (in
+the case of a religious parent) speedily carried onwards and upwards
+to the love and care of GOD.
+
+[Sidenote: Olive Schreiner.]
+
+In this connection a passage in Olive Schreiner’s “Story of an
+African Farm” can hardly be omitted. It runs thus: “The souls of
+little children are marvellously delicate and tender things, and
+keep for ever the shadow that first falls on them, and that is the
+mother’s, or, at best, a woman’s. There never was a great man who
+had not a great mother: it is hardly an exaggeration. The first six
+years of our life make us: all that is added later is veneer. And yet
+some say, if a woman can cook a dinner or dress herself well, she has
+culture enough.”
+
+All that has been so far written in this chapter on Children’s
+Religion is of necessity vague and rather difficult. To arrive at
+_facts_ is almost impossible. The best that can be done is to speak
+of probabilities in the light of that faith which has been handed
+down. The religion of children of less tender years presents fewer
+difficulties, and to the consideration of this it is proposed now to
+turn.
+
+But while the difficulties are fewer, they do not altogether
+disappear. It is often, for instance, extraordinarily difficult to
+determine in the case of a child of six or seven years how far his
+or her religion has even at that age become directly personal, or
+whether GOD is not often a Being to whom access is only possible
+through someone else.
+
+[Sidenote: Religion of Rather Older Children.]
+
+[Sidenote: A Child’s Faith.]
+
+The evidence obtainable on this point is most contradictory. A mother
+writes, “Children’s faith soon becomes a real thing between them
+and their GOD. My little boy of five is perfectly delightful in the
+fulness of his faith. Only to-night when I had gone up, as I always
+do, to tell him a Bible story or sing some hymns before he went off
+to sleep, he suddenly said, ‘Mother, don’t you wish Jesus was on
+earth now?’ When I said, ‘Why do you wish it?’ he answered without
+the least hesitation, ‘Because I should go to Him and ask Him to make
+me good for always.’ And then, a little time afterwards, he suddenly
+started up, when I thought he was asleep, and said, ‘Oh! mother,
+wouldn’t it be _dreadful_ if we had not got a GOD!’”
+
+[Sidenote: A Doubting Thomas.]
+
+Another mother tells of a little daughter who has been “a doubting
+Thomas from her babyhood.” To her the personality of GOD was very
+real, but she refused to accept anything at first through the medium
+of another—even of her mother. A good many of her quaint sayings
+have been preserved—and her mother still remembers how disconcerting
+these often were in the course of a Bible lesson. She would suddenly
+break in with “_Why_ was GOD so cruel? I hate Him. Can’t you explain?
+I don’t think much of Him if He doesn’t let fathers and mothers
+know everything!” At the same time she was seldom willing to accept
+much on anyone’s judgment but her own. A little brother shared her
+lessons, and often sighed with impatience at her interruptions.
+“Oh, R——,” he would say, “I do wish you could get some trust!” When
+learning the Catechism this little girl refused to say, “Yes, verily,
+so I will.” “No,” she said, “I shan’t say that. I haven’t made up my
+mind whether I want to be good or not, and I _certainly_ shan’t say
+that.” So for about six months that question was never put to her,
+and at last one day she remarked, “I could say that now if you like!”
+
+[Sidenote: Relative Importance of Authorities.]
+
+In both these instances there can be little doubt that no one came in
+any way between the child and the Creator, but, on the other hand, a
+good many parents consider that there is for some years a difficulty
+in the minds of children as to the intervention of human beings
+between them and GOD, arising either from their habit of connecting
+their prayers and religious experiences mainly with their mother or
+nurse, or from a curious inability to realise the supremacy of the
+Almighty. An example of this latter difficulty may be given in the
+words of a little child in Yorkshire who was overheard to say to a
+companion, “Don’t do that or perhaps GOD will see you, and He’ll tell
+the Vicar.”
+
+[Sidenote: Children’s Prayers.]
+
+Much has been written by others about children’s prayers, but it is
+impossible to ignore what is to them the most real and important part
+of their religion. A lady living in Cheltenham says: “I think that
+children get a belief in prayer very early. My youngest girl the
+other day looked tired, so I said that she had better not come to the
+evening service. ‘Oh, but I must,’ she said, ‘I want to pray for Miss
+Beale.’” This was at the beginning of that well-known lady’s fatal
+illness.
+
+[Sidenote: Implicit Faith in Prayer.]
+
+Another example of belief in prayer on the part of a child was
+brought to the notice of the present writer by a sister of the boy
+of whom the story is told. When a very little chap his brothers and
+sisters were all invited to a children’s party at a neighbouring
+house, but he had not been included. Much to his grief it was decided
+that he had better be put to bed when the others started for the
+party. When saying his prayers he earnestly asked that even yet he
+might go to the party. He had hardly been tucked up in bed before
+a messenger came to say that the omission of his name had been an
+accident and that it was hoped he might still come. He was hurriedly
+dressed, and in a few minutes had joined the others in their
+festivity. The impression made upon the boy’s mind was never erased.
+From that day forward he never failed to pray about every smallest
+event. If he went to a shop to buy a knife he would pray to be guided
+in his choice. If he went out to dinner he would silently pray as he
+took off his coat in the hall that the evening might be enjoyable.
+Nothing ever again shook him in his belief in the power of prayer.
+
+[Sidenote: Children’s Quaint Petitions.]
+
+Some of the original petitions in children’s prayers are often
+exceedingly quaint, but they go to prove their belief in their words
+being heard, and it would be cruel to laugh at them or snub the
+expression of their desires. Some friends of the writer when they
+were little used to be very fond of interpolating their special
+wishes into their prayers. One of them when a tiny girl kneeling
+at her mother’s side after praying for her father and mother and
+brothers and sisters, said, “And please GOD make mother less strict.”
+
+Another child in the same family had been shown a coloured picture of
+Noah’s sacrifice and the rainbow, which impressed her so much that
+she added to her evening prayers, “And oh! GOD, please show me a
+rainbow very soon!”
+
+From the same source comes a charming story of a small boy who had
+taken a dislike to a cousin of his own age called Malcolm. It so
+happened that each of them had a baby brother, and the little boy
+in question broke off in the middle of his prayers one evening to
+ejaculate, “Please GOD make me and my baby brother stronger and
+stronger, and Malcolm and his little brother weaker and weaker, so
+that when we fight we may conquer!”
+
+[Sidenote: Children’s Churchgoing.]
+
+[Sidenote: Danger of Too Much.]
+
+The next point to be noticed in dealing with the religion of children
+is the vexed question as to the wisdom of enforcing attendance at
+public worship. There can be no doubt at all that, if overdone,
+compulsory churchgoing may lead to disastrous results. A man to
+whom frequent attendance at services has all his life been irksome,
+looks back to his childhood when he was expected to be present at
+Sunday services, week-day services, Sunday School, choir practices,
+missionary and other meetings, until he became weary of the very
+name of such things. Rather nervous of blame, he never ventured to
+express a wish to absent himself, and to those early days and their
+discipline he ascribes his present reluctance.
+
+[Sidenote: Danger of Too Little.]
+
+On the other hand, it is no doubt true that it is dangerous to use no
+compulsion, and to allow the formation of a habit of staying away
+from church on the smallest excuse. The real difficulty is to steer
+a course between making Sunday the dull, cold, miserable day that it
+too frequently became in the earlier part of the last century and
+allowing it to be as secular as it so often is at present.
+
+A lady who has been specially successful in bringing up her children
+to love Sunday and its observances, says, “I make a point of extra
+nice clothes and nice food on Sundays (it sounds horribly material!)
+but I want to make _everything_ connected with goodness and religion
+attractive, and, however much we may wish they were not so, our souls
+and bodies affect each other in an extraordinary way. My youngest
+child of five and a half, having begun Churchgoing regularly six
+months ago, begs to stay on through the whole service, only saying
+at the end, ‘What a lot of kneeling! But I like it; can I stay
+again?’ Of course, there were two reasons for his wish: his love of
+being near me, and the music which he also loves.”
+
+[Sidenote: A Service Held by Children.]
+
+Another instance may be quoted here, taken, as was the last, from
+the family of lay people. Here again everything was done to make
+Sundays bright and happy and to bring up the children to consider
+Churchgoing a treat. So fond did they become of the services that
+the two youngest—a girl of seven and a boy of five—were accustomed
+to hold a special service of their own when with their mother in
+the drawing-room after tea on Sundays. Their mother describes these
+functions as follows, and, though they may seem to some people to
+have a spice of “play acting,” yet the children were extremely in
+earnest in all they did. Here is her account: “They used to put
+on pinafores, the opening to come in front, and wore sashes for
+stoles. My duty was to sit at the piano as organist. I had to play
+a voluntary as they came in. They chose the hymns, and each chose a
+chapter in the Bible to read. They stood on a chair to read their
+chapters. One day I remember that the little boy, who could not yet
+read very fluently, chose the one in St. Luke with seventy-two verses
+and went straight on with it to the end! They took it in turns to
+preach, again standing on the chair. The elder child always wrote
+her sermon, but the little boy’s was extempore. After the sermon
+the missionary box was handed round and we each put something in.
+The service ended by their kneeling down side by side and singing
+‘Jesu, tender Shepherd, hear me.’ One evening the younger child stood
+up on his chair to preach, and began to get redder and redder and
+looked very much worried, but I did not dare to move from my seat as
+organist. At last his sister whispered, ‘What’s the matter, darling?’
+on which he said, ‘Every word of the sermon has gone out of my head.’
+So she promptly stood on her chair and said, ‘The congregation will
+excuse the sermon this evening. Hymn No. 348.’ I have come across one
+of the little girl’s written sermons, and give it here:—
+
+“‘LITTLE CHILDREN LOVE ONE ANOTHER.’
+
+[Sidenote: A Child’s Sermon.]
+
+“‘You love your brother and sister very much indeed though you do
+fight with them. Yes, that noutty, noutty Sayten gets inside us, and
+then we can’t fight without Jesus’ help. Yes, if we ask Him to help
+us I know He will. He is so kind. He will do almost anything you ask
+Him to do for you, if it is not wrong. Yes, we all go wrong sometimes
+and feel very cross with ourselfs. Little children sometimes think
+that all big people are very good indeed, but they all go wrong, too,
+as well as you or I might, but GOD knows all our ways and what we do
+and sees and hears what we say. Oh! then, little children, love one
+another, and so we must love Him.’”
+
+[Sidenote: Simplicity in Speaking to Children.]
+
+As to the number and kind of services to which children should be
+taken it is impossible to lay down a general rule. Where “Children’s
+Services” are held by a man who has the gift of attracting and
+interesting children, the difficulty is partially solved. But these
+are not much use when they are conducted by persons who cannot
+sufficiently simplify their language, or by those who are so far out
+of sympathy with their audience as to appear to be condescending or
+in the smallest degree pompous—characteristics which are readily
+observed and resented by all children.
+
+But probably many people will agree that “Children’s Services” alone
+cannot supply all that is required, in so far as they do not accustom
+children to the ordinary Church services, as to which it is not too
+much to say that a certain amount of familiarity breeds affection
+rather than contempt.
+
+[Sidenote: Differences in Children’s Temperament.]
+
+But in considering the advisability of taking little children to
+Church, due regard must be had to the individual child. As has
+been said, it is absolutely impossible to lay down a general rule.
+Even the members of the same family are frequently so different in
+disposition as to make it unwise to treat them all alike. Some may be
+so sensitive to the awe-inspiring atmosphere of religious services as
+to cause a fear lest their mind should become morbid on the subject.
+Very probably such children would express a strong wish to attend
+on every possible occasion, but their pleasure is akin to that
+which is sometimes felt by people of unhealthy mind who delight in
+torturing themselves by picturing nameless horrors. Other children,
+and these are the most frequently found, look upon Churchgoing as an
+entertainment enjoyed by grown-up people and therefore much to be
+desired, though they themselves soon grow weary of the whole thing.
+
+[Sidenote: Two Children at Church.]
+
+An example of what is meant came to the notice of the writer a short
+time ago when staying in the same house with two little children,
+a brother and sister, who were taken to an afternoon service for
+almost the first time in their lives. The boy, a year or two the
+elder, was a rather nervous, highly-strung little chap, and he spent
+nearly the whole time in saying in a very low voice, “O GOD, help
+me! I _will_ be good!” He seemed unable to think of anything but
+the fact that he was in GOD’s house, and unable to get relief from
+the overpowering sensation of awe. His little sister, on the other
+hand—a fat, merry, matter-of-fact child—evidently considered the
+whole thing to be a kind of social function interfered with by most
+unnecessary restrictions. She turned herself about from side to side
+and nodded and smiled at her numerous acquaintances, paying especial
+attention to the seats occupied by the servants from the house where
+she was staying. After a time she yawned audibly and gave obvious
+signs of getting bored, finally nestling against her mother’s side
+and falling sound asleep. It is obvious to everyone that two children
+such as these would need very different treatment in the matter of
+Churchgoing and religious education generally.
+
+[Sidenote: Children’s Unintentional Irreverence.]
+
+Such a child as the little girl described above may be said to
+possess the normal feelings of her age. Most very young children are
+entirely unable to grasp the greatness of GOD and the seriousness
+of religion. If they appear to older people to be irreverent, it
+must not be counted to them for a sin. It is simply caused by the
+limitations of their understanding. Thus, a small child was heard
+to call out during the baptism of a baby, “Why _doesn’t_ he use a
+sponge?” No irreverence was meant, but the remark showed that the
+child’s mind was further developed in practical than in spiritual
+matters. So, again, the absurd questions so often put by little
+children when told that GOD is everywhere. It is very common for them
+at once to suggest all kinds of ridiculous places without meaning in
+any way to be irreverent.
+
+[Sidenote: Great Patience Necessary.]
+
+Such things of course add to the difficulties of teaching religion to
+those who are very young, but it is certain that great patience and
+tenderness is necessary for those who attempt the task. Forgetfulness
+of the point of view of the child often leads to expressions of
+horror and even of anger at apparently profane remarks, but such
+expressions are unjust and may not seldom give the child a permanent
+dislike to what ought to be the happiest of all its lessons.
+
+[Sidenote: Little Children have Long Ears.]
+
+One other caution may be given here. It is a fatal mistake for those
+who are bringing up little children to speak in their presence of
+religious matters in a way which they do not desire the children to
+absorb and do not fancy that they understand. A child may be building
+a house of bricks in a far corner of the room and yet be listening
+with all its ears to the talk going on between its elders. A very
+little boy was once taken to Church when a sermon was preached
+about the Will of GOD. No one thought it possible that he understood
+a word of it, but at tea that afternoon he was, being slightly out
+of sorts, allowed no jam, on which he promptly said, “Well, if it’s
+GOD’s Will that I should have nothing but bread and butter, it’s no
+good fighting against it!”—a practical and excellent comment upon the
+morning’s sermon.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Lest anything that has been written in this chapter should seem to be
+discouraging as to the religious training of children, two things may
+be set down here as full of hope.
+
+[Sidenote: Influence of Women.]
+
+The first may be disposed of in a few words. There is little doubt
+that women are naturally more religious than men, or at least that
+they more easily give expression to their feelings and beliefs. What
+a great matter it is, then, that the earliest training of children
+is in the hands of women! It is quite possible that the reason for
+the greater religious expression on the part of women lies to some
+extent in the fact that girls remain so much longer under the direct
+influence of their mother. But that is by the way; what is important
+is that there are multitudes of truly religious women who may best of
+all be trusted to impart their own faith to little children.
+
+[Sidenote: Children’s Delight in the Unseen.]
+
+The other matter for hopefulness lies in the fact that the very
+things that often present difficulties to grown-up people are
+specially attractive to children. Anything connected with the unseen
+world, anything quite impossible according to the laws of nature as
+we know them, interests and takes hold of children at once. This is
+plain from the often-repeated request, “Do tell us a fairy story.”
+
+[Sidenote: Impression made by Beauties of Nature.]
+
+When to this is added the impression made on a child’s mind by the
+vision of a gorgeous sunset, or of a great wide-spreading view, there
+seems to be a good deal upon which it is possible to work. A man
+friend of the writer has told him that his first real impressions
+of the greatness and goodness of GOD came to him as a child when
+contemplating beautiful scenery; and an aunt of the late Bishop
+Walsham How used to say that when he was a very little boy, and was
+looking from a window at the sunset, he was heard to say, “Oh! GOD!”
+
+[Sidenote: The Higher Criticism.]
+
+How easy it would be to kill these beginnings of faith! How easy for
+a teacher who had studied the Higher Criticism to wither the growth
+of a belief in the unseen and incomprehensible! Is it worth while to
+risk this by scrupulously teaching that Elijah’s chariot of fire
+and Jonah’s whale had better be taken as allegories? A teacher with
+great experience of little children has said, and said most truly,
+“Religion attracts greatly because of the mystery which surrounds the
+unseen. Besides this, the beauty and the wonderful fitness of all
+things in nature strengthen more than anything a child’s belief in a
+Divine Creator.”
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Perhaps, as one last word, it may be said that that mother will
+succeed best in the religious training of her children who feels that
+it is the chief and highest work she has to do.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER V
+
+                       THE CHILD—ITS IMITATION
+
+
+[Sidenote: Selection of those about the Path of a Child.]
+
+No one who has to do with children can fail to be struck by their
+almost universal habit of imitation. This begins at a very early age,
+and, while some imitative expressions and gestures are partly the
+result of heredity, others are obviously copied from the persons with
+whom the child is most familiar. This makes it, of course, extremely
+important that the servants and even the friends who are brought
+most closely into contact with a child should be selected with the
+greatest care.
+
+[Sidenote: Meals in the Servants’ Hall.]
+
+How often a bad accent or “twang” is picked up as soon as a
+child begins to speak, and with what difficulty it is eradicated
+afterwards! The habit, too, which obtains with some parents (who do
+not want to be bothered with their children) of letting them have
+their meals with the servants is greatly to be deprecated. It saves
+the trouble of a special nursery dinner, and it often happens that
+the servants in a house are fonder of the company of the children
+than are their parents, but for all that the tendency to imitate is
+so strong that habits are pretty sure to be learnt which it will be
+very troublesome to get rid of afterwards. Here is an example:
+
+A little girl, whom circumstances had relegated to the entire charge
+of servants, was taken out to a children’s tea-party, when she was
+scarcely four years old. It was a splendid tea, and she was a fine
+healthy little girl with an equally fine healthy appetite. Bread and
+butter, cake, jam sandwiches, and buns all disappeared with equal
+ease, and there came a time when the rest had finished and she had
+just one mouthful left.... There was a slight pause in the general
+chatter, and at that unlucky moment the little girl in question gave
+an unmistakable hiccough. Many of the children there would have
+blushed with distress at such an incident, but this little maiden,
+accustomed to the manners of the servants’ hall, looked round with an
+ingratiating smile and merely remarked—“Copplyments!”
+
+[Sidenote: Swear Words.]
+
+Everyone has heard of children who have occasionally used “swear
+words” in imitation of their elders, and some may possibly have heard
+the true story of a little girl who was given a cup of tea to hand to
+a visitor. As she crossed the short space with careful footsteps and
+eyes fixed anxiously on her burden she was heard to mutter to herself
+“By George, baby, you must be ’teady!”
+
+Examples such as these show the readiness with which children pick
+up the phraseology of their seniors, and it is a mistake to suppose
+that, because a child does not exactly understand what is said,
+therefore no impression is made upon its mind.
+
+[Sidenote: Desire to be Like Father.]
+
+The greater the admiration of a child for an older person the greater
+the desire to imitate it. A small boy usually considers his father
+the most wonderful man he knows, and consequently spends a good deal
+of time and effort in trying to be like him. A little chap of four
+or five years old will throw himself into a chair and cross his legs
+in absurd imitation of his father, and nothing seems too small for
+children to notice and copy. The manner of carrying a stick, the
+attitude of standing on the hearthrug, the little trick of clearing
+the throat, will all be reproduced to the life, and it has sometimes
+been a matter of surprise to an onlooker that the mimicry of some
+small but absurd trick has not been the means of breaking the older
+person of the habit.
+
+An excellent example of the desire of a little boy to become like his
+father was brought to the writer’s notice a year or two ago. A small
+girl, the daughter of very “horsey” parents, was trying to entertain
+a boy cousin a little younger than herself. After taking him into
+the stables and showing him the horses, she turned to him and said,
+“I daresay, if you are _very_ good, you might be a groom some day.”
+To which came the reply, “No, I shan’t! When I grows up I shall be
+exactly like father—skin showing through my hair and all!”
+
+[Sidenote: Individuality to be Encouraged.]
+
+There will often be a great desire on the part of one parent that
+a child shall imitate and resemble the other. If this natural wish
+be carried too far there is a danger lest the individuality of the
+child be interfered with. It must never be forgotten that no two
+people can be or were meant to be exactly alike, and that in every
+child that is born there are seeds of good qualities and faculties
+belonging specially to that child. A slavish copy of anyone else,
+however worthy, will assuredly tend to choke the growth of these.
+It would be impossible to compute how many artists with the seeds
+of greatness within them have been condemned to mediocrity by a
+life-long endeavour to reproduce the master from whom they have
+learned, instead of making an endeavour to work out their own
+salvation.
+
+[Sidenote: An Affected Child.]
+
+So it is with children. Nothing is more sad than to see a child, at
+an age when his or her natural freshness and simplicity should be
+most clearly in evidence, already cramped and artificial through
+an effort to copy some older person. A gentleman once took shelter
+in a house during a heavy storm. The master and mistress were both
+out, but their little daughter was summoned from her A B C to talk
+to the unexpected guest. He told her he was sorry to have brought
+her downstairs, to which came the simpering reply, “Oh! pray don’t
+mention it!” _Imitatio ad nauseam!_
+
+[Sidenote: Dressing Up.]
+
+[Sidenote: Dumb Crambo.]
+
+One way in which the love of imitation comes out is in the delight
+all children take in “dressing up,” and in any form of charades
+or dumb crambo. This is probably a very useful way of developing
+originality and of setting children’s wits to work. Where it is not
+coupled with the putting on of gorgeous raiment, and is not merely
+an excuse for “showing off,” the very variety of character assumed
+ensures its being a wholesome exercise. Dumb crambo is especially
+helpful, for in that pastime there is practically no opportunity
+for self-glorification, while it tends directly to stimulate the
+children’s ingenuity and to kill their self-consciousness.
+
+[Sidenote: Tricks of Posturing.]
+
+All observers of child life have noticed in some little ones an
+unhealthy trick of making faces, posturing, or otherwise trying to
+attract attention. This is unnatural and should be carefully watched
+and eradicated. But it should be remembered that in most cases of
+that kind the _cause_ is physical—generally a weakness in the nervous
+system—and the child must be dealt with most tenderly though firmly.
+
+On the other hand, many people can recall instances where what may
+be described as a true theatrical tendency has shown itself in a
+perfectly healthy and charming manner in very young children. No
+better example of this can be found than is contained in a little
+paper lying under the writer’s hand. To transpose it would be to
+spoil the vividness of the story, so it is given here just in its
+original form.
+
+[Sidenote: Tea at the Vicarage.]
+
+“I was more or less of a newcomer in our village when I one day
+received a pressing invitation to tea at the Vicarage. When I arrived
+I found my hostess, a charming white-haired and white-shawled old
+lady, in her usual arm-chair by the drawing-room fire, and, seeing
+the chair on the other side of the hearth empty, I dropped into it
+with a delicious feeling of comfort after my walk through the chill
+and gloom of a foggy evening. I had not been many minutes installed
+when tea was brought in, and the hot cakes which my soul loved were
+deposited on the little brass stand inside the fender at my feet.
+
+“Following fast on the arrival of the tea came the two daughters of
+the house, who had been busy in various parts of the parish, and
+were eager to compare notes and exchange the gossip they had gleaned
+between the gulps of hot tea with which they refreshed the inner
+woman.
+
+“Meantime, I confess to wondering why I had been honoured with an
+invitation which was almost as pressing as a three-line whip. My
+curiosity was quickened by the fact that no sooner had we finished
+our meal than the tea-table was carried off to a distant part of
+the room, and a smile and look of enquiry went round, followed by a
+nod on the part of my hostess, the signal for one of the daughters
+to run away for a minute or two from the room. There was just that
+little silence which precedes an ‘event,’ and then she returned to be
+greeted by ‘Well?’ ‘All right,’ she replied, and silence fell on us
+again, to be broken almost immediately by a tap at the door, a tap
+that would never have been heard had it not been for our stillness
+of expectation. The elder and more impetuous of the daughters made a
+rush from her chair but was called back, and then in a moment I knew
+why I had been asked. From behind the high screen just inside the
+door there peeped a baby face! And such a baby face! Roguishness,
+bashfulness, mirth, and indecision were mingled in the little
+dimpling face and twinkling blue eyes.
+
+[Sidenote: The Entry of Baby.]
+
+“There was a shake of golden curls—no, not quite curls, and yet
+nothing else expresses the tangle of light that formed a background
+to that beauty of two summers—and then the vision disappeared.
+Shyness had won a momentary victory, but was routed on a friendly
+hand being held out round the screen to encourage the merry mischief
+that was never far to seek in her to assert itself.
+
+“A little shriek of pleasure, and she had run into the middle of the
+room towards granny’s chair, but stopped short just where the circle
+of light from a reading lamp fell upon her. I shall not soon forget
+the picture. I had never seen her before, and, coming upon me in this
+unexpected way with her brightness and her beauty and her marvellous
+expression, she made an impression out of all proportion to her years.
+
+“It was, I fear, the sight of me that caused her to stop so suddenly
+in her run to the loving arms that were stretched out for her.
+
+“Neither she nor I had been prepared for the sight of the other, and
+a strange and bearded man may well alarm a little lady of two.
+
+[Sidenote: A Baby Actress.]
+
+“There _was_, no doubt, at first a distinct look of alarm, but she
+rose to the occasion. It might no doubt be possible to overawe this
+new and ferocious-looking being: at all events it would be well to
+try, or he might perhaps be open to a joke and be propitiated in that
+way! Some such thoughts were evidently in her mind, for first of all
+she stared at me with a frown, then made a deliciously dignified bow
+towards me, and then, almost before the bow was finished, stooped
+down, and drew her frock round her feet, saying, ‘Baby dot no legs!’
+going off into a fit of decidedly forced laughter by way of carrying
+off her joke, should I prove too dense to see it.
+
+“Well, it served her purpose: it was a kind of introduction, and it
+enabled her to get over the awkward moments of her first shyness
+and to reach the haven of granny’s chair. We were soon firm friends
+after that. I happened to have a watch ‘like daddy’s,’ which was an
+assurance of my respectability, and I openly and fervently admired
+a certain pair of little red shoes, and what lady can resist a
+well-timed compliment on her turn-out?
+
+“After a short time spent in such polite conversation, it suddenly
+occurred to the little fairy that she was not doing her proper share
+towards entertaining the company. A little wriggle freed her from
+any restraining hands or inconvenient people, and she ran to the far
+end of the room. From this vantage ground she ran forward from time
+to time into the better-lit part at our end with all the anxiety
+to be well received of a born actress. The first ‘act’ consisted
+in her picking up her tiny skirts and walking on her toes, saying
+‘Muddy, muddy! Baby’s feet wet!’ Then with a shriek of delight she
+rushed off, to come back the next minute waving her hands over her
+head and gazing solemnly upwards, saying, ‘Wind b’owing! Clouds and
+wind! Baby’s f’ightened!’ But this only lasted for a minute before
+she dashed off and returned declaring that she was another child, a
+little girl she had not seen more than once or twice, but whom she
+evidently desired to imitate.
+
+“It is impossible to describe the effect produced upon me by this
+extraordinary performance by so young a child. Her rapid change of
+mood bewildered me: the mischievous laughter of one moment was so
+quickly followed by a look of wonder or terror or sadness, to be
+succeeded in its turn by a sudden scream of delight, that I felt as
+if I were watching something not altogether canny. It was really
+almost a relief when at last she buried her face in a friendly lap
+and cried for bed and ‘nanna.’
+
+[Sidenote: Baby’s Exit.]
+
+“Even then the rapid change of mood was not all over, for in the
+midst of her tears she was gathered into nurse’s comfortable arms,
+and as she left the room a decidedly pert little voice was heard to
+say, ‘Baby _did_ c’y!’
+
+“So I found out why my friends at the Vicarage, who knew my weakness
+for children, had asked me to tea, but I have never been able to
+analyse the exact impression left on my mind beyond that of a lovely
+and excited baby.”
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER VI
+
+                       THE CHILD—ITS PLEASURES
+
+
+[Sidenote: Love and Happiness.]
+
+What a happiness it is that in the memories of most people the joys
+of childhood so far exceed its griefs. Two of the most powerful
+agents for good in the life of a child are love and happiness, and it
+may be confidently assumed that where there is an abundance of the
+former the existence of the latter is assured.
+
+It may happily be asserted that it has been the sad lot of few of
+those who read these lines to have known an unloved childhood. To
+this may be ascribed the happy recollections of most who look back
+upon their earliest years.
+
+But in this chapter some attempt will be made to examine certain
+special pleasures rather than to generalise as to the atmosphere of
+happiness in which alone a child will really thrive.
+
+[Sidenote: No Stereotyped Rule.]
+
+While happiness is necessary for all children, those who have most
+closely studied child life will agree that the old saying “_Quot
+homines tot sententiæ_” may well be applied to the great variety of
+ways in which this happiness is sought. It is impossible to treat all
+children alike, or to lay down any general rule. A little girl will
+find her chief delight in dogs and horses, while her brother steals
+away to play with dolls. Two small boys will go out into the garden,
+and, while one is keen to learn any sort of manly game, the other
+stands about cold and listless, bored to death by the mere sight of
+bat or ball.
+
+[Sidenote: Failure of Compulsory Pleasures.]
+
+Nothing is less likely to produce happiness than to attempt to
+_force_ little children to amuse themselves in any set way. How many
+people have been disappointed by their efforts in this direction!
+A “recreation” ground has perhaps been provided by some charitable
+person at great expense. Ten to one it will be deserted by the little
+ones for whom it was primarily intended and given over to the tender
+mercies of lads and lasses in their “teens.” The _small_ children
+find nothing left to their imagination, and infinitely prefer some
+dirty, and, to adult eyes, disadvantageous corner.
+
+There was just such a case in a large northern town. The recreation
+ground was opened with pomp, and was elaborately fitted with swings,
+parallel bars, etc. For a week or two a few children made efforts to
+amuse themselves there, but it was quickly deserted. In the immediate
+neighbourhood were sundry patches of ground where no houses had as
+yet been built, and on which lay fascinating heaps of brick bats
+and refuse. Needless to say these offered far greater attractions
+than the new and orderly playground. Small children do not care to
+play “to order.” They have enough of that during school hours. When
+they get a bit older they will be willing enough to join in games on
+specified grounds and governed by codes of rules, but while they are
+little they like to find their own playgrounds and invent their own
+games.
+
+[Sidenote: A Game in a Stackyard.]
+
+Memory brings a vision of two children, one a little girl with soft
+dark hair and big black eyes, who is dressed in a blue and white
+cotton frock, and a big white straw hat; the other a sturdy, but
+commonplace boy, in grey knickerbockers, a holland blouse, with a
+broad black leather belt, and a flannel cap. They are about the
+same age, neither of them being yet seven, and they are playing in
+a stack-yard. It is not the stacks that are the attraction, for
+just now there are none there, but for all that it is a glorious
+playground. In the first place, it is well out of the way of the
+grown-up people, and in the next place, though there are no stacks,
+there are the stone supports on which they once stood. What excellent
+tables they make, these old grey upright blocks, of which the flat
+round tops project like real tables, and are practically useful in
+preventing rats and mice from climbing up. But there is something
+else which has drawn the children to that spot, for all about in the
+yard there is to be found a tall plant with a quantity of red seed,
+which must, I fancy, be some kind of sorrel. It is delicious to draw
+your hand up the stalk and bring it away full of this seed, and that
+is what these children are busy doing.
+
+Next they put it in a heap on a slate which they have discovered, and
+then search for pieces of brick and flat stone, which are piled on
+the top. In this way a certain quantity of the seed is compressed,
+and called a cheese, which is deposited with ceremony upon one of the
+stone tables.
+
+The little girl has been the leader throughout; she has decided which
+plants were ripe enough to be stripped, how much seed was necessary
+to form a cheese, and upon which of the stones the feast should be
+spread. The boy has been her obedient servant, a position of things
+which reaches its climax when the little lady suddenly states that
+she doesn’t like cheese, and orders him to eat it all up!
+
+This is a vision that has come from time to time for more than forty
+years, and few playgrounds have seemed so attractive.
+
+[Sidenote: The Old Tree in the Garden.]
+
+Then there is the old tree of the garden. Who does not love the
+memory of the games played beneath it, and the seats it afforded
+among its boughs? Maybe it was a mulberry, or merely an ancient
+laurel. Playgrounds may be found in and under both. In another case
+it was a mighty yew, noted in the annals of the county. A few feet up
+upon its massive stem, the children had special seats, and woe betide
+intruders caught trespassing! Beneath it was a long bench, of which
+the supports were obviously at one time a part of one of the great
+boughs, while the seat had in the distant ages been green.
+
+[Sidenote: Playing at Shop.]
+
+What feasts were spread upon this seat—what shops were kept with this
+for the counter! There is a dust that forms beneath old yews, and
+consists of the dead and crumbled petals. What splendid stuff it is
+to play with! It can be sold as snuff, or almost anything, and it
+pours out of a teapot as easily as water. But there is no need to say
+more; everyone can remember the invented games, and the best-loved
+haunts of their childhood.
+
+[Sidenote: A Whitby Playground.]
+
+One more playground of a thoroughly unconventional character may well
+be mentioned here. It is just where the base of one of the Whitby
+piers starts from the end of a narrow street or passage. The huge
+stones worn and rounded at their edge make a couple of steps down to
+the water’s edge, but steps so big that, if you are still a small
+boy, they compel you to sit down and slide and scramble, holding on
+as best you may, till you have reached the bottom. It is great fun
+to watch the children descending by their various methods. Big boys
+(and girls too) manage it easily, laughing and shouting as they bump
+their way down. But with the little ones it is different. A girl
+arrives, with a baby wrapped up in a shawl; this requires management:
+baby is set down on the top step, and told to stay quite still, then
+away slides the small nurse on to the intermediate resting-place some
+three or four feet below; then a pair of arms are stretched up, and
+baby struggles into them with a chuckle of satisfaction, and is once
+more deposited, while the elder sister springs down on to the soft
+wet sand, and next minute baby, too, is safe in the desired corner.
+This is what it practically is, this desirable playground, just a
+corner in the harbour laid bare at low tide, and having the pier on
+its one side, and the walls of the old town on the other. How lovely
+those old walls were! Looking right up one sees the ends projecting
+above the gables of red-tiled roofs, while below are the grey
+walls—no, not grey, though many seem so at first sight, but yellow,
+blue, red, green—every colour, in fact, that stones will take, when
+long exposed to sea and weather. Then at the bottom just above the
+sand runs a long wide course of stones that are covered by every
+tide, and have in consequence become clothed with a fringe of brown
+and green and golden seaweed.
+
+There are small windows here and there, high up in the walls, and
+now and again a sheet or a towel is hung out to dry, a picturesque
+object enough against a mass of building; and from above the wall of
+a yard a number of poles, leaning in the corner, project and break
+the monotony of the surface.
+
+It lies right inside the harbour, and every time the tide goes down
+it leaves a certain quantity of semi-decomposed objects to scent the
+atmosphere of this special spot.
+
+Then again, what is far worse, there are small square openings here
+and there in the wall and from these there trickle continuously the
+contents of many washtubs and slop-pails. Yet here it is that a
+group of children come whenever the tide allows, to play their quiet
+games—quiet, for they never run about or make much noise, but seem
+happiest crawling on hands and knees, or squatting in a circle and
+playing with the garbage and refuse which has stranded there.
+
+[Sidenote: Treasure Trove.]
+
+This is doubtless the attraction; the beauties of the scene evidently
+never occur to them at all, the evil smells affect them not. But
+there are new playthings there continually. As the water recedes
+fresh treasures day by day are left upon the shiny floor—half sand,
+half mud—of their playground. What opportunities for their invention
+and imagination! Yesterday there were two small dead crabs, a broken
+saucer, and an empty sardine box; to-day’s chief items are the wicker
+end of a worn-out lobster-pot, a bit of rope, and a whole quantity
+of mussel shells which have been thrown away after the baiting of a
+long line. What endless games are played with these materials! First
+of all the shells are pushed into the sand squares, making little
+gardens, which are duly furnished with bits of green seaweed. To
+them comes a small market woman carrying the fragment of wicker-work
+in which she places the green stuff she purchases and pays for with
+pebbles, the bit of rope being used to sling the laden basket on her
+bent back, as she walks off to market under the heavy load.
+
+[Sidenote: Another Game of Shop.]
+
+Then the shells are hurriedly gathered up, and baby is established
+with her back against the wall, and in front of her the total
+accumulation of odds and ends is arranged in lots, each one marked
+off by a line drawn in the sand, and then the children come to buy
+at baby’s shop—a matter of huge delight to the shopkeeper, who
+distributes her goods rashly and impulsively, and is evidently bored
+at being made to receive payment!
+
+But an end comes at last: a voice is heard shouting, baby is lifted
+up on to the first step again, and all the little bare legs and
+ruddy feet go scampering off to tea!
+
+[Sidenote: Playing at Being Grown Up.]
+
+It would be easy enough to give many more examples than these two or
+three, but they will be sufficient to illustrate the preference of
+little children of all and every class for unconventional playgrounds
+and games proceeding from their own vivid imaginations. Imagination
+supplies the keynote to so many of the pleasures of children. How
+greatly, for instance, they delight in playing at being grown up!
+Nothing gives them keener pleasure than being treated like their
+elders. It is partly the importance of it, but largely also the
+exercise of imagination and an appreciation (duly suppressed) of the
+fun of the situation.
+
+A few years ago it fell to the lot of the writer to witness the joys
+of two very small people who came by themselves (oh! the importance
+of it) upon a regular visit.
+
+[Sidenote: A Visit from Two Children.]
+
+They were some six and seven years old, and a most reserved and
+old-fashioned little couple in their ways. The elder, Reggie, was
+singularly quiet and thoughtful. His face, of considerable beauty
+of feature, with large grey eyes, wore ordinarily an expression of
+solemnity, if not of melancholy, and it required an intimacy of some
+considerable standing to obtain more than monosyllabic replies in his
+high but very gentle voice.
+
+His companion was a little sister properly called Marjorie, but who
+had hardly yet outgrown “Baby.” Such an upright, delicate dimpled,
+flower of a child, with the same big eyes and curling lashes as her
+brother, but with a reserve far more easily overcome, and a much
+greater readiness to break into smiles or even indulge in romps. She
+completely “mothered” Reggie, and her anxiety that he should do the
+right thing, and her little quick orders to him, were most amusing.
+
+Their hostess met them a few days before their visit, and their
+excitement about it all was intense.
+
+“What luggage shall you bring?”
+
+“Oh! just a hat-box or two!”
+
+“It’s all arranged about our visit to you. I do so love arranging
+things. Couldn’t we have some more arrangements?”
+
+This, of course, Baby. So every conceivable thing was “arranged,” and
+every minute of the two days planned out. Their hostess told them she
+should expect them to bring lots of things in their luggage.
+
+“Oh!” said Baby, “I shall bring my tea-gown. And what shall _you_
+wear?”
+
+The day arrived, and they were met at the station.
+
+“Well, what luggage have you brought?”
+
+“Twelve hat-boxes,” promptly replied Reggie with a flicker of humour
+just lighting up his face. One turned up, and was found to contain
+the entire clothing, etc., of the pair. This vast piece of luggage
+was put in Baby’s room, and then came the request that they might be
+allowed to unpack for themselves. Reggie was quickly hurried into his
+own room with his tiny pile of belongings, and then Baby began to
+unpack hers. She was shown a large wardrobe, as well as a good-sized
+chest of drawers, and evidently felt that it would be _infra dig._
+not to use them both, so, after putting one wee garment in one drawer
+and one in another till each held something, she gravely took the
+little bag which held her shoes and hung it up in solitary grandeur
+in the wardrobe!
+
+The extreme politeness and consideration of these little visitors
+were continually coming out. Baby was asked whether she would like a
+room to herself or a sofa in her hostess’s room.
+
+“You see, Aunt E., I don’t know what to say,” was the reply. On being
+pressed further, she said, “Well, I was thinking about the beds! It
+seems a good deal of trouble just for us. You see, they are big beds.”
+
+Reggie, too, was just as anxious to consider others. “If it isn’t too
+much trouble,” he said, on being asked whether something should be
+brought him. “I’m afraid when we are gone you will say ‘bother those
+troublesome children’!”
+
+He was just as attentive, too, to his sister, buttoning her little
+petticoat for her and anything she couldn’t manage for herself.
+
+The whole of the proceedings described so far were practically part
+of a charade or play. The children were for these two days grown-up
+people, and being endowed with an extra allowance of imagination,
+played their part in every detail.
+
+Not that they could keep it up quite all the time! There were games
+at hide-and-seek that entirely dispelled illusion for a while. Then
+there were visits to the poultry yard and animals, when it was
+impossible to put such restraint upon one’s feelings of surprise and
+delight as to appear properly blasé and grown up. For instance, when
+Baby suddenly discovered a large field-spider, there was a scream of
+astonishment as she exclaimed, “Oh, Aunt E., here’s a thing with a
+lot of legs and a dot in the miggle!” And again, in the poultry yard,
+it was scarcely in keeping with the part of a lady who had arrived at
+years of discretion to say, “How I should like to lay in those nice
+lickle nests!”
+
+[Sidenote: The Children Leave.]
+
+But on the whole these two little people carried out their intention
+of paying a real grown-up visit with perfect success up to the
+very moment when they were once more in the train by themselves on
+their return journey of some six miles, each one grasping firmly
+their half-ticket, and the last glimpse we had was of Reggie gravely
+lifting his little straw hat, as the train steamed out of the
+station. There is all the difference in the world between this sort
+of playing at being grown up, and the assumption of airs and graces
+which some children display. The one is real pleasure, the other the
+merest mockery. Children who are no sooner out of the nursery than
+they ape their elders in an insatiable desire for a succession of
+smart clothes and evening parties are seldom happy children. Those
+who care for their little ones and want to fill their early years
+with real pleasures will take care to avoid the causes which produce
+children such as these.
+
+It may perhaps be said that the main factors are two.
+
+[Sidenote: Modern Defiance of Authority.]
+
+If children be allowed to absorb the spirit that is pervading the
+world at the present day—the spirit of revolt against all authority,
+the notion, that is, that everyone is to do exactly as he or she
+chooses—that will of itself bring about a state of mind which is
+destructive of real happiness. Notions such as these are quickly
+picked up, and parents who themselves set all rules and authority at
+defiance cannot expect their children to submit to control.
+
+[Sidenote: Self-Conscious Jealous Children.]
+
+Then there is a second cause which is too often at work, and which
+does a great deal towards turning some children into disagreeable
+and discontented young folk. When people are continually trying to
+emulate if not excel their neighbours in appearance and in the
+entertainments they provide, children are quick enough to take their
+cue from what they see and overhear, with the result that they are
+miserable if they think their frocks are less fashionable than their
+neighbours’, and are rude and discontented if at one party they do
+not get as handsome presents as at some other.
+
+This is all wrong, and distinctly diminishes the pleasure that these
+children might otherwise enjoy.
+
+[Sidenote: Desirability of Simpler Children’s Parties.]
+
+It would without doubt add enormously to the real happiness of
+children if a league could be formed of all parents who should be
+bound to limit children’s parties within certain specified bounds of
+simplicity and within certain reasonably early hours.
+
+But this is by the way. It is pleasanter to turn for another minute
+or two to speak of the pleasures childlike children find in the
+simple joys that lie around their path.
+
+[Sidenote: Natural Pleasures the Most Enjoyed.]
+
+There can be no doubt that the more natural the employment or
+amusement the greater the pleasure. A little girl is given a tiny
+dustpan and allowed to sweep the carpet, or she has a drawer full of
+odds and ends and is asked to sort and arrange them. She will spend
+an entire morning in such an occupation with the keenest pleasure,
+and if anyone who has watched her should also see her when dressed up
+at some “smart” party that same evening there would be no doubt in
+the mind of the onlooker as to which brought most real happiness to
+the child.
+
+[Sidenote: Story-telling.]
+
+One of the greatest delights that can be afforded to children must
+come in for a word of mention. Who does not remember the story-teller
+of his or her childhood? Perhaps it was “father,” who when he came
+in at tea time would let the whole family swarm on and about his
+arm-chair, and would tell another bit of the thrilling tale which
+he always broke off each evening at the very most exciting point.
+Or sometimes it would be one of the bigger children, gifted with an
+extraordinary power of calling up robbers and demons, who enthralled
+an audience by the narration of horrors which stimulated their
+imagination and made them feel deliciously “creepy.” No such things
+as “chestnuts” exist for children. The oftener the story has been
+told the better they like it, and never hesitate to choose an old
+favourite before a brand new tale.
+
+But this chapter is already becoming too long. It would be easy to
+enumerate numberless simple amusements which bring real pleasure to
+children. But the same moral can be drawn in every case. The simpler
+and more natural the occupation the greater the pleasure. Do not
+all children revel in playing with the earth and water that lie
+about their feet? Whether they are the lucky ones who can build sand
+castles and let the sea-water fill the moats, or whether they can
+only play in the gutter by their door, they are ten times happier
+in such pleasures as these than in any grander or more elaborate
+amusements. To the recognition of this fact those who plan children’s
+pleasures will owe their chief success.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER VII
+
+                        THE CHILD—ITS PATHOS
+
+
+Just as there is no summer without its cool grey days, so among the
+sunny crowd of children about our path there is here and there a
+child who seems to live beneath a shadow.
+
+[Sidenote: Quiet Children.]
+
+Just, too, as the tender colouring of the grey landscape has a
+special charm which only needs the seeking, so these quiet little
+ones amply repay the observation of those who do not let them steal
+away and escape notice as they always wish to do.
+
+No one who cares for children can have failed to have come in contact
+with some who are silent when their comrades shout, grave when the
+rest are laughing, and look wistfully on when games are in progress.
+
+They are, possibly, well enough liked by the rest, but somehow they
+are _different_, and because of this difference go their own way to
+which the others have become accustomed.
+
+[Sidenote: Reasons for the Difference.]
+
+[Sidenote: Lonely Children.]
+
+There are, of course, sometimes obvious reasons. In the greater
+number of cases the child’s health—or want of health—accounts for the
+separateness of its life and pursuits. Sometimes, it may be feared
+that harsh surroundings in its home have crushed the spirit out of
+it and made it timid and suspicious. But sometimes it is a mere
+question of temperament. The child has, perhaps, inherited some queer
+strain of sentimental self-consciousness, or some nervous dread of
+publicity, which causes it to be like the famous parrot which said
+little but thought a lot—a condition of things exactly the reverse
+of what may usually be found in a thoroughly healthy-minded child.
+But, whatever the cause, it is for the most part true that it is
+well worth while to lay siege to the affections of such a child, and
+try to establish confidential relations. The result of a habit of
+thoughtfulness and of a life a little lonelier than that of others
+will generally tend to the laying up a store of quaint fancies and
+imaginings about the objects of everyday life, as well as often
+developing a sympathy which the lonely child has no wish and few
+chances to exhibit. These things are well worth bringing to the light
+by anyone who is sufficiently persevering to win the affection and
+confidence of the little one.
+
+Such children are not averse to _all_ companionship, but are terribly
+afraid of anyone who does not understand. They have often enough been
+laughed at, and they keep their thoughts and interests carefully
+hidden from all who cannot be absolutely trusted, and it is so very
+few indeed whom they discover to belong to this category. Once,
+however, they are perfectly sure of anyone, they will lead them to
+their secret haunts in field or garden, will confide to them their
+dread of certain places and people, and finally will allow their most
+cherished wishes to escape them. In almost all cases the great desire
+of such children is for something to love, or for somebody in whose
+affections they may be first.
+
+[Sidenote: Early Natural Bents.]
+
+[Sidenote: Not a Mother Yet!]
+
+In this connection it is curious to notice how early the natural
+bent of a child will show itself. This is especially the case with
+girls whose mothering propensity comes out at a very tender age. A
+wistful little maiden who always seemed to want something more than
+satisfied her more boisterous companions had slid her hand into that
+of a grown-up friend in whom she had learnt to confide, and who was
+trying to amuse her by telling her about a litter of puppies which
+had been born to a retriever called Topsy. Looking down, the lady saw
+that the child’s face had grown serious even to sadness, which was
+accounted for by the conversation that followed. “How old is Topsy?”
+said the little girl. “I think she is four,” was the answer. At once
+the child’s eyes filled with tears as she sighed, “And I am six and
+I’m not a mother yet!”
+
+[Sidenote: A Boy’s Secrets.]
+
+[Sidenote: The Toad.]
+
+With boys it will generally be found that, if they have taken
+to solitary ways, and belong to the class of children who are
+pathetically different to the rest, they have some bent, some special
+interest, which they keep carefully to themselves until a really
+sympathetic friend wins their secret from them. Not infrequently it
+is a hiding-place inside a bush or in some corner of the garden where
+rubbish has been thrown and where the small boy has made himself a
+“house” with pieces of an old packing case and any other oddments
+that have come to hand. Sometimes it is an animal of which he has
+found the home and with which he spends most of his spare time. A
+toad in a hole in a wall was for a long time the secret joy of a very
+small boy until his little sister confided to him that she had got a
+toad in a hole close by, which on examination proved to be the same
+animal which had two outlets to its abode! The boy’s secret being
+thus discovered all his pleasure was gone, and he at once deserted
+his pet.
+
+[Sidenote: The Very Dead Frogs!]
+
+The present writer happened once to pay a visit to some friends who
+had a little son of about three or four years old. This little fellow
+used often to disappear in the garden, and was evidently in enjoyment
+of some secret which he was too shy to impart to anyone. After a few
+days his confidence was gained, and he led off his new friend to a
+spot where there was a muddy little pool about two feet in diameter.
+On the edge of this were two frogs which he had found dead, and had
+brought here hoping that they would revive. They had been dead for
+some time and were anything but sweet, but he stroked them and looked
+up in the most wistful way to see whether his pets were properly
+appreciated. It was really pathetic to see his eyes fill with tears
+when he was told that they were quite, _quite_ dead, and must be
+buried without further delay.
+
+Sometimes, of course, the pathos in a child is accounted for by some
+physical infirmity which separates him or her from the rest. Here is
+an instance.
+
+[Sidenote: Children and the Painter Man.]
+
+A painter had one day set up his umbrella and easel close to a little
+hamlet, and when school was over there was the usual rush of the
+children to look at “the man” and see what he was doing. Hating
+solitude and delighting in children, he faced quickly round upon his
+stool and gave them a nod of welcome. “Come to see what sort of a
+picture I’m making, eh?” was his greeting. “Yezzur,” was the reply in
+the broad dialect of the district. “Well, now, what do you think of
+it?” he asked, as he held it up for them to see. At first there is
+only much drawing in of breath and many an “Oh!” as they look at what
+seems to them at first sight a meaningless kaleidoscope of colours.
+At last one makes out one thing and one another in the unfinished
+drawing. “There’s the tree, look!” “See the blue sky!” “I can see
+William Timms’s house, _I_ can!” And so on for some minutes until
+almost every part of the picture had been properly identified. Just
+then a shout from one or two women proclaimed the fact that those who
+wanted any dinner had better make haste and get it while they had a
+chance. This gave “the man” a few quiet minutes during which he ate
+his own sandwiches, but before he had swallowed the last mouthful the
+troop of children was back again to see all that might be seen before
+the school bell rang.
+
+[Sidenote: Jacob.]
+
+It was during these last few minutes that the painter noticed a
+boy whom he had not seen among the others before. He was a little
+chap—not more than six or seven years old—with soft fair hair and a
+pink and white complexion. Two things attracted his attention to the
+boy. One was the extreme neatness and cleanness of his dress. His
+clothes were not of better material than those of the other boys,
+but they were so very _tidy_. His collar, too, was spotlessly white,
+and his hair glossy and unruffled. The other thing about him which
+seemed peculiar was the amount of deference and consideration that
+was shown him by the rest. He was given a good place close behind
+“the man’s” elbow, and once or twice, when there was some pushing,
+one of the children called out, “Now, then, keep quiet, can’t you?
+Don’t you see you’re shovin’ against Jacob Joyce?”
+
+Now and then, too, there would be a curious sort of appeal to the
+little fellow: someone would say, “Isn’t it lovely, Jacob? There’s
+red and blue and all manner of colours?” And Jacob would solemnly
+answer “I likes yed!” Then a whisper would go round, “Hearken to him;
+he likes red, Jacob does.”
+
+And all the while to the painter as he worked away there seemed
+something odd about the boy, and something unusual if not uncanny in
+the way in which the others treated him.
+
+At last the school bell rang, and all but three of the children
+rushed off helter skelter to their lessons. The three who stayed
+behind were a big girl of twelve who was looking after a baby sister,
+and Jacob Joyce.
+
+The picture was nearing completion. That most absorbing half-hour
+had arrived when just a little deepening of a shadow here, and the
+wiping out of a curl of smoke there, made all the difference, and the
+painter was wrapped up in his work, and scarcely noticed the three
+children.
+
+[Sidenote: Jacob Sings.]
+
+The elder girl was busy plaiting grasses, and the baby had crawled
+nearer and nearer to the easel until a paint brush suddenly shaken
+out sprinkled her little face and she set up a dismal cry. In vain
+the sister hushed and rocked her. Nothing seemed of any use until the
+girl said, “Shall Jacob sing to baby?” Then the sobs were instantly
+quieted, and from close behind him the painter heard a strangely
+sweet voice begin clear and true “Once in ’oyal David’s City.” Right
+through the dear old children’s hymn the singer went, and long before
+the end each of the three listeners were enthralled by the melody.
+
+Leaning a little backwards the big grown man, whose thoughts had gone
+back to the days when he, too, sang carols, stretched out a hand to
+caress the little singer who edged himself along the grass till he
+was able to rest his head against the painter’s knee. So they stayed
+quietly for a time, a detail being now and then added to the picture,
+while a little hand crept up every few minutes to touch the coat or
+stroke the knee of the boy’s new-found friend.
+
+[Sidenote: Jacob was Blind.]
+
+So the other children found them when they came back from school. Now
+the picture was more easily understood and far more to their liking,
+but in all their anxiety to see, no one pushed in front of little
+Jacob. “Bootiful picture,” he said, and all of them echoed his words.
+“I can’t do a picture,” he added, and the other children said not a
+word. “No,” said the painter, “but Jacob can make beautiful music,”
+and stooping down he lifted the little fellow on to his knee. Then
+for the first time he understood. Jacob Joyce was blind.
+
+[Sidenote: A Child’s Perception of Sorrow.]
+
+Although children frequently fail to realise the great shadows which
+from time to time darken the lives of their elders, yet sometimes
+a perception of a great sorrow will force its way to the mind of
+a child, and nothing more pathetic can be witnessed than the dumb
+perplexity with which a child faces such trouble. There is something
+in it that reminds one of the wistful expression in the face of a
+favourite dog when it is restlessly wandering about a house watching
+the preparations for its master’s departure, or has incurred a
+measure of chastisement for an offence that it does not understand.
+
+[Sidenote: Two Little Boys Blue.]
+
+Two little boys lived at a small farmhouse on the outskirts of a
+Cotswold village. One evening the grey homestead with its deep
+stone-slatted roof was all aglow in the sunset, the latticed
+windows blazing like so many separate suns, while beneath them
+chrysanthemums—yellow, red, and white—added their brilliance to the
+picture. Close by an immense elm tree shone in the golden glory of
+its autumn robe. Beneath it on an old dry wall the two little boys
+were perched just where some of the stones had been knocked away. One
+was sitting astride, the other faced the road with his two little
+brown legs dangling side by side.
+
+The boys seemed much the same age, and to the eyes of a lady who was
+passing by very much alike, but this was no doubt owing to the fact
+that they were each dressed in a blue blouse and each had a little
+blue flannel cap on the top of a cluster of fair curls.
+
+It was not long before the lady had made friends with the little
+chaps, and she always kept an eye on the watch for the blue blouses
+when she was walking in the fields or lanes near the farm. It was
+soon obvious that one was not only decidedly the elder of the two,
+but leader, protector, champion, and hero of his little brother.
+The devotion of the younger child was touching. If he were asked
+a question he mutely referred it to the other. If he were given
+anything he never failed to see whether it would be acceptable in the
+eyes of the superior being whom he worshipped. The two little boys
+blue were inseparable, and were bound by the best of all ties in
+which each needs something that the other has to give.
+
+[Sidenote: Where is Willie?]
+
+There came a day when the lady, who had taken the pair of them into
+her affections, went away from home. She did not return for several
+weeks, and when she did so she determined to walk the mile and a half
+from the station to the village to enjoy the freshness of the country
+air after that of a stuffy railway carriage. Her shortest way was by
+a footpath which led through the fields at the back of the farmhouse.
+Near the stack-yard was a bit of grass ground, once an orchard,
+where a few old apple trees were still standing. Here the clothes
+lines were accustomed to be stretched between two or three sloping
+posts. Here she had often noticed the bit of colour against the greys
+of the house and the old tree stems when the two blue blouses had
+undergone the necessary wash, and were hanging out to dry.... On this
+particular afternoon the lady was hurrying home, delighting in every
+well-known sight and sound. She heard the geese in the yard, and saw
+the smoke curling up against the great elm-tree. Then she reached
+the orchard wall and looked across. The patch of blue caught her eye
+at once: but there was something wrong: never before had she seen
+only _one_ blouse on the line, just as she had never seen one of the
+boys alone. What did it mean? In another moment she caught sight of
+the younger child. “Why, where is Willie?” was the quick question.
+But there was no answer. For a moment the boy looked at her with big
+wondering eyes, then turned and was gone in an instant. She lost
+sight of him behind the laurel bush near the farmhouse door.
+
+So long as she lived that lady will never forget the dumb pathos of
+the child’s expression. Its explanation was one more little grave in
+the children’s corner of the churchyard.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+These examples that have been given are of cases where the cause of
+the pathos discerned in children can be easily traced. It is not
+infrequently the case that something unhappy—something appealing—is
+noticed in a child, but that nothing can be discovered to account for
+it. The observer feels sure that there is something wrong, but all
+efforts to bring it to light or to be of any help are baffled.
+
+[Sidenote: The Deserted Cottage.]
+
+It was not so long ago that a man for whom children had a special
+interest found himself compelled to pass along the same country lane
+for many days in succession. At one point there stood a cottage which
+presented a blank end to the road, its windows and door facing a
+small garden and being in full view of passers-by for some distance.
+It had at first a most melancholy appearance owing to its having been
+for a long time unoccupied. The windows looked gloomy and black, the
+scrap of garden was overgrown and bedraggled, the old pear tree on
+the front had been blown loose and one branch hung in a dissipated
+manner over the porch, while on the path lay a couple of broken stone
+tiles which had fallen from the roof.
+
+[Sidenote: The Yellow Curtains.]
+
+One day, however, the passer-by noticed a great change. Evident signs
+of habitation made their appearance, and signs of a most unusual kind
+in a primitive country-place, for in every window in the house there
+appeared bright fresh yellow muslin curtains.
+
+Needless to say, conjecture was rife as to the newcomers but no one
+seemed to know who they were or whence they came.
+
+At last one day the above-mentioned pedestrian passed a child whom
+he had not seen before, and by that time he knew the face of every
+child who lived within a mile or two.
+
+She was about nine years old, and better dressed than most of the
+cottage children. Her white pinafore was spotlessly clean, and of
+fine material, and there was something dainty about the white linen
+hat which shaded her from the June sunshine. But the most striking
+things about her were her hair and her complexion. The former was of
+a particularly beautiful shade of red, and fell thick and curling
+beneath the white brim of her hat. The latter was pink and white,
+and, though perfectly healthy, a strong contrast to the browns
+and reds of the villagers’ bairns. She was pushing a perambulator
+containing a thoroughly well-appointed baby, and seemed so absorbed
+in the task that she gave no sort of response to the man’s greeting
+as he passed by.
+
+[Sidenote: The Mysterious Child.]
+
+After this they met on most days, and more than once he saw her
+entering or leaving the house with the yellow curtains. She never
+seemed to speak to anybody, and never had anything to do with other
+children who were playing in the lane.
+
+Do what he would the man could never get so much as an answering
+smile from the child’s full and sensitive-looking lips. There was
+a curious air of mystery about her, and a reserve and habitual
+melancholy of expression that went to his heart. Added to this there
+was an appearance of loneliness about her life, for no other member
+of the family ever seemed to come to the door when she went or came,
+and for all that could be seen she and the baby might have been
+living all alone.
+
+To a child-lover this daily vision of an unnaturally solitary and
+probably unhappy life was insupportable. He was continually on the
+look out for a chance of breaking through the girl’s reserve, and
+trying to brighten her life.
+
+At last one day it seemed as if the opportunity had come.
+
+[Sidenote: On the Low Stone Bridge.]
+
+A mile or so beyond the cottage the lane crossed a stream by a low
+stone bridge. It was a cheerless spot in the dusk of evening, for
+the water ran dark and stealthily between old grey willow-trees, but
+here it was that he found her, by herself and leaning over the low
+stone parapet. He went straight up to her and said “Good evening,”
+before he noticed that she was crying quietly, as those people do
+whose tears are frequent. Putting his hand over hers as it lay on
+the wall he asked her what was amiss. For one second she looked up
+in his face, and he made sure that he would learn her secret. The
+next instant a look of terror passed over her, and she snatched her
+hand away. Before he could say a word or recover from his surprise
+she was gone. He saw the white flutter of her pinafore as she ran
+homewards down the murky lane, and he never saw her again. By the
+next evening the house was unoccupied once more, and he had nothing
+but the memory of a child’s pathos which could never be explained.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+[Sidenote: A Slighted Child.]
+
+There is just one other bit of pathos which crops up now and again in
+children’s lives. It happens sometimes that their devotion to someone
+who has shown them kindness or taken notice of them is accidentally
+overlooked, and the consequent feeling of desertion is most pathetic.
+Girls are more liable to this experience than boys, and when it is
+borne in upon a small child for the first time that she is less
+attractive than her fellows and must in consequence expect to receive
+less notice even from those upon whom she has poured out her chief
+store of affection, the suffering entailed is frequently acute.
+
+In selecting a teacher or companion for children it would be no bad
+plan to observe those who on an occasion when many little ones are
+gathered together take notice of the ugly children. They are the true
+child-lovers.
+
+An example of the kind of pathos referred to came to the notice of
+the writer some years ago at a children’s party, and he set down the
+sensations of the little girl in question in some lines which she is
+supposed to speak.
+
+
+          “MY BISSOP.”
+
+  I went to the Bissop’s party
+    In my vi’let velveteen:
+  The others went last year, you know,
+    But I hadn’t never been.
+
+  I was only four; and mother said
+    It was really _much_ too late!
+  But now I’m five—though all a year
+    Was a _’mendous_ time to wait!
+
+  I knew the Bissop very well,
+    For didn’t I sit on his knee
+  When he came for Confummation,
+    And stopped at our house for tea?
+
+  He’s a dear old man—our Bissop—
+    And he’ll hardly ever miss
+  Stroking the hair of a little girl
+    And giving her a kiss.
+
+  So I _did_ look forward to going,
+    (And I whispered it all to my doll)—
+  Though Tom said he didn’t see the good
+    Of taking a mealy-faced Moll.
+
+  But I didn’t know I was ugly,
+    And nothing about being shy,
+  So I couldn’t sit still with ’citement
+    All the whole way in the fly!
+
+  We got there at last: there was numbers
+    Of boys and girls at their teas,
+  And oh!—in the corner—the Bissop!—
+    With two little girls on his knees.
+
+  I knew they was much more pretty
+    Than me; but I thought perhaps
+  Their turn would be over bye and bye
+    And he’ld take _me_ up on his laps!
+
+  So I went quite close, till Susie
+    Told me I mustn’t stare—
+  But I don’t b’lieve it mattered,
+    _He_ didn’t know I was there!
+
+  Then the rest of the children got dancing,
+    And I was knocked down on the floor,
+  So I w’iggled my way to a corner,
+    And sat just close to the door.
+
+  For I thought _he_’ld pass and see me,
+    And once he did really stand
+  Quite close to me—_my_ Bissop!—
+    And I touched his coat with my hand.
+
+  But oh! he never noticed;
+    He didn’t seem to see:
+  And when he was kissing anyone
+    They was other children than me.
+
+  I fink I _must_ be ugly.
+    It wasn’t the velveteen,
+  ’Cause when she had it on last year
+    Susie looked like a queen!
+
+  Yes; I had some toys and a bootiful tea,
+    And my cracker had got a ring!
+  And I _fink_ I enjoyed the party
+    ’Cept p’raps for only one fing!
+
+  And when I got home to dolly,
+    And she was in bed by my side,
+  I _twied_ to tell her about it—
+    But she was asleep—and I _cwied_.
+
+
+
+
+                            CHAPTER VIII
+
+                          WAYSIDE CHILDREN
+
+
+The study of some particular child is of great interest. If the child
+be one with whom one is brought into daily contact the study may
+become most exhaustive and may prove the means of imparting a new and
+helpful knowledge of childhood generally.
+
+[Sidenote: The Study of Flowers and Children.]
+
+A noted botanist has devoted years to the study of the chickweed. He
+has added to his own and to the general knowledge of botany a vast
+store of information by his temporarily exclusive attention to this
+one plant. But he would be the last to deny the charm of a stroll
+through lanes or fields where multitudes of flowers claim passing
+attention and admiration. To pause every few minutes to observe a
+cluster of primroses, a bank of mercury, or even a pink-tipped
+daisy—to halt suddenly as a whiff of sweet perfume tells us of a
+hidden nest of violets—to gather two or three of the cowslips that
+spangle the meadows—all this may belong to the lightest side of the
+study of botany. But it has a charm that few can resist, and thus far
+at least the veriest beginner can follow.
+
+So it is with the study of childhood. Almost everywhere we go on our
+daily road of life there are children to be found, children differing
+one from another as widely as the primrose from the violet, but each
+one worth our notice and possessed of a special charm.
+
+[Sidenote: The Loss to those who Fail to Notice Children.]
+
+It is extraordinary to find on talking to one and another how few
+people realise the pleasure that they lose by failing to observe the
+little wayside children. There are many persons capable of passing
+by without seeing the loveliest of wayside flowers, but there are
+more who take no heed at all of our wayside children. And yet, if
+the loss to the former is great, the loss to the latter is greater
+far. A flower can charm the eye or delight the sense of smell: it can
+interest the scientific observer who notes its construction and mode
+of growth; but that is all. There is no reflected light, no joy felt
+by the flower and flashed back in happy answering glance, be its eye
+never so bright. For most people there is no increase of knowledge
+from day to day, and certainly there is none of that increase of
+understanding between observer and observed which lends such charm to
+the chance meetings with the children who are about our path.
+
+[Sidenote: Self-important People.]
+
+Some people are too busy and rush along in too great a hurry. Some
+people are too self-important. They are grown up, and fancy that the
+fact that they are older has so greatly increased their value that
+it would be lowering themselves to take notice of children. They will
+assert that they cannot be bored with them. They will brush them
+impatiently aside if they are too closely approached by children when
+other people are present. There is a certain amount of insincerity in
+all this, for when such people fancy that they are unobserved they
+not infrequently yield to the natural temptation of noticing and even
+playing with little children.
+
+[Sidenote: Keeping the Proper Balance.]
+
+Some people, again, fancy that to let children know that they are
+observed is bad for their character, and, of course, it is possible
+to make them self-conscious and conceited by taking too much notice
+of them. On the other hand, there is a danger of children becoming
+morbid, nervous, and secret if they find themselves ignored and
+unappreciated. A child’s nature is essentially responsive. It
+opens out and expands to a show of affection just as a flower to
+the sunshine, and, as a bud will become withered and diseased when
+continuously exposed to grey skies and rain, so the character of a
+child will suffer irretrievable damage from a prolonged course of
+neglect and cold looks.
+
+Taking it, then, for granted that nothing but good is likely to
+follow from a habit of noticing the children whom we meet, it is
+interesting to remember how greatly our days have been brightened and
+our own enjoyment increased by this very thing.
+
+[Sidenote: The Children Under the Wall.]
+
+There is a long grey wall leading towards the centre of the village.
+It is what is called a “dry” wall, that is to say, it is built
+without mortar. There is, therefore, no great interest in it nor
+any special beauty except where the tints of the little lichens
+catch the eye of the close observer. The monotony is broken here and
+there by a bulge in the stonework where an elm-tree in the field has
+gradually pushed its roots against the foundations.
+
+[Sidenote: Two Nests of Children.]
+
+But the path beside the wall is seldom lacking in attractions. It
+is the daily playground of the children from the cottages which lie
+back from the road between where the wall ends and the big barn juts
+out endways on to the footpath. These cottages are but two in number
+and have all the picturesqueness of old gables and steep stone-slab
+roofs. Hoary and bent and lined with the passage of years they seem
+to speak of old age in every feature. But they echo to-day with the
+sound of children’s voices, and their old stone flags speak from
+morning to night with the patter of little footsteps. From these two
+houses come the troop of children who play beneath the long grey
+wall. As a matter of fact there are ten of them altogether—six from
+one cottage, four from the other. Of these the two eldest boys of the
+six are just getting too old to play, and are generally doing jobs
+for mother, or even sometimes for the farmer for whom their father
+works, on the days when they are free from school. Then there is in
+each house a baby too small to be trusted anywhere except in its cot
+or in its mother’s arms. This leaves six children for the wayside,
+when the two little girls who are old enough to go to school have
+returned to superintend the amusements of the rest, or four who may
+be found there at any hour of the day when the weather is at all
+propitious.
+
+[Sidenote: Good Marnin’.]
+
+What bits of sunshine they make! Let the day be as dull and the road
+as monotonous as possible it cannot be altogether cheerless when a
+couple of little chaps with sunny tousled hair and ruddy cheeks
+stop pulling their soap box full of mud and stones to laugh up in
+your face and say “Good marnin’, Sir,” though it be four o’clock in
+the afternoon. Whereby hangs a tale. These two urchins are somewhere
+between two and four years old, and it had been their habit to greet
+a friend with a friendly pat and a shout of “Hey!” Thereupon one day,
+the friend, thinking that their manners might now be taken in hand
+and it being then shortly after breakfast, said “You must say ‘Good
+morning, Sir,’” which after one or two tries they very creditably
+did, and have continued at all hours from that day forward.
+
+[Sidenote: Friendly Children.]
+
+But further down the wall is a little group of three. One, a still
+smaller boy, evidently the next in order of the fair-haired family.
+He cannot yet keep up with his brothers, and so is taken in hand by
+the two dark-haired little girls who look up shyly and smilingly from
+beneath long-fringed lashes. The younger, “Nellie,” has been ill and
+is a queer little figure pinned up in a shawl which reaches to the
+ground; the elder is a fat roundabout lady of nearly four, with dark
+beady eyes, and a trick of sliding a grubby little hand into that of
+her special friends when they stop for a minute’s chat. She is full
+of character and thoroughly appreciates the importance of being in
+charge of the other two, looking up with an absurd apologetic smile
+when the little invalid thrusts forward a few bits of dusty grass and
+a much-mauled daisy as an offering to the powers that be.
+
+But, meantime, school has come out, and the number of wayside
+children is rapidly increasing. A girl of ten or so is quietly
+knitting as she strolls homewards, her busy fingers hardly stopping
+as she smiles and curtseys, turning as an afterthought to ask
+whether she may bring some water-cresses to the house.
+
+[Sidenote: Over the Garden Wall.]
+
+Leaning over a garden wall is a delightful little person. She has a
+very short way to go home and knows that tea will not be ready yet.
+So she stops as soon as she is inside the wicket to indulge in a
+further look at the “busy world,” of the lane in which she lives,
+and to seize any chance there may be of a gossip. The garden ground
+inside the wall is considerably above the level of the road—a most
+convenient thing for this sturdy little lady of five, for it enables
+her to lean her arms upon the wall and her face upon her arms, and so
+to survey the world in much comfort.
+
+Should any one approach whom she wishes to avoid, nothing is simpler
+than to crouch down and hide until the undesirable passer-by is out
+of sight. Should, however, a friend appear who is welcome, but whose
+presence causes a sudden fit of shyness, the rosy cheeks are quickly
+hidden in the dimpled arms and a cloud of dark curls tossed over all
+until a finger judiciously inserted somewhere where the crease of the
+fat little neck may be supposed to be causes a chuckle of delight,
+and a crimson face and two great blue eyes are momentarily lifted to
+be buried again in an instant beneath the mass of soft dark hair.
+But this is a regulation bit of by-play which never lasts long.
+Confidences are soon exchanged and news imparted about the sort of
+day it has been in school and the health of a doll which fell to her
+lot at the last treat. Then sometimes—when she is in her tenderest
+humour—a pair of bright red lips are put up for a kiss, and she trots
+off down the path to where mother is waiting under the porch of
+clematis.
+
+And so it would be possible to go on for long enough.
+
+[Sidenote: In the Country.]
+
+By the roadside, in the field ways, by the pathway near the brook, at
+many a cottage doorway, by many a wicket-gate, our country children,
+in the beauty of healthfulness and youth, add a hundredfold to the
+happiness of those who passing by have eyes to see and hearts to
+understand.
+
+[Sidenote: And in the Town.]
+
+But there are others. It is impossible to pass along the side streets
+of our many towns without finding the little wayside children. They
+are mostly those who are of that specially attractive age which makes
+them just too young to go to school and just too old to be kept in
+the house, so they get somewhere between the two places, and are
+generally playing in the gutter.
+
+They have not often the same beauty as the country children, and they
+have not the same readiness to accept the approaches of “grown-ups.”
+Their surroundings almost from their birth make them suspicious and
+on their guard against possible dangers. But they are children for
+all that. They will notice and respond to a friendly smile. It is
+wonderful how a sharp and anxious little face is beautified by the
+smile that after a moment of doubt will come in answer.
+
+Go down a long street of mean houses, each one the counterpart of
+every other, and see if there be anything to brighten the way that
+can compare with the laughter and the play of the wayside children.
+It is more difficult perhaps to appreciate these little ones, but it
+should be remembered that a friendly greeting is worth more to them
+than to a country child who gets a dozen such on its way from school.
+The reflected light, the responsive happiness is not so evident at
+first sight as in the case of country children, but it is even more
+real when once confidence has been established.
+
+[Sidenote: How a Child’s Friendship was Won.]
+
+A man whose daily walk led him down a certain dingy street saw a tiny
+boy with grimy face and badly developed limbs playing with a banana
+skin in the gutter. The man nodded to him—the boy shrank away in
+terror. Next day the man nodded again. The boy had decided there was
+nothing to be afraid of, and spat at the man. Next day the boy only
+stared. The day after he shouted “Hi!” as the man went on. In time
+the little fellow smiled back at the greeting which he now began to
+expect. Finally the triumph was complete when the boy—a tiny chap—was
+waiting at the corner and seized the man’s fingers in his dirty
+little fist. It was a dismal street, but it became one of the very
+brightest spots in all that man’s walk through life.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER IX
+
+                         CHILDREN’S MEETINGS
+
+
+In these days, when the teaching of any virtue necessitates a special
+Society, and when no Society is complete without its Children’s
+Branch, children’s meetings are matters of almost everyday occurrence.
+
+To say that these meetings are for the most part successful would
+be scarcely accurate. They are too numerous, and speakers to whom
+children will listen are too few.
+
+[Sidenote: To Whom will Children Listen?]
+
+To whom, then, _will_ they give a hearing? That is a difficult
+question, almost as difficult to answer as if it were asked “Who
+can whistle a tune?” At all events it is quite as difficult to tell
+people how to gain the attention of children as it is to tell them
+how to whistle a tune. If they can, they can; and if they can’t, it
+isn’t much use telling them. However, it is just possible that anyone
+who has looked through the pages of this little book may have been
+stirred to think about children, and to try to understand them. In
+that case a step has been taken on the road to being one of those
+lucky people to whom children will listen.
+
+[Sidenote: Children Know their Friends.]
+
+Small boys and girls, like dogs, know by intuition the people who are
+fond of them, and unless the would-be speaker belongs to this class
+he need not hope to get their attention. Grown-up people listen to
+someone whom they do not like on the chance of finding something to
+criticize or ridicule. Children simply do not listen at all.
+
+[Sidenote: Children must be Understood.]
+
+But a love for children is not enough. There must be the effort to
+understand them. Unless there be at least some comprehension of their
+characters, there is bound to be a lack of that sympathy which is
+the essential requisite. Somehow or other, children seem to feel at
+once whether or not there exists that subtle link between themselves
+and the speaker, and if they cannot discover it they will not—perhaps
+even cannot—listen.
+
+[Sidenote: A Difficult Art.]
+
+The mistake so often made is to imagine that it is easy to understand
+children. The exact opposite is the fact. It is far easier for anyone
+to understand grown-up people whose minds work much in the same way
+as his own than to comprehend and sympathise with the curiously
+complex thoughts and reasonings of children.
+
+[Sidenote: An Honest Saleswoman.]
+
+It has been seen how strangely imaginative all children are, but at
+the same time they are often most literal. There is a well-known
+story of a little girl selling artificial flowers at a bazaar who
+was so anxious that there should be no mistake on the part of the
+purchasers that she said to each, “They are not _real_, you know;
+they are _stuffed_!” No doubt this same child would have treated
+these same flowers as absolutely real if she had had them to play
+with, and would have let her imagination run riot with them.
+
+Again, children are often so tender-hearted that they cannot bear to
+hear of the sufferings of other children, but will inflict intense
+pain on some insect with complete callousness, the reason being that
+the one comes within their comprehension while the other does not.
+
+These simple matters are mentioned here merely to show the complicity
+of children’s characters, and to try to induce those who wish
+to teach them to abandon the idea that it is perfectly easy to
+understand children.
+
+[Sidenote: Infection Spreads Rapidly.]
+
+The next necessity for anyone who wants to gain the attention of a
+group of little ones is to remember that they are extraordinarily
+liable to infection.
+
+Just as chicken-pox introduced into a children’s party by one child
+will spread to most of the others, so if one person at a meeting be
+thoroughly interested and keen, the rest will be sure to catch the
+infection. That person must, of course, be the speaker.
+
+[Sidenote: Platitudes Useless.]
+
+[Sidenote: Simplicity Essential.]
+
+It is no sort of use talking to children because the speaker has
+got to say something. It is essential that he should have something
+to say. Further, it is no use his having something to say unless
+he is himself enthusiastically interested. Anyone who has tried to
+speak to children will know how their attention is gone in a moment
+so soon as he says half-a-dozen words of mere platitude. All this
+points to the need of careful preparation and thorough knowledge
+of what he has to say. Then he must say it simply. Children do not
+understand long words, and cannot follow involved sentences. It is
+not unusual to hear the chairman of a children’s meeting begin by
+saying, “My dear young friends,—if I may be allowed so to designate
+some whose acquaintance I have hitherto not been so fortunate as to
+cultivate—the admirable society to which, as I understand, you have
+given your adherence inculcates those principles of self-abnegation
+which have long been designated as the true foundations of all
+existence at once joyous and altruistic.” Can anything be more
+hopeless? The succeeding speakers must be uncommonly vivacious
+and interesting if the children are to recover from such a fatal
+beginning.
+
+[Sidenote: A Sermon in Monosyllables.]
+
+It is no bad thing to try to speak in words of one syllable. If that
+is thought hopeless it may be mentioned that the Bishop of Bristol
+not long ago published a whole sermon in monosyllables, just to show
+what can be done.
+
+[Sidenote: Children Resent Feeble Talk.]
+
+But, on the other hand, it is a serious mistake to talk down to
+children. That is to say, the stuff must be good though the language
+be simple. Children resent having washy sentiments served up to them
+in baby language. They can understand great thoughts if properly
+presented.
+
+It has been suggested that when very young indeed they dislike the
+nonsensical manner in which they are addressed by many adoring
+women. This has been given as one reason why a baby on being first
+introduced to a strange man and a strange woman will generally prefer
+to go to the man. The supposition is that the baby thinks he will
+stand more chance of hearing rational language. It is certain that
+most people have heard ladies speak to little children in a babble
+which they would not use to a self-respecting dog for fear he should
+bite them!
+
+[Sidenote: The Ingredients of a Speech to Children.]
+
+But to speak more seriously: yet another matter to bear in mind
+is that monotony must at all costs be avoided. A speech which,
+however good in other ways, is entirely pathetic, will fail to keep
+children’s attention, while a speech that is entirely funny will
+fail to rouse their interest in the object of the meeting. There may
+be tears—a few—there must be laughter—now and then. There must be
+stories and there must be morals: the art is to make the one almost
+as interesting as the other.
+
+[Sidenote: Position of Speaker Important.]
+
+It may perhaps be allowed to insert here one or two practical hints.
+For instance, it is absolutely essential that the children should
+be able to see the face of the speaker clearly. It is well that he,
+too, should be able to see the faces of his audience. But the former
+is the more important. If a room, then, has windows so placed that
+either the speaker or the children must face them, it is better that
+the speaker should do so. Children find it almost impossible to
+listen to anyone whom they cannot see, a fact which points to the
+value of a sustained effort on the part of the speaker to catch the
+eye of first one and then another of his audience.
+
+[Sidenote: Meetings as Informal as Possible.]
+
+That leads on to the desirability of getting rid so far as possible
+of _formality_. There should be no barriers between the speaker and
+the children. A high platform is fatal. It is even more fatal when
+there is also a table and a water bottle. The speaker should be as
+close to the children as he can, consistently with being able to see
+and be seen.
+
+[Sidenote: A Successful Meeting.]
+
+Here is a description of a thoroughly successful children’s meeting.
+A large low room with old oak beams and a dark polished floor. The
+only light a blazing fire of logs. In the darker corners a few groups
+of mothers and other “grown ups.” Near the centre of the floor, two
+or three large Indian mats, and in front of them a big low easy chair
+facing the fire light. In this chair is the speaker, and on his knees
+and on the arms of the chair cluster three or four of the smallest
+children. The rest are sitting just anyhow upon the coloured mats.
+They are all perfectly quiet and well inclined for a rest, for they
+have just had a succession of games—blind man’s buff and “Jacob,
+where art thou?” the favourites. For half-an-hour or so they sit and
+listen to the story of other children less happy than themselves, and
+learn how best to help them. Then comes “Good-night,” and they go
+away with impressions still vivid, and with new and brave resolutions.
+
+[Sidenote: Garden Meetings.]
+
+Some such happy informal talks as this may often be held in summer on
+the grass beneath the trees, but the many distractions of the open
+air—a butterfly may turn away all thoughts—make such meetings more
+difficult than those held indoors.
+
+The hints given in these few pages seem utterly inadequate, and to
+include only such matters as must occur to all. They have been set
+down here as some reply to the frequent question “How can children’s
+meetings be made successful?”
+
+There is but one more word to be said. Grown-up people are so greatly
+distracted by the cares and occupations of their daily life that it
+needs special preparation before they can understand little children.
+To anyone who wishes to influence their simple yet imaginative minds
+the task is almost hopeless unless he will try to fulfil that most
+difficult command and himself “become as a little child.”
+
+
+
+
+                              Appendix
+
+
+It is of considerable interest, and may be in some cases of practical
+value to those interested in the well-being of children to notice in
+order some of the principal Acts of Parliament which have been passed
+during the last twenty-five years on behalf of children:—
+
+  1883. 46 & 47 Vic., c. 53. Employment of Children in Factories and
+    Workshops.
+
+  1885. 48 & 49 Vic., c. 69. Criminal Law Amendment Act, relating to
+    criminal assaults on children and to the finding of children in
+    disorderly houses.
+
+  1887. 50 & 51 Vic., c. 58. Employment in Coal Mines.
+
+  1889. 52 & 53 Vic., c. 44. The Prevention of Cruelty to Children Act.
+    This was the first of the three Acts, the others being passed in
+    1894 and 1904 respectively. Sometimes called “The Children’s
+    Charter.” It is very wide in application, making it an offence to
+    assault, illtreat, neglect, abandon, or expose a child under sixteen
+    years of age in a manner likely to cause such child unnecessary
+    suffering or injury to its health.
+
+  1891. 54 & 55 Vic., c. 3. The Custody of Children Act, dealing with
+    the power of the Court to decline to issue a writ for the production
+    of a child to an unfit parent, and with the power of the Court to
+    order repayment of costs of bringing up a child.
+
+  1891. 54 & 55 Vic., c. 75 & 76. Further enactments concerning
+    employment in Factories and Workshops.
+
+  1892. 55 & 56 Vic., c. 4. Betting Act, whereby it became a
+    misdemeanour for anyone for the purpose of earning commission to
+    send circulars, etc., to invite an infant to make any bet or wager.
+
+  1893. 56 & 57 Vic., c. 48. Reformatory Schools Act, giving power to
+    a Court to remand a youthful offender to a prison or to any other
+    place, which has in practice always been assumed to be a workhouse.
+
+  1894. 57 & 58 Vic., c. 33. Industrial Schools Act. Education.
+
+  1897. 60 & 61 Vic., c. 57. Infant Life Protection Act, concerning
+    persons receiving infants for hire for the purpose of maintenance.
+    An Act for the abolition of illicit baby-farming.
+
+  1899. 62 & 63 Vic., c. 37. Poor Law Act, concerning the control of
+    guardians over orphans and children of persons unfit to have control
+    of them.
+
+  1901. 1 Ed. VII, c. 20. Youthful Offenders Act, providing for (1) the
+    removal of disqualifications attaching to felony, (2) the liability
+    of parent or guardian in the case of youthful offenders, (3) the
+    remand of youthful offenders to other places than prisons, (4) the
+    recovery of expenses of maintenance from parent or person legally
+    liable, etc., etc.
+
+  1901. 1 Ed. VII, c. 27. Intoxicating Liquors (Sale to Children) Act,
+    forbidding the sale or delivery save at the residence or working
+    place of the purchaser of any description of intoxicating liquor
+    to any person under the age of fourteen years, except in corked and
+    sealed vessels, in quantities not less than one reputed pint. It
+    should be noticed that the Licensing Act of 1872 prohibited the sale
+    of any description of spirits to any person apparently under the age
+    of sixteen years.
+
+  1903. 3 Ed. VII, c. 45. The Employment of Children Act, containing
+    restrictions on the hours of employment, age of employees, nature of
+    employment, etc., etc.
+
+There have also been several Education Acts either passed or
+proposed, but it is doubtful whether these have not usually had their
+origin in the exigencies of party politics rather than in a _bonâ
+fide_ desire for the welfare of children. An honourable exception is
+the Elementary Education (Defective and Epileptic Children) Act of
+1899.
+
+
+          _Printed by Sir Isaac Pitman & Sons, Ltd., Bath._
+
+
+
+
+  Transcriber’s Notes
+
+  pg 10 Changed The helpless ness to: helplessness
+  pg 58 Changed my finishing he to: the
+  pg 126 Added period after: our visit to you
+
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+<p style='text-align:center; font-size:1.2em; font-weight:bold'>The Project Gutenberg eBook of The book of the child, by Frederick Douglas How</p>
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
+most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
+whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
+of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online
+at <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you
+are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the
+country where you are located before using this eBook.
+</div>
+
+<p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: The book of the child</p>
+<p style='display:block; margin-left:2em; text-indent:0; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:1em;'>An attempt to set down what is in the mind of children</p>
+<p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: Frederick Douglas How</p>
+<p style='display:block; text-indent:0; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: January 29, 2023 [eBook #69896]</p>
+<p style='display:block; text-indent:0; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</p>
+  <p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em; text-align:left'>Produced by: Bob Taylor and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive)</p>
+<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BOOK OF THE CHILD ***</div>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 35%">
+<img src="images/cover.jpg" alt="Cover">
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</span></p>
+
+<h1>The Book of the Child</h1>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</span></p>
+<div class="chapter">
+<p class="center">The</p>
+<p class="center fs150 wsp">Book of the Child</p>
+<br>
+<p class="center wsp">An Attempt to set down what<br>
+is in the mind of Children</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<p class="center fs80">By</p>
+<p class="center fs120 wsp">Frederick Douglas How</p>
+<br>
+<br>
+<p class="center fs120 wsp">E. P. DUTTON  AND COMPANY</p>
+<p class="p0 center fs120">31 WEST <span class="allsmcap">23RD</span> STREET, NEW YORK<br>
+1907</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</span></p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p class="center fs80">
+<span class="smcap" style="margin-left: -1em;">Printed by<br>
+Sir Isaac Pitman &amp; Sons, Ltd.,<br>
+Bath, England.</span><br>
+(2319)<br>
+</p>
+</div>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="Preface">Preface</h2>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>I am rather shy about this little book.</p>
+
+<p>If it were not for the kindness of some few
+friends whose knowledge of children far
+exceeds my own, it would never have seen
+the light.</p>
+
+<p>For their encouragement and for the gift
+of their experiences and advice I am deeply
+grateful. I know that they would rather
+I did not mention them by name.</p>
+
+<p>The thoughts which I have tried to put
+together have been growing in my mind for
+years. Some, in fact, I have quoted from
+articles I wrote some time ago for a magazine
+no longer in existence.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps my best excuse for letting this
+book appear is that, though I have no
+children of my own, other people’s children
+have always been very good to me.</p>
+
+<p class="right">
+<span class="smcap">F. D. How.</span><br>
+</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p class="fs80"><span style="margin-left: -2em;"><em>May, 1907.</em></span></p>
+</div>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="Contents">Contents</h2>
+</div>
+
+<table class="autotable">
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">CHAP.</td>
+<td class="tdl"></td>
+<td class="tdr">PAGE</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">I.</td>
+<td class="tdlx">THE CHILD—ITS ARRIVAL</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_9">9</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">II.</td>
+<td class="tdlx">THE CHILD—ITS MEMORY</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_24">24</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">III.</td>
+<td class="tdlx">THE CHILD—ITS IMAGINATION</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_37">37</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">IV.</td>
+<td class="tdlx">THE CHILD—ITS RELIGION</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_66">66</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">V.</td>
+<td class="tdlx">THE CHILD—ITS IMITATION</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_96">96</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">VI.</td>
+<td class="tdlx">THE CHILD—ITS PLEASURES</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_112">112</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">VII.</td>
+<td class="tdlx">THE CHILD—ITS PATHOS</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_136">136</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">VIII.</td>
+<td class="tdlx">WAYSIDE CHILDREN</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_162">162</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">IX.</td>
+<td class="tdlx">CHILDREN’S MEETINGS</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_176">176</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">X.</td>
+<td class="tdlx">APPENDIX</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_187">187</a></td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</span></p>
+
+<p class="center fs150">The Book of the Child</p>
+</div>
+
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I</h2>
+
+
+<h3>THE CHILD—ITS ARRIVAL</h3>
+
+
+<p>Children have come into greater prominence
+during the last quarter of a
+century than ever before in the history
+of this country. Many things have been
+written about them, many things have
+been done for them,—some foolish and
+some wise, but all suggested by a newly
+aroused sense of the vital importance
+attached to their proper upbringing.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">The Cause
+of the
+Children.</div>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Legislation
+for Children.</div>
+
+<p>It is, of course, true that the Cause of
+the Children has been used
+by both political parties for
+their own purposes, but,
+for all that, there has been
+a large amount of most valuable<span class="pagenum" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</span>
+legislation on the subject during the last
+twenty years.<a id="FNanchor_1" href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> The helplessness of children
+and their rights as
+citizens of this country have
+been better understood and
+provided for, while their impressionable
+nature has been realised, and the
+rigour of their training and discipline
+considerably modified.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">The Better
+Position of
+Children.</div>
+
+<p>It may be that there has been too great
+a change in some directions. There may
+be a freedom of intercourse
+between children and their
+parents or teachers that
+borders on disrespect. But
+taking one thing with another the position
+of children has altered for the better, and
+it is no bad thing that few subjects have
+greater interest at the present day than
+that of Children. It is an interest, too,
+that has come to stay. Of a distinctly
+softening and refining nature like the taste
+for gardening, which has brought into the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</span>
+world so many books during the last few
+years, it is only now beginning to reveal
+its true importance, and it will increase
+as from year to year more people perceive
+its fascination and trace its results.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Old-fashioned
+Discipline.</div>
+
+<p>Sixty or seventy years ago the chief
+interest in children shown by parents and
+teachers was of an extremely
+disciplinary nature. Many
+children were not allowed to
+sit down without permission when in their
+parents’ presence, and it was in many
+families the rule that the father and
+mother should be addressed as “Sir”
+and “Ma’am.” Teachers of both sexes
+ruled mainly by fear, and allowed no
+intimacy between themselves and their
+pupils. The rigour of such upbringing
+and education must have withered many
+a tender-natured child as a cold black
+wind in spring will shrivel the opening
+blossoms of the fruit trees.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Children
+of the Poor.</div>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Metropolitan
+Working
+Classes’
+Association.</div>
+
+<p>Among the working classes, until the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</span>
+Church began to establish its schools, the
+children grew up anyhow, and could
+in few cases read or write.
+Infant mortality and unhealthy
+conditions of childhood
+were prevalent. So much was
+this the case that in 1847, while little
+was yet being thought
+or written about Children,
+the Metropolitan Working
+Classes’ Association for Improving
+the Public Health
+actually put out a pamphlet on their
+proper rearing and training. This document
+had some considerable circulation,
+but its usefulness must have been greatly
+curtailed by the inability of so many
+people in those days to read.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Literature
+Concerning
+Children.</div>
+
+<p>Before this publication the literature
+on the subject of children
+was extremely scanty. Not
+only was this the case but
+those people who did from time to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</span>
+time write on the subject seem to have
+been ashamed of doing so, and their
+works, appearing once or twice in a
+century, are for the most part anonymous.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">The Office of
+Christian
+Parents.</div>
+
+<p>There exists a treatise printed by
+Cantrell Legge, printer to the University
+of Cambridge, in the year
+1616, with the title “The
+Office of Christian Parents,
+showing how Children are
+to be governed throughout all ages and
+times of their life. With a brief Admonitorie
+addition unto children to answer in
+dutie to their Parents’ office.”</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Personal Care
+of the
+Mother.</div>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Possible Extinction of Boarding Schools.</div>
+
+<p>The writer, whoever he may have been,
+appears to have at that very early date
+grasped the importance of
+his subject, for he says,
+“The Parent is put in trust
+to governe the chiefest creature
+under heaven, to train up that which
+is called the Generation of God.” Being
+thus impressed with the value of children,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</span>
+it is natural to find the author of the
+treatise giving advice that is being more
+and more strongly urged upon parents at
+the present day. Eminent doctors insist
+upon the advantage to infants of being
+personally cared for by the mother, and
+not handed over wholesale to a nurse.
+Educational experts are more and more
+inclined to take the view that children
+should be kept at home as long as possible.
+So far, indeed, has this theory
+advanced that there is a
+suggestion of the ultimate
+extinction of our great public
+boarding schools in favour of a larger
+number of schools so situated that children
+may attend them as day scholars while
+still living at home under parental care
+and influence.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Interference
+of the
+Grandmother.</div>
+
+<p>The old writer of 1616 made a strong
+point of the child being cared for by its
+parents from birth onwards. He (possibly
+from personal experience) did not even<span class="pagenum" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</span>
+approve of the interference of the grandmother,
+for he quaintly observes, “In
+some places there comes in
+the child-wive’s mother.
+She will not have her
+daughter troubled with the
+noursing: and the Father cannot abide
+the crying of the child: therefore a nurse
+is sent for in all hast”—a course of action
+of which he entirely disapproves.</p>
+
+<p>When the child is a little older
+he still thinks that its committal to
+the care of a servant should be
+avoided.</p>
+
+<p>“When a child beginneth to know his
+mother from another, there groweth two
+absurdities, either the mother’s fondness
+maketh it a crying child and restless, or
+els her careless committing it to a servant
+spills it.”</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">The Spoiling
+of Children.</div>
+
+<p>Here comes in also his first advice as to
+the disciplining of a child. He appears to
+have held strong views as to the necessity<span class="pagenum" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</span>
+of firmness, but not to have been in
+favour of the great severity which often
+obtained in those days. His
+observations are too valuable
+even now to be passed
+over. What could be better than the
+following? “Here cometh in the cockling
+of the parents to give the child the sway of
+his owne desires to have whatsoever it
+pointeth to, and so it maketh the parents
+and all the house slaves, and there is no end
+of noyse, of crying, and wraling; or els
+there is such severitie as the heart of the
+child is utterly broken.” Or again,
+“When parents do either too much cockle
+their children, or by home example do
+draw them to worser things, or els neglect
+the due discipline and good order, what
+I pray you can come to passe? but as
+we see in trees which beeing neglected at
+the first are crooked and unfruitful;
+contrarily, they which by the hand and
+art of the husbandman are proined,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</span>
+stayed up, and watered, are made upright,
+faire, and fruitfull.”</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Parents to
+Superintend
+their
+Children’s
+Upbringing.</div>
+
+<p>It will be observed that this writer
+implies in all the advice he gives that the
+parent is the proper person to
+bring up a child, not a
+servant at home or a teacher
+at a distance. “Parents,”
+he says, “should watch and
+attend upon their children for the avoiding
+of evil occasions and to see all duties
+rightly performed.”</p>
+
+<p>How far have we got nowadays from
+this ideal! How greatly modern habits
+of life have interfered with any such
+possibility! What the ancient moralist
+quoted above would have said to the
+upbringing of most children at the present
+day it is difficult to imagine. He sums
+up his own point of view very pithily in
+the words, “The egges are badly hatched
+when the bird is away; and the children
+are unluckily nurtured whose parents are<span class="pagenum" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</span>
+made careles, being absent through
+pleasure.”</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Old-fashioned
+Severity
+Leads to
+Dissimulation.</div>
+
+<p>More than a century later, in 1748,
+there appeared another anonymous
+publication on the subject.
+This had for its title “Dialogues
+on the Passions,
+Habits, and Affections peculiar
+to Children.” The writer
+was imbued with ideas so far in advance
+of his time that fear of ridicule may have
+caused him to conceal his name. His
+sentiments about the proper treatment
+of children are very much those at which
+most people have arrived to-day, when
+the subject has received much prominent
+attention for a quarter of a century. He
+combats the prevailing opinion of that
+date that the right way to deal with
+children is by a system of formal repression
+and severity. Thus he makes one of his
+characters say, “I think it necessary that
+Children should be kept at some distance.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</span>
+They are apt to grow pert, sawcy, and
+ungovernable if we make too free with
+them, or permit them the full liberty of
+speech in our Company.” To this the
+reply is made: “To discover the Diseases
+of the mind ought to be and must be your
+principal study. But in this you will
+never be successful if you set out with a
+practice which teaches them to conceal
+every bad symptom.”</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">A Phase
+of Lying.</div>
+
+<p>The truth contained in these words is
+very generally recognised nowadays. If
+a parent wants to make a
+child untruthful it can be
+done at once by causing fear,
+under the guise perhaps of respect, to be
+the ruling sentiment. Children are only
+too ready to learn! “As soon as they
+are born they go astray and speak lies.”
+It is a tendency of childhood in every class.
+A gentleman whose work consists in
+preparing little boys for the great public
+schools once said that almost every small<span class="pagenum" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</span>
+boy passes through a phase of lying. The
+mistress of a little village school declared
+not long ago that there was only one child
+there upon whose word she could
+absolutely rely.</p>
+
+<p>It follows then that those in charge
+of children, and especially the parents,
+should note the advice of the writer of the
+Dialogues. He insists again and again
+upon the evil effects of fear.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Children
+Susceptible
+of Fear.</div>
+
+<p>“Fear,” he says, “I think is the first
+Passion which we can distinctly trace in
+the Mind of a Child. They
+are susceptible of it almost
+sooner than they can conceive
+the Nature of Danger;
+and it is the Misfortune of Numbers that
+the Nurses find this so easily improved
+to their purposes that Children find the
+effects of this passion as long as they live.”</p>
+
+<p>Again, “As to Dread of Punishment
+which I have observed to be the lowest
+and most grovelling kind of Fear, you<span class="pagenum" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</span>
+must by gentle usage remove it from the
+apprehension of such as have imbibed it
+from harsh Parents or tyrannical Nurses.”</p>
+
+<p>It is exceedingly remarkable to find a
+writer in the middle of the eighteenth
+century who had studied children to such
+purpose, and who ventured to advance
+opinions such as those quoted above.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Literature of
+the last Half
+Century.</div>
+
+<p>The latter part of the nineteenth century
+saw a rush of literature concerning
+children. It is possible that
+the great public efforts made
+by the various agencies for
+bettering the lot of homeless,
+starving, and ill-treated children began
+to call special attention to the treatment
+of all children. It may be that the general
+tendency of the age to level all distinctions
+between one and another helped to gain
+greater consideration for the younger
+members of the community. It may even
+be that a more general appreciation of
+the Gospel teaching helped forward this<span class="pagenum" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</span>
+result. Or, as some will say, it may be
+simply that a wave of sentiment swept
+over the country and brought with it a
+tenderer regard for little children. It
+does not much matter what was the cause.
+The fact remains that a new interest was
+awakened, the people of England wanted
+to understand childhood better, and books
+and magazine articles on the subject
+appeared in considerable numbers.</p>
+
+<p>This result, even though some people
+have thought the supply excessive, has
+been of great service. The future of a
+country largely depends upon the proper
+upbringing of its children. This in its
+turn depends upon a proper knowledge
+of the nature of childhood. This knowledge
+has been stimulated and increased
+to an unprecedented degree by the works
+of the best of the writers who have
+recently dealt with the subject of children.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Books About
+Children.</div>
+
+<p>To mention only two or three. Which
+of us has not been the wiser and the better<span class="pagenum" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</span>
+for the books of Kenneth Graham, for
+such an inimitable character study as
+the Rebecca of Kate Douglas
+Wiggin, and for the marvellously
+tender insight into the
+mystery of the mind of a little child
+which has been shown by William Canton
+in the “Invisible Playmate” and “W. V.
+her Book”?</p>
+
+<p>It may be hoped that what is practically
+a new science may be studied with even
+greater diligence in the future, and may
+be given its proper position as of
+paramount importance.</p>
+
+<p>Up to the present date more time and
+pains have been expended and more
+literature published on the rearing and
+training of horses and dogs than of the
+little children upon whom the future
+destiny of the world depends.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</span></p>
+
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a id="Footnote_1" href="#FNanchor_1" class="label">[1]</a> See <a href="#Page_187">Appendix.</a></p>
+
+</div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II</h2>
+</div>
+
+<h3>THE CHILD—ITS MEMORY</h3>
+
+
+<div class="sidenote">A Baby’s
+Earliest
+Impressions.</div>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Bishop
+Berkeley on
+Blind Boys.</div>
+
+<p>It is just this—the memory of a child—that
+makes it so important to begin the
+process of training at once.
+The waxen tablets of a
+baby’s mind are very soft.
+It is impossible to say how
+soon impressions are made upon them, or
+how deep those impressions may be. It is
+not impossible that with the very beginning
+of separate existence some vague
+markings are made upon these unsullied
+tablets. It is exceedingly interesting to
+try to imagine what the very earliest
+impressions are like. Are they first
+produced by the sense of sight or the
+sense of touch? It has been conclusively
+proved that the senses aid one another to
+a large extent in the early stages of their
+use. Bishop Berkeley in an appendix to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</span>
+one of his treatises gives the reports of
+two cases of boys born blind with what is
+called congenital cataract.
+Both cases were cured, one
+at the age of nine, the other
+at thirteen or fourteen.
+Neither of these boys when first able to
+see had the least idea what he was looking
+at. They both thought that all objects
+touched their eyes, and neither had any
+conception of the shape or distance of an
+object. They were perfectly familiar
+with differences in shape and material by
+the process of touch, but when they first
+obtained sight the appearance of things
+meant nothing to them until they had
+handled them.</p>
+
+<p>But in these cases the sense of touch
+had existed for years and been greatly
+cultivated. It was, therefore, natural
+that the familiar sense should come to the
+aid of the unfamiliar.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Memory
+Markings.</div>
+
+<p>In newborn babies the circumstances<span class="pagenum" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</span>
+are altogether different. All senses alike
+are novel, and it would be of great interest,
+if such a thing were possible,
+to determine whether the
+earlier memory markings are
+caused by the vision of light, the sound
+of voices, or the touch of the hands that
+first come in contact with the infant form.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Precocious
+Infants.</div>
+
+<p>But it seems altogether out of our power
+to determine this question with any sort
+of certainty. None of us is
+able to remember the impressions
+of early infancy,
+and insufficient observation of the results
+of ocular, aural, or other contact with
+external things on the part of babies has
+resulted in an absence of data upon which
+to argue. Mothers, nurses, and maiden
+aunts are often ridiculed for declaring
+that “baby” has shown some astoundingly
+precocious power of observation or
+recognition, and no doubt these manifestations
+are in a large number of cases<span class="pagenum" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</span>
+accounted for by a desire on the part of
+the narrator to be able to claim a special
+share of the infantile affection, or a
+special power of imparting infantile
+accomplishments.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Case of Very
+Early Memory.</div>
+
+<p>At the same time there is every probability
+that infants observe and think
+more accurately than would
+be generally allowed by their
+casual male acquaintances.
+The present writer can vouch for at least
+one case where a permanent impression
+was made upon the mind of a very young
+child, and memory markings were indented
+which certainly lasted for several
+years. The facts are these: A man who
+shall be called A. B. was invalided and
+ordered to spend a winter at the seaside.
+While there a young married couple with
+their first baby shared his lodgings. The
+child, a boy, was just six months old,
+and for some eighteen weeks he was the
+frequent companion of A. B., especially<span class="pagenum" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</span>
+when the weather prevented either from
+going out. During many an hour the
+baby boy lay on the cushions of a low
+basket chair kicking and crowing with
+delight while his man friend talked or
+sang to him, and so a firm friendship grew
+up between the two, though its verbal
+expression was entirely confined to the
+elder of them.</p>
+
+<p>When the baby was ten months old the
+inevitable parting came, and for about
+two years they saw nothing of one
+another. At last, however, it became
+possible for the child’s mother to bring
+him to a house where his old friend was
+staying. During the journey she said
+to the little chap, “Do you know who you
+are going to see? You are going to see
+A. B.” Without a moment’s hesitation
+the boy said, “A. B. with beard?”
+showing that he remembered what was
+no doubt to him the most striking item
+in his friend’s appearance, though at the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</span>
+time that the memory mark was made on
+his mind he was too young to pronounce
+the word describing the thing that made
+the impression. But further evidence of
+the child’s memory was forthcoming, for
+as soon as he was set down on arrival at
+the front door of the house he ran straight
+to A. B. with every mark of affectionate
+joy at seeing him again.</p>
+
+<p>Here is an instance of infant memory
+that is absolutely true, and, as the boy
+was in no way precocious or unnatural,
+it is fair to assume that there must be
+plenty of cases where the impressions
+made upon an infant’s mind during the
+period when its age is marked by months
+and not by years are of a far more permanent
+nature than is generally assumed.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Memory at a
+Later Age.</div>
+
+<p>But for most illustrations of children’s
+memory we are compelled
+to begin at a later age. Few
+people remember much that
+happened before they were three years<span class="pagenum" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</span>
+old, but from about that time it is
+common to find a remarkably clear
+recollection of certain scattered events
+or experiences.</p>
+
+<p>It is a usual thing to hear it said by
+those who have passed middle age, that
+their remembrance of their childhood
+grows clearer as time goes on. This is
+accounted for by the fact that <em>fewer</em>
+impressions were made upon their minds
+during their earliest years, whereas in
+later life the memory tablets get crowded
+with all sorts and kinds of markings
+which become confused and partially
+unintelligible in a very short time.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Emotions of
+Surprise,
+Pleasure,
+or Pain.</div>
+
+<p>Besides being fewer in number it is
+also probable that in early childhood
+the memory markings that
+endure are those of such
+experiences as caused strong
+emotions of surprise, pleasure,
+or pain. One of the
+very earliest recollections of the writer<span class="pagenum" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</span>
+is of attending a wedding when he was
+three years old. But none of the usual
+incidents impressed him at all. The
+dresses of the bridesmaids, the appearance
+of the bride, the bouquets, bells and other
+accompaniments of a wedding have been
+completely forgotten. No remembrance
+of any single person or circumstance
+remains excepting two things which struck
+him with astonishment. First of all, he,
+in common with others attending the
+service, was taken across a wide river in
+a boat, and, secondly, he was put to
+stand close against the back of a harmonium,
+the noise of which at such close
+quarters was to him extraordinary and
+rather disagreeable.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Joys Better
+Remembered
+than Griefs.</div>
+
+<p>The complete obliteration of everything
+connected with this visit—for
+the ceremony took
+place a day’s journey from
+his home—seems to point
+clearly to the fact that the unusual is not<span class="pagenum" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</span>
+by itself enough to permanently impress
+a child’s mind, but it must be coupled
+with sensations of peculiar surprise, or
+special pleasure or pain. With regard to
+the two latter it is a beneficent provision
+that the joys of early life are remembered
+long after its sadnesses have been
+forgotten.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Summer Days
+at a Country
+Rectory.</div>
+
+<p>A man looks back on the summers he
+spent as a child in a country rectory.
+It appears to him that the
+days were ever sunny: he
+recalls the sharp hiss of the
+whetstone on the scythe,
+which told him as he lay in his little bed
+that the parson’s man was mowing the
+lawn before the dew was off the grass;
+he can remember the wild strawberries
+in the less conventional part of the garden;
+he can in fancy take his way to the cowhouse,
+mug in hand, to get a drink of new
+and frothy milk; he can climb about
+the lower branches of a favourite tree; he<span class="pagenum" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</span>
+can rake and water his little square of
+garden; he can come home atop of the
+last load of hay from the glebe fields; but
+it is always in the dancing sunlight that
+he moves; it would seem to him that
+there could never have been any single
+day in all his childhood when rain came
+down and skies were grey and cold.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">The Old
+Nursery.</div>
+
+<p>And so, too, of the life indoors. He
+remembers much of this in comparison
+with the later years. He
+remembers exactly where
+each piece of furniture stood
+in the old nursery. He can tell you with
+what colour the ottoman was covered in
+which his brothers’ and sisters’ outdoor
+things were kept, and he vividly remembers
+standing upon it to look out of the
+window and watch the gardener at work.
+He can recall exactly how much of the
+spout was broken belonging to the old
+grey teapot in which was brewed the
+senna tea, but he cannot tell you what<span class="pagenum" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</span>
+the stuff tasted of—though he is sure that
+it was nasty. The nursery, the stairs, and
+the passages are in his memory so many
+playgrounds; he forgets the many childish
+tears that he shed, and the childish
+tragedies that befell him, while the games
+and the laughter and the pleasantness of
+his early surroundings are easily recalled.</p>
+
+<p>But if he examines carefully into his
+early impressions he will find that the
+events which older persons might be
+expected to remember are forgotten, while
+the little matters that brought to his
+babyhood’s experience sensations of pain
+or pleasure—but especially the latter—are
+clear. That is to say, the memory
+markings made in early childhood do not
+include the greater number of things
+which came in contact with the various
+senses of the child, but are really few in
+number and connected invariably with
+special sensations.</p>
+
+<p>It is a vast mistake to measure the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</span>
+importance of a child’s interests by those
+of a grown-up person. It is easy for the
+latter to forget every detail of a house
+in which he has passed some months or
+even years of middle age, but he will
+remember a shallow step leading down
+from one of his nurseries to the other.</p>
+
+<p>How small a thing! Yes, but it was
+productive of great sensations. It was
+the first step he had ever known—by it
+was revealed to him the entirely new idea
+that one room could be on a different
+level from another. Then he found that
+it was a splendid place to sit upon—just
+the right height for him—and a still
+better place upon which to set up bricks
+and toys in order to knock them down
+and hear the crash of their fall. But, best
+of all, it was the place where his first deed
+of daring was performed. There came
+a day when he ventured to jump down!
+It was the first time that he had really
+cared for spectators: it was the first time<span class="pagenum" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</span>
+that he had looked round for applause.
+For all these reasons—all connected with
+new sensations of pleasure—that little
+shallow wooden step made a deeper
+memory mark upon his mind than many
+subsequent places or events that have
+perhaps helped to turn the current of his
+life. But, after all is said, it is impossible
+not to feel that the unknown is so largely
+in excess of the known, in this as in many
+other subjects, that the only thing to be
+done is to try to induce those who have
+to do with little children to remember
+that much is possible and even probable—to
+act, that is, as if the youngest child may
+possibly remember for its good or ill any
+smallest fact or object with which its
+senses are brought into contact.</p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III</h2>
+</div>
+
+<h3>THE CHILD—ITS IMAGINATION</h3>
+
+
+<p>The imagination of the poet, of the
+novelist, of the advertiser of a patent
+medicine, is as nothing compared with
+that of a little child. No one who is
+unable to realise this will understand
+children or be really successful in their
+upbringing.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">The Riotous
+Imagination
+of Children.</div>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Unimaginative
+Parents.</div>
+
+<p>Whence come all the marvellous ideas
+that people the brain of a mere baby of
+two or three years? Is it
+that it has descended but a
+step or two down the staircase
+and still has a mind to
+some extent untrammelled by human
+limitations and the hard dry facts of
+earth? Or is it that, possessed of a
+keenly receptive power, it has not learnt
+to control or arrange the multitudes of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</span>
+facts that present themselves daily to its
+senses? This wonderful imagination is
+no doubt closely allied with the early
+powers of memory of which mention has
+been made, and may also have something
+at least to do with the early propensity to
+untruthfulness. Many a
+child has suffered at the
+hands of an unimaginative
+parent for words which have been ruthlessly
+called lies though they have been
+so strongly prompted by a vivid imagination
+that they have seemed as true to the
+utterer as much that is unintelligible but
+has to be accepted.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Arrangement
+of the
+Numerals.</div>
+
+<div class="sidenote">The Circle of
+the Months.</div>
+
+<p>A moment’s thought will show at what
+an early age imagination came into play
+with most people. By far
+the greater number have
+by its aid clothed certain
+abstract ideas in definite
+concrete forms, and have done this when
+so young that it is impossible for them to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</span>
+remember the time when these things
+first took shape. For instance, most
+people have a definite arrangement of the
+numerals. A common form for this to
+take is that of the numbers one to twelve
+appearing to run slightly upwards and
+towards the right, those from twelve to
+twenty taking a downward turn in the
+same direction. At the number twenty
+a sharp turn is taken to the left, and from
+that point to one hundred they run
+uphill with an increasing steepness. Many
+other directions and shapes are discovered
+by questioning people on this subject, but
+it is very rare to find an example of the
+numerals being nothing but an abstract
+idea. The same thing occurs with the
+months. To most people
+they appear in a circle,
+winter being in some cases
+at the top, and summer in others. In one
+case a person imagines them in a semicircle,
+and in another (the strangest yet<span class="pagenum" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</span>
+met with) they are in a zig-zag, three
+months running up, and three down, and
+so on, the form being like that of a rather
+straggling M.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Effects of
+Colour.</div>
+
+<p>Colour also is occasionally imagined,
+and there is no doubt that children are
+specially susceptible to its
+influence at a very early age.
+A writer in the eighteenth
+century to whom allusion has been made
+in Chapter I makes the following observation:
+“There are some children so
+tenderly organised that many kinds of
+sounds are harsh to their Infant Ears and
+apt to fright them, and some colours strike
+them with too great and quick a Glare and
+have the same Effect till by Custom they
+are made familiar to their Organs.”</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Colour of
+the Days.</div>
+
+<p>It is certain at all events that colour
+has played an important
+part in the imagination of
+many people from their
+earliest years. A lady declares that all her<span class="pagenum" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</span>
+life long the days of the week have
+appeared to her to be of certain definite
+colours. Thus, Sunday is brick red,
+Monday the same, Tuesday lilac, Wednesday
+white, Thursday dark brown, Friday
+grey, and Saturday mauve and yellow.
+All this imagining took place so near the
+start of her life that the colour, form, etc.,
+of the days appear to this lady to be facts
+dating from the beginning of time itself.
+It should be noted that in these and all
+similar instances the imagination is apparently
+independent of outside influences
+such as pictures or descriptions which
+might be supposed to have affected a
+little child.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">The Imaginary
+Child-Friend.</div>
+
+<p>It is possible to go further than this
+and to say that the most vivid imaginings
+are as a rule those which a
+child produces absolutely
+and apart from the suggestion
+of others. Under this head comes
+the imaginary child-friend called into<span class="pagenum" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</span>
+existence in most cases by one who has no
+playmate of similar age. The grown-up
+people in the house know nothing of this
+imaginary friend until the real child is
+overheard talking to it and calling it by
+name. It is remarkable to notice how
+nothing seems to disturb the commonplace
+reality of the whole thing in the
+mind of the child. When the imaginary
+friend is in the room his or her presence
+is never for a moment forgotten, and plans
+are gravely made to suit the convenience
+not of one only but of <em>both</em> the children.</p>
+
+<p>Next in importance to the unsuggested
+imaginings are those to which a sensitive
+child gives way on the slightest hint.
+This is a very practical matter, and one
+to which those who have to do with
+children should take heed.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Imaginary
+Terrors.</div>
+
+<p>It is impossible to say at how early an
+age a suggestion of any kind may bear
+fruit. A lady once said that her childhood
+was one long misery owing to a vivid<span class="pagenum" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</span>
+imagination of the terrors that awaited
+her for having committed a certain fault
+when a baby in the nursery.
+It was not, she said, that
+much had been made of it
+at the time, but there was some suggestion
+of an awful unknown punishment, which
+her childish brain worked upon and
+developed until she dared not be left alone
+and became a thoroughly morbid and
+wretched little being.</p>
+
+<p>It is obvious that too great care cannot
+possibly be taken by those to whom
+children are entrusted, inasmuch as a
+chance word may set a child’s imagination
+working and affect the tendency of its
+thoughts and actions for years.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Untruthfulness
+and
+Imagination.</div>
+
+<p>It was suggested at the beginning of
+this chapter that there is probably some
+relation between this power of imagination
+and the tendency to untruthfulness
+which is found in so many children. It
+is one of the most difficult things<span class="pagenum" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</span>
+possible to define exactly where the
+knowledge of untruthfulness comes in.
+Probably no two children are
+alike in this, and it requires
+the utmost tact and a close
+knowledge of a particular
+child’s character to determine the point
+where the one thing ends and the other
+begins.</p>
+
+<p>Here is an example. A short time ago
+a little boy still in the nursery was taken
+out by his father in the carriage for a
+drive. When they arrived at the farther
+end of the town the little chap was sent
+home in the carriage by himself, his father
+having been deposited at his place of
+business. When the carriage arrived back
+at the door of the house the parlourmaid
+came out and carried the child indoors,
+being surprised to find him in tears.
+Struggling out of her arms he set off
+upstairs to the nursery, sobbing bitterly
+all the way. “What is the matter,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</span>
+dear?” said the nurse. “I’se had to
+walk by mine own self all froo the town,
+and I was dreffly frightened,” was the
+reply. “How ever did you get across
+the High Street, my poor darling?”
+“There was lots of cabs and cawwiages
+and things, and I knewed I would be
+runned over!” All this with many sobs
+and much burying of his head in nurse’s
+lap. Hearing the wailing in the nursery
+up came the parlourmaid, to whom the
+nurse poured out her indignation. “Just
+fancy! Making this poor lamb walk
+home all through the town by himself!
+It’s a mercy he was not killed again and
+again!” “Walk through the town!
+Why, whatever do you mean? Why, I
+lifted him out of the carriage at this very
+door not ten minutes ago!”</p>
+
+<p>Well, the temptation to punish the
+little fellow must have been great. One
+hopes it was resisted. There can be small
+doubt that a vivid imagination had<span class="pagenum" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</span>
+mastered him as he drove home alone.
+It was all “what might have been,” and
+it became so real to him that it seemed
+to be “what was.”</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Confession
+of an
+Imaginary Sin.</div>
+
+<p>Again, a case recurs to the recollection
+of the writer where a small child was
+summoned into the presence
+of an angry parent who
+listened to no excuses, but
+insisted so strongly and so
+often on the guilt of the small boy, that
+at last he actually seemed convinced by
+the reiterated accusation and, imagining
+that his parent must know best, actually
+confessed to a sin which subsequent events
+proved the impossibility of his having
+committed.</p>
+
+<p>Now for an example where it is probable
+that the imagination of the child is used
+for ulterior purposes and the borderland
+between fancy and untruthfulness is
+likely to be crossed.</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</span></p>
+<div class="sidenote">Jinks.</div>
+
+<p>There is a little girl who a few years
+ago was possessed of many dolls, but the
+supreme favourite was an old monkey-doll
+by name “Jinks.” He
+was so much hugged and
+cuddled from the first that
+he soon became shabby. He quickly lost
+all his hair except a tuft on each side of
+his face, and his clothes were reduced to
+a pair of dark blue trousers and a sort of
+shabby white jersey. But the shabbier
+he became the more she loved him, and
+in time, being an ingenious little person,
+she began to make use of him, as is often
+the case among grown-up people. The
+first instance on record is of the simplest
+kind, but showed much insight into human
+nature. The little girl had been disobedient
+and was being duly lectured on
+her fault. She stood there looking very
+serious with “Jinks” tightly clasped
+in her arms. All of a sudden the length
+of the lecture became more than she
+could bear. Something must be done.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</span>
+Suddenly she held up the ugly old doll and
+with a pleasant smile upon her face
+remarked, “Look at Jinks! ’ow ’e’s
+laughing!” It was an ingenious and
+effective ruse, but a ruse it was and not
+mere play of imagination.</p>
+
+<p>On another more recent occasion she
+made use of “Jinks” in a rather more
+elaborate fashion. Her everyday gloves
+were knitted woollen ones and these she
+disliked intensely. One day she was seen
+starting out in a pair which were properly
+kept for Sundays. She was stopped and
+asked why she had put on her best gloves.
+“Why,” she answered at once, “You see
+when I was getting ready I thought
+p’raps I should meet Jinks on the stairs—and
+he can’t <em>bear</em> to see me in those woolly
+gloves!”</p>
+
+<p>Most people who have little children
+among their friends can remember similar
+instances, and these are just the cases
+where firm but sympathetic interference<span class="pagenum" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</span>
+is necessary to prevent confusion between
+imagination and want of truth.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">The Idea
+of Death.</div>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Desire for
+a Legacy.</div>
+
+<p>Possessed as they are of such great
+powers of imagination in many directions
+it is curious to notice how
+often children seem unable
+to realise or picture to themselves
+matters with which they will be
+familiar enough in after life. Take, for
+instance, the subject of death. A child
+will imagine the death of a doll. This is
+a fancy that occurs rarely, and the imagination
+goes as a rule no further. A child
+does not picture to itself the sorrow and
+loss commonly caused by the death of a
+real person. A little girl of three years
+old was sitting on her godfather’s knee.
+There was an immense affection between
+the two, and either would have missed the
+other sadly. An old man in the village
+known by sight to the little girl had lately
+died, and she had just remarked to her
+godfather quite as a bit of cheerful gossip,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</span>
+“Old John is dead.” The conversation
+then turned upon a certain gold watch
+which the little maiden desired more than
+anything in the world. Once more she
+was told, “No, I really can’t give it to
+you; I want it so badly myself.” Then
+followed these apparently callous words.
+“Your hair is <em>rather</em> white
+like old John’s. I s’pect you
+will be dead soon. Then can
+I have the watch?”</p>
+
+<p>At first sight this sounds heartless and
+calculating, but as a matter of fact it was
+certainly not the former. The subject of
+death was too big for her imagination,
+that was all.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Small
+Imagination
+of Suffering.</div>
+
+<p>In this same connection it is found that
+pain as affecting others is often very
+slightly realised by children,
+and they seem to be unable
+to imagine suffering such as
+has not come within their own
+experience. It is for this reason that little<span class="pagenum" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</span>
+children often inflict tortures on animals,
+especially on flies and other small creatures
+which are at their mercy. It is not
+from a love of cruelty as some people have
+said, but simply because their imagination
+falls short in this direction, and they do
+not realise the effects of their actions.</p>
+
+<p>But, with certain exceptions, a child
+has invariably an immense capability for
+imagining. As has been stated, the most
+vivid fancies seem to spring up unbidden,
+but it is equally true that it is possible
+in a large degree to influence the <em>kind</em> of
+imagination. Happiness is an essential
+atmosphere for the upbringing of a child,
+and happiness is to a large extent dependent
+in childhood upon imagination. By
+supplying this atmosphere the best kind
+of imaginings can be ensured.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Parental
+Sympathy.</div>
+
+<p>A child whose parents are occupied
+entirely with themselves and their own
+affairs and have no sympathy with
+childish fancies will shrink up into itself<span class="pagenum" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</span>
+and have a stunted mental and spiritual
+growth: the terrified child will grow up
+amid horrible imaginings;
+it is only the child to whom
+gentleness and sympathy
+are as the very air it breathes who will
+imagine happy and beautiful things, and
+live to enjoy the fulfilment of them here
+and hereafter.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Poetic
+Imaginings.</div>
+
+<p>This leads naturally to the poetic
+imaginings of many children who have
+outgrown their babyhood,
+but have not yet had their
+fancies blurred and obscured
+by the tasks and troubles of the world.
+They possess a gift which all may envy—the
+gift of endowing all manner of things,
+both those which are beautiful in themselves
+and those which are not, with a
+glory not their own. This gift comes
+from the power of connecting one thought
+with another, or perhaps of allowing one
+idea unconsciously to suggest another,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</span>
+which is the root of all imagination. It
+is a gift that has brought sunshine and
+happiness to thousands of children, and
+is preserved by some in after life. All our
+great poets and painters have kept hold of
+this power, and many persons share
+vicariously in its delights as they read
+the glorious thoughts or gaze on the
+exquisite pictures that have been thus
+inspired.</p>
+
+<p>And yet there are some who scoff.
+They have forgotten their childhood’s
+gift, and are too self-satisfied to regret it.
+Not so the old poet Wordsworth. He felt
+the power leaving him. The brightness
+of his poetic imagination was on the wane,
+and he thus lamented it:—</p>
+
+<div class="poetry-container2 fs80">
+<div class="poetry">
+  <div class="stanza">
+    <div class="verse indent0">There was a time when meadow, grove and stream,</div>
+    <div class="verse indent0">The earth and every common sight,</div>
+    <div class="verse indent8">To me did seem</div>
+    <div class="verse indent0">Apparell’d in celestial light,</div>
+    <div class="verse indent0">The glory and the freshness of a dream.</div>
+    <div class="verse indent0">It is not now as it hath been of yore;</div>
+    <div class="verse indent8">Turn wheresoe’er I may</div>
+    <div class="verse indent8">By night or day,</div>
+    <div class="verse indent0">The things which I have seen I now can see no more.</div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+</div>
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</span></p>
+<p>There are many people who have never
+troubled to understand children and who
+are mightily sceptical as to the powers
+and the charm that is claimed for them.
+It is hardly possible to do better here
+than to ask such persons to read the
+example given below of a child’s poetical
+imaginings.</p>
+
+<p>The story is told in the first person, and
+is in the main literally true. It is called</p>
+
+<p class="p0 center">“I Wonders”</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">“I Wonders”</div>
+
+<p class="p0">“It was a lovely September day. I
+had any number of duties to fulfil at home.
+There was a pile of letters
+waiting to be answered, there
+was a magazine article
+hardly begun for which I had received
+an urgent demand from the publishers
+only that morning, and there was a meeting
+of school managers which my conscience
+told me I ought on no account to
+miss. But, as I said before, it was a
+simply lovely day and nature (human<span class="pagenum" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</span>
+and the other) cried shame on staying
+indoors. Whether I should have had
+sufficient strength of mind to have
+resisted the temptation had I been left
+to fight it out with nature I shall never
+know, for the enemy received a sudden
+reinforcement before which I yielded
+ignominiously and at once. I had gone
+so far as to clear my blotting-pad of loose
+letters and to open my ink bottle when
+there came a tiny tap at the study door.
+‘Come in!’ I called, and there ensued
+a curious twisting at the handle of the
+door, productive of no result. ‘Come
+in!’ I called again, and this time there
+was no further delay.</p>
+
+<p>“With a little burst the door flew
+open and revealed that my visitor was
+no less and no greater a person than
+Helen.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Helen.</div>
+
+<p>“Now Helen needs some description,
+and no better time for giving it could be
+found than as she stood there at the top<span class="pagenum" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</span>
+of the three or four steps which lead
+up to my sanctum, her face flushed
+with her struggle with the
+door handle.</p>
+
+<p>“Helen was a town-bred
+child of five years old, and the colour gave
+her usually pale face an added charm.
+Charm is the right word to use, for, though
+she did not possess any very great beauty
+(excepting her large dark eyes and lashes),
+it was impossible not to fall under her
+charm. She fascinated by her various
+moods, often serious almost to melancholy,
+but suddenly bursting out into
+utter and abandoned joyousness. She
+fascinated again by her vivid imagination,
+by the sensitiveness with which she shrank
+from an unresponsive look or word, and
+by the gradual unfolding of her nature to
+anyone who <em>understood</em>. She had come to
+stay with us in our completely country
+house, and was entranced with the mystery
+and delight of all she saw.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</span></p>
+
+<p>“On that particular morning she had
+come to demand that I should fulfil a
+promise to go out and pick blackberries,
+for had not I said that I had passed
+quantities of big ones, all ripe and ready,
+only the day before? There she stood in
+her white sun bonnet and her short red
+flannel jacket, beneath which came the
+bottom of her white frock and a little pair
+of legs which country sun and air were
+already beginning to assimilate to those
+of our village bairns in colour though not
+in thickness.</p>
+
+<p>“‘Well?’ I said, to which her only
+reply was to hold up and shake at me an
+empty basket with which she had provided
+herself. ‘What’s that for?’ said I.
+‘I wonders!’ she answered, using an
+expression with which we had already
+become familiar. ‘Well,’ I said, ‘you
+had better tell me.’ ‘Can’t you
+guess?’—with some scorn—and then
+triumphantly, ‘Backberwies, o’ course!’</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</span></p>
+
+<p>“There was very little more to be said.
+Nature might have been resisted alone,
+but nature <em>and</em> Helen would have proved
+too much for a stronger and more reluctant
+man than I. And so it was arranged.
+Helen was to meet me in the hall in a
+quarter of an hour, which would give me
+time to scribble a couple of notes, one
+(by the way) to the publishers to say
+that great pressure prevented my finishing
+the article that day, which was true—in
+a sense!</p>
+
+<p>“I have been many walks with many
+people, but none that I can compare with
+the one upon which Helen and I started
+that sunny September morning. I have
+walked as an undergraduate with learned
+dons who discoursed of matters beyond
+my ken. I have walked with ladies of
+sentiment, who vainly appealed to my
+sympathy and imagination. But never
+till that morning did I walk with a
+companion who carried me with her into<span class="pagenum" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</span>
+another world and who obtained complete
+sway over my every thought and action.
+This did not begin all at once.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Through the
+Village.</div>
+
+<p>“There was a little bit of the village
+through which we must pass, and here
+there were sundry dangers.
+Old Sawyer’s black and white
+sow had got loose and certainly
+looked formidably large and fierce
+as she shoved her snout with deep grunts
+into the ditch beside the road. Then a
+farmer’s collie-dog—a particular friend of
+mine, but a stranger and therefore a
+possible foe to my companion—came
+prancing up. These and other sources
+of terror, such as the village flock of
+geese, made it essential that we should
+proceed with caution and with such
+strength as a union of hands might afford.
+However, it did not take long to bring
+us to the end of the cottages and out on
+to the road beside which I had seen the
+blackberries hanging all ready to be<span class="pagenum" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</span>
+picked. It was a good wide road with a
+broad strip of grass on either side, along
+one of which was a row of telegraph posts
+which brought the single wire by which
+we were connected with the busy world.
+The hedges were high and bushy—full of
+honeysuckle, now out of bloom, wild roses
+by this time showing only their scarlet
+fruit, wild hops climbing everywhere
+with rapid eager growth, clematis giving
+promise of a hoary show of old man’s
+beard, and in and out and over and
+through it all the long thorny brambles
+with their many-coloured leaves and their
+shiny black and red and green berries.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">The
+Backberwy
+People.</div>
+
+<p>“With just one look round to assure
+herself that nobody and nothing was
+about, Helen let go my hand
+and rushed off like a mad
+thing along the grass, just
+recovering herself with a
+gasp from a bad stumble over a dried and
+hidden heap of road scrapings. All of a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</span>
+sudden she stopped. She had caught
+sight of the ‘backberwies’ and of the
+numberless other brilliant and tempting
+objects in the hedge. In a moment
+her imagination had caught fire. ‘I
+wonders!’ she said as I came up. Then,
+when her breath was quite recovered, she
+added very earnestly, ‘Can us get them
+backberwy people? It’s vewy dangewous,
+isn’t it? Look at them nettles and
+fistles! Is them the backberwies’
+policemen—I wonders?’</p>
+
+<p>“If they were, they proved very useful
+as far as warding off attacks on the part
+of a little bare-legged maiden went.
+However, by dint of <em>very</em> careful steering
+she managed to get close up to a splendid
+cluster of fruit and had picked some four
+or five when one of the sharp hooky
+thorns tore her finger and brought tears
+into her eyes. Even so, the play went on.
+‘Oh! the backberwies’ dog has bit me!’
+she cried, as she held up the poor little<span class="pagenum" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</span>
+finger for me to see. It was really a nasty
+prick, and I could see that it hurt her a
+good deal, so I tied her handkerchief
+round it, and said we would try to find
+a place further on where the dogs were
+not so savage.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">The
+Backberwy
+Ball.</div>
+
+<p>“We went on a yard or two and passed
+close to one of the telegraph posts through
+which a light breeze was
+humming. Helen stopped
+short with eyes dilated and
+open mouth. ‘Oh! I
+<em>wonders</em>!’ she cried. ‘What is it?’ I
+asked her. She whispered to me to keep
+quite still while she went to see, and
+proceeded to put her ear against the post,
+holding up one finger of the injured hand
+in warning to me not to stir. ‘There’s
+beautiful music,’ she said at last very
+softly, ‘there’s a ball, and all the little
+backberwies is dancing!’ I said that if
+the old blackberries let the young ones
+go to a ball without them it served them<span class="pagenum" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</span>
+right if they got picked themselves. I
+then suggested that we should go on to
+the next post and see what was going on
+there. As we went Helen noticed that
+near each one there was a heap of stones
+and a bare gravelly patch of ground.
+‘Them is the backberwy houses,’ she said,
+‘and all the backberwies are out, and the
+children are gone to a dancing class, so
+the old backberwies send them by theirselves.’
+So the little difficulty which I
+had mentioned was explained away,
+though to the vividness of her imagination
+it had evidently presented a real difficulty
+and had not been forgotten.</p>
+
+<p>“Presently, after listening to the music
+in several telegraph posts, saying that
+there was an organ in one and fiddles in
+another, while in a third she declared
+that the blackberries were singing, she
+returned to the hedge and the more
+serious duty of filling her little basket.
+All the time, however, she kept up a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</span>
+comment upon what she saw. The red
+hips and haws were ‘the backberwies’
+soldiers,’ the elderberries were their
+clergymen, and the sloes were guards.
+Every few minutes she stopped in a sort
+of ecstasy at all that was around her, and
+gazing in one direction and another
+would softly say, ‘Oh! I wonders!’
+It was evidently a revelation of beauty to
+her, and at the same time a scene of mystery,
+a sort of fairyland where everything
+thought and lived and breathed.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">The Wicked
+Soldiers.</div>
+
+<p>“At last the basket was getting nearly
+full, and in stretching up for some
+specially fine berries a dog-rose
+thorn tore the back of
+my hand, leaving a long
+scratch. Helen’s anger knew no bounds.</p>
+
+<p>“‘The wicked, wicked soldiers,’ she said,
+and then taking several of the bright red
+hips she tore them into fragments and
+threw them away. And now we had
+wandered backwards and forwards along<span class="pagenum" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</span>
+that special bit of hedge until all the
+blackberries within reach were picked,
+and only the baby green ones were left.
+‘Will they die if we leaves them all
+alone?’ she said, and then she gathered
+as many as possible, and carrying them
+in her two hands placed them in little
+heaps near each telegraph post that they
+might be noticed when the balls and
+concerts were over.</p>
+
+<p>“I said that I wondered what the young
+blackberries would do when they came
+out and found all their fathers and
+mothers gone, and only the little babies
+left. And Helen said ‘I wonders.’”</p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV</h2>
+</div>
+
+<h3>THE CHILD—ITS RELIGION</h3>
+
+
+<div class="sidenote">Three Kinds
+of Parents.</div>
+
+<div class="sidenote">A
+French Work
+on Children.</div>
+
+<p>Probably one of the earliest perplexities
+that presents itself to a parent is the
+question of the child’s religion.
+And yet it is doubtful
+whether in the generality of
+cases the matter is considered early
+enough. There are, evidently, three kinds
+of parents taking three separate views of
+the question. There are those who hold
+distinctly materialistic opinions, and who
+therefore deliberately decline to enter
+into the subject at all. They agree with
+the sentiments expressed in
+a French work on children
+published some quarter of a
+century ago in which the following passages
+occur: “We may boldly assert
+that the sense of religion exists no more
+in the intelligence of a little child than<span class="pagenum" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</span>
+does the supernatural in nature.” And
+again: “In our opinion parents are very
+much mistaken in thinking it their duty
+to instruct their little ones in such things,
+which have no real interest for them—as
+who made them, who created the world,
+what is the soul, what is its present and
+future destiny, and so forth.”</p>
+
+<p>It is a happiness to believe that few
+English parents endorse these views. The
+extraordinary stir made by an Education
+Bill, the chief concern of which was to
+affect the religious teaching of children,
+is evidence of a widespread belief in the
+necessity of such teaching.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Careless
+Parents.</div>
+
+<p>But, in the second place, there are some
+parents who are simply careless. They
+would be rather shocked at
+being told that they themselves
+were irreligious, but,
+when they forget all about their children’s
+religion, it cannot be supposed that their
+own is of much real concern to them.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</span></p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Anxious
+Parents.</div>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Early
+Impressions
+of Good
+and Evil.</div>
+
+<p>Thirdly, there are the parents who
+desire beyond all things that their
+children shall lead religious
+lives, and are anxious to do
+their utmost to start the
+little feet on the right path. It is this
+class of parent who is often perplexed
+to know what is best. The difficulties
+are certainly great. Children differ so
+widely that what is good for one child
+may be harmful for another. But in
+almost all cases the tendency is to put off
+religious teaching too long. The mind
+of a very young child—one who would be
+commonly described as a
+baby—has been proved again
+and again to be remarkably
+receptive of evil as well as
+of good influences and impressions,
+and the earlier a baby’s mind
+can be filled with the very simplest
+religious truths the less room there will be
+for evil, and the greater the likelihood of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</span>
+a firm belief in truths that have been
+absorbed almost with the mother’s milk.</p>
+
+<p>This leads to the question of how far
+a very young child has any direct personal
+religion; any feeling, that is, of a direct
+communication even of the most elementary
+kind between itself and its <span class="smcap">God</span>
+without the intervention of any human
+being.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">A Child’s
+Direct
+Personal
+Religion.</div>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Religion
+through the Mother.</div>
+
+<p>It would probably be true to say that
+<em>at first</em> this is impossible, but that at a
+very early age the sense can
+be imparted. To quote the
+words of a mother who has
+brought up a number of
+children in the fear and love
+of <span class="smcap">God</span>, personal religion in children “of
+course begins by being mixed up with
+<em>Mother</em>, who, if she is a real mother, is to
+her babies the representative of warmth,
+comfort, love, and everything that they
+want.” When, in addition to this a child
+has depended for months upon its<span class="pagenum" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</span>
+mother for food, and has constantly
+slept in her arms, the influence of that
+mother is so great that
+her religion naturally becomes
+the religion of the
+child, who accepts every
+word she says absolutely. Thus, the
+“<span class="smcap">God</span> bless you” and the words of
+loving prayer which come so often and
+so naturally to a mother’s lips are
+absorbed by the child until its faith in
+some unconscious way grows into its
+life and becomes a real thing between
+itself and its <span class="smcap">God</span>.</p>
+
+<p>Thus, it will be seen that there is a
+certain truth underlying a statement
+made by the French author quoted above
+when he says: “Children’s reverence and
+love attaches itself to the human beings
+who are kind to them, but to nothing
+which is invisible or distinct from their
+species. Their instinct of finality is
+wholly objective and utilitarian.” It is<span class="pagenum" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</span>
+true that in the first instance a baby’s
+reverence and love attaches itself to the
+mother, but to assert that afterwards it
+rejects anything invisible or apart from
+its own species is to deny the influence
+of a religious feeling flowing through the
+mother to the child, and to limit the power
+of the Spirit of <span class="smcap">God</span> who can surely dwell
+in the heart of a very little child.</p>
+
+<p>An example of the way in which children
+of very tender years can and often do
+grasp the great truths of the religion
+which they inherit from their parents
+has lately been told to the writer by the
+mother of the child in question.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Where She
+was
+Heavened.</div>
+
+<p>She was a little girl of three and a half
+years old, and was taken one day by her
+father into the church in
+which she had been baptized.
+Pointing to the font, he said,
+“Do you know what happened to you
+there?” For a moment the child looked
+perplexed, and nestling up to her father<span class="pagenum" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</span>
+said, “<em>You</em> tell me, daddy.” “No,” he
+replied, “I want you to tell me.” There
+was another moment’s hesitation, and
+then she looked up at him and very
+solemnly said, “I was <em>heavened</em> there!”</p>
+
+<p>Probably no answer that she could
+have made would have been so comprehensive
+and so convincing of the real
+grasp of the truth as this word her baby
+intelligence had coined.</p>
+
+<p>Examples can easily be found to show
+at how early an age a child may be
+influenced for good or evil. “I have
+seen,” says a parent, “a baby trained to
+habits of cleanliness in six weeks of life,”
+and it is doubtless true that the difference
+between good and evil first of all means
+to a child what is allowed or what is
+forbidden. But together with this it
+must always be remembered that there
+is the sense of safety and of love which,
+originally connected with “Mother,” is
+(in the case of a religious parent) speedily<span class="pagenum" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</span>
+carried onwards and upwards to the love
+and care of <span class="smcap">God</span>.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Olive
+Schreiner.</div>
+
+<p>In this connection a passage in Olive
+Schreiner’s “Story of an African Farm”
+can hardly be omitted. It
+runs thus: “The souls of
+little children are marvellously
+delicate and tender things, and keep
+for ever the shadow that first falls on them,
+and that is the mother’s, or, at best, a
+woman’s. There never was a great man
+who had not a great mother: it is hardly
+an exaggeration. The first six years of
+our life make us: all that is added later
+is veneer. And yet some say, if a woman
+can cook a dinner or dress herself well, she
+has culture enough.”</p>
+
+<p>All that has been so far written in this
+chapter on Children’s Religion is of
+necessity vague and rather difficult. To
+arrive at <em>facts</em> is almost impossible. The
+best that can be done is to speak of
+probabilities in the light of that faith<span class="pagenum" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</span>
+which has been handed down. The
+religion of children of less tender years
+presents fewer difficulties, and to the
+consideration of this it is proposed now
+to turn.</p>
+
+<p>But while the difficulties are fewer, they
+do not altogether disappear. It is often,
+for instance, extraordinarily difficult to
+determine in the case of a child of six or
+seven years how far his or her religion
+has even at that age become directly
+personal, or whether <span class="smcap">God</span> is not often a
+Being to whom access is only possible
+through someone else.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Religion of
+Rather Older
+Children.</div>
+
+<div class="sidenote">A Child’s
+Faith.</div>
+
+<p>The evidence obtainable on this point
+is most contradictory. A mother writes,
+“Children’s faith soon becomes
+a real thing between
+them and their <span class="smcap">God</span>. My
+little boy of five is perfectly
+delightful in the fulness of his faith.
+Only to-night when I had gone up, as I
+always do, to tell him a Bible story or sing<span class="pagenum" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</span>
+some hymns before he went off to sleep,
+he suddenly said, ‘Mother, don’t you
+wish Jesus was on earth
+now?’ When I said, ‘Why
+do you wish it?’ he answered
+without the least hesitation, ‘Because
+I should go to Him and ask Him to
+make me good for always.’ And then,
+a little time afterwards, he suddenly
+started up, when I thought he was asleep,
+and said, ‘Oh! mother, wouldn’t it be
+<em>dreadful</em> if we had not got a <span class="smcap">God</span>!’”</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">A Doubting
+Thomas.</div>
+
+<p>Another mother tells of a little daughter
+who has been “a doubting Thomas from
+her babyhood.” To her the
+personality of <span class="smcap">God</span> was very
+real, but she refused to
+accept anything at first through the
+medium of another—even of her mother.
+A good many of her quaint sayings have
+been preserved—and her mother still
+remembers how disconcerting these often
+were in the course of a Bible lesson. She<span class="pagenum" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</span>
+would suddenly break in with “<em>Why</em> was
+<span class="smcap">God</span> so cruel? I hate Him. Can’t you
+explain? I don’t think much of Him
+if He doesn’t let fathers and mothers know
+everything!” At the same time she was
+seldom willing to accept much on anyone’s
+judgment but her own. A little brother
+shared her lessons, and often sighed with
+impatience at her interruptions. “Oh,
+R——,” he would say, “I do wish you
+could get some trust!” When learning
+the Catechism this little girl refused to
+say, “Yes, verily, so I will.” “No,” she
+said, “I shan’t say that. I haven’t made
+up my mind whether I want to be good
+or not, and I <em>certainly</em> shan’t say that.”
+So for about six months that question
+was never put to her, and at last one day
+she remarked, “I could say that now if
+you like!”</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Relative
+Importance of
+Authorities.</div>
+
+<p>In both these instances there can be
+little doubt that no one came in any way
+between the child and the Creator, but,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</span>
+on the other hand, a good many parents
+consider that there is for some years
+a difficulty in the minds of
+children as to the intervention
+of human beings
+between them and <span class="smcap">God</span>,
+arising either from their habit of connecting
+their prayers and religious experiences
+mainly with their mother or nurse, or
+from a curious inability to realise the
+supremacy of the Almighty. An example
+of this latter difficulty may be given in the
+words of a little child in Yorkshire who
+was overheard to say to a companion,
+“Don’t do that or perhaps <span class="smcap">God</span> will see
+you, and He’ll tell the Vicar.”</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Children’s
+Prayers.</div>
+
+<p>Much has been written by others about
+children’s prayers, but it is impossible to
+ignore what is to them the
+most real and important part
+of their religion. A lady
+living in Cheltenham says: “I think that
+children get a belief in prayer very early.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</span>
+My youngest girl the other day looked
+tired, so I said that she had better
+not come to the evening service. ‘Oh,
+but I must,’ she said, ‘I want to pray
+for Miss Beale.’” This was at the beginning
+of that well-known lady’s fatal illness.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Implicit Faith
+in Prayer.</div>
+
+<p>Another example of belief in prayer on
+the part of a child was brought to the
+notice of the present writer
+by a sister of the boy of
+whom the story is told.
+When a very little chap his brothers and
+sisters were all invited to a children’s
+party at a neighbouring house, but he
+had not been included. Much to his
+grief it was decided that he had better
+be put to bed when the others started
+for the party. When saying his prayers
+he earnestly asked that even yet he might
+go to the party. He had hardly been
+tucked up in bed before a messenger
+came to say that the omission of his name
+had been an accident and that it was hoped<span class="pagenum" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</span>
+he might still come. He was hurriedly
+dressed, and in a few minutes had joined
+the others in their festivity. The impression
+made upon the boy’s mind was never
+erased. From that day forward he never
+failed to pray about every smallest event.
+If he went to a shop to buy a knife he
+would pray to be guided in his choice.
+If he went out to dinner he would silently
+pray as he took off his coat in the hall
+that the evening might be enjoyable.
+Nothing ever again shook him in his belief
+in the power of prayer.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Children’s
+Quaint
+Petitions.</div>
+
+<p>Some of the original petitions in children’s
+prayers are often exceedingly quaint,
+but they go to prove their
+belief in their words being
+heard, and it would be cruel
+to laugh at them or snub
+the expression of their desires. Some
+friends of the writer when they were little
+used to be very fond of interpolating their
+special wishes into their prayers. One<span class="pagenum" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</span>
+of them when a tiny girl kneeling at her
+mother’s side after praying for her father
+and mother and brothers and sisters,
+said, “And please <span class="smcap">God</span> make mother less
+strict.”</p>
+
+<p>Another child in the same family had
+been shown a coloured picture of Noah’s
+sacrifice and the rainbow, which impressed
+her so much that she added to her evening
+prayers, “And oh! <span class="smcap">God</span>, please show
+me a rainbow very soon!”</p>
+
+<p>From the same source comes a charming
+story of a small boy who had taken a
+dislike to a cousin of his own age called
+Malcolm. It so happened that each of
+them had a baby brother, and the little
+boy in question broke off in the middle
+of his prayers one evening to ejaculate,
+“Please <span class="smcap">God</span> make me and my baby
+brother stronger and stronger, and
+Malcolm and his little brother weaker and
+weaker, so that when we fight we may
+conquer!”</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</span></p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Children’s
+Churchgoing.</div>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Danger of
+Too Much.</div>
+
+<p>The next point to be noticed in dealing
+with the religion of children is the vexed
+question as to the wisdom
+of enforcing attendance at
+public worship. There can
+be no doubt at all that, if overdone,
+compulsory churchgoing may lead to
+disastrous results. A man to whom
+frequent attendance at services
+has all his life been
+irksome, looks back to his
+childhood when he was expected to be
+present at Sunday services, week-day
+services, Sunday School, choir practices,
+missionary and other meetings, until he
+became weary of the very name of such
+things. Rather nervous of blame, he
+never ventured to express a wish to
+absent himself, and to those early days
+and their discipline he ascribes his present
+reluctance.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Danger of
+Too Little.</div>
+
+<p>On the other hand, it is no doubt true
+that it is dangerous to use no compulsion,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</span>
+and to allow the formation of a habit
+of staying away from church on the
+smallest excuse. The real
+difficulty is to steer a course
+between making Sunday the
+dull, cold, miserable day that it too
+frequently became in the earlier part of
+the last century and allowing it to be
+as secular as it so often is at present.</p>
+
+<p>A lady who has been specially successful
+in bringing up her children to love
+Sunday and its observances, says, “I
+make a point of extra nice clothes and nice
+food on Sundays (it sounds horribly
+material!) but I want to make <em>everything</em>
+connected with goodness and religion
+attractive, and, however much we may
+wish they were not so, our souls and
+bodies affect each other in an extraordinary
+way. My youngest child of five
+and a half, having begun Churchgoing
+regularly six months ago, begs to stay on
+through the whole service, only saying<span class="pagenum" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</span>
+at the end, ‘What a lot of kneeling! But
+I like it; can I stay again?’ Of course,
+there were two reasons for his wish:
+his love of being near me, and the music
+which he also loves.”</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">A Service
+Held by
+Children.</div>
+
+<p>Another instance may be quoted here,
+taken, as was the last, from the family
+of lay people. Here again
+everything was done to make
+Sundays bright and happy
+and to bring up the children
+to consider Churchgoing a treat. So
+fond did they become of the services that
+the two youngest—a girl of seven and a
+boy of five—were accustomed to hold a
+special service of their own when with
+their mother in the drawing-room after
+tea on Sundays. Their mother describes
+these functions as follows, and, though
+they may seem to some people to have
+a spice of “play acting,” yet the
+children were extremely in earnest in all
+they did. Here is her account: “They<span class="pagenum" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</span>
+used to put on pinafores, the opening to
+come in front, and wore sashes for stoles.
+My duty was to sit at the piano as
+organist. I had to play a voluntary as
+they came in. They chose the hymns,
+and each chose a chapter in the Bible to
+read. They stood on a chair to read their
+chapters. One day I remember that the
+little boy, who could not yet read very
+fluently, chose the one in St. Luke
+with seventy-two verses and went straight
+on with it to the end! They took it in
+turns to preach, again standing on the
+chair. The elder child always wrote her
+sermon, but the little boy’s was extempore.
+After the sermon the missionary
+box was handed round and we each put
+something in. The service ended by
+their kneeling down side by side and
+singing ‘Jesu, tender Shepherd, hear
+me.’ One evening the younger child
+stood up on his chair to preach, and began
+to get redder and redder and looked very<span class="pagenum" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</span>
+much worried, but I did not dare to move
+from my seat as organist. At last his
+sister whispered, ‘What’s the matter,
+darling?’ on which he said, ‘Every
+word of the sermon has gone out of my
+head.’ So she promptly stood on her
+chair and said, ‘The congregation will
+excuse the sermon this evening. Hymn
+No. 348.’ I have come across one of the
+little girl’s written sermons, and give it
+here:—</p>
+
+<p class="p0 center">“‘<span class="smcap">Little Children Love one Another.</span>’</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">A Child’s
+Sermon.</div>
+
+<p class="p0">“‘You love your brother and sister
+very much indeed though you do fight
+with them. Yes, that noutty,
+noutty Sayten gets inside
+us, and then we can’t fight
+without Jesus’ help. Yes,
+if we ask Him to help us I know He will.
+He is so kind. He will do almost anything
+you ask Him to do for you, if it is
+not wrong. Yes, we all go wrong sometimes
+and feel very cross with ourselfs.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</span>
+Little children sometimes think that all
+big people are very good indeed, but they
+all go wrong, too, as well as you or I might,
+but <span class="smcap">God</span> knows all our ways and what
+we do and sees and hears what we say.
+Oh! then, little children, love one
+another, and so we must love Him.’”</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Simplicity
+in Speaking to
+Children.</div>
+
+<p>As to the number and kind of services
+to which children should be taken it
+is impossible to lay down
+a general rule. Where
+“Children’s Services” are
+held by a man who has the
+gift of attracting and interesting children,
+the difficulty is partially solved. But
+these are not much use when they are
+conducted by persons who cannot sufficiently
+simplify their language, or by
+those who are so far out of sympathy with
+their audience as to appear to be condescending
+or in the smallest degree pompous—characteristics
+which are readily
+observed and resented by all children.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</span></p>
+
+<p>But probably many people will agree
+that “Children’s Services” alone cannot
+supply all that is required, in so far as
+they do not accustom children to the
+ordinary Church services, as to which it
+is not too much to say that a certain
+amount of familiarity breeds affection
+rather than contempt.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Differences
+in Children’s
+Temperament.</div>
+
+<p>But in considering the advisability of
+taking little children to Church, due
+regard must be had to the
+individual child. As has
+been said, it is absolutely
+impossible to lay down a
+general rule. Even the members of the
+same family are frequently so different in
+disposition as to make it unwise to treat
+them all alike. Some may be so sensitive
+to the awe-inspiring atmosphere of religious
+services as to cause a fear lest their
+mind should become morbid on the
+subject. Very probably such children
+would express a strong wish to attend on<span class="pagenum" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</span>
+every possible occasion, but their pleasure
+is akin to that which is sometimes felt by
+people of unhealthy mind who delight
+in torturing themselves by picturing
+nameless horrors. Other children, and
+these are the most frequently found, look
+upon Churchgoing as an entertainment
+enjoyed by grown-up people and therefore
+much to be desired, though they themselves
+soon grow weary of the whole
+thing.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Two Children
+at Church.</div>
+
+<p>An example of what is meant came to
+the notice of the writer a short time ago
+when staying in the same
+house with two little children,
+a brother and sister, who
+were taken to an afternoon service for
+almost the first time in their lives. The
+boy, a year or two the elder, was a rather
+nervous, highly-strung little chap, and he
+spent nearly the whole time in saying in
+a very low voice, “O <span class="smcap">God</span>, help me!
+I <em>will</em> be good!” He seemed unable to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</span>
+think of anything but the fact that he
+was in <span class="smcap">God</span>’s house, and unable to get
+relief from the overpowering sensation of
+awe. His little sister, on the other hand—a
+fat, merry, matter-of-fact child—evidently
+considered the whole thing to be
+a kind of social function interfered with
+by most unnecessary restrictions. She
+turned herself about from side to side
+and nodded and smiled at her numerous
+acquaintances, paying especial attention
+to the seats occupied by the servants from
+the house where she was staying. After
+a time she yawned audibly and gave
+obvious signs of getting bored, finally
+nestling against her mother’s side and
+falling sound asleep. It is obvious to
+everyone that two children such as these
+would need very different treatment in
+the matter of Churchgoing and religious
+education generally.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Children’s
+Unintentional
+Irreverence.</div>
+
+<p>Such a child as the little girl described
+above may be said to possess the normal<span class="pagenum" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</span>
+feelings of her age. Most very young
+children are entirely unable to grasp the
+greatness of <span class="smcap">God</span> and the seriousness
+of religion. If they appear
+to older people to be
+irreverent, it must not be
+counted to them for a sin.
+It is simply caused by the limitations of
+their understanding. Thus, a small child
+was heard to call out during the baptism
+of a baby, “Why <em>doesn’t</em> he use a sponge?”
+No irreverence was meant, but the remark
+showed that the child’s mind was further
+developed in practical than in spiritual
+matters. So, again, the absurd questions
+so often put by little children when told
+that <span class="smcap">God</span> is everywhere. It is very
+common for them at once to suggest all
+kinds of ridiculous places without meaning
+in any way to be irreverent.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Great
+Patience
+Necessary.</div>
+
+<p>Such things of course add to the
+difficulties of teaching religion to those
+who are very young, but it is certain<span class="pagenum" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</span>
+that great patience and tenderness is
+necessary for those who attempt the
+task. Forgetfulness of the
+point of view of the child
+often leads to expressions of
+horror and even of anger
+at apparently profane remarks, but such
+expressions are unjust and may not
+seldom give the child a permanent dislike
+to what ought to be the happiest of all
+its lessons.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Little Children
+have Long
+Ears.</div>
+
+<p>One other caution may be given here.
+It is a fatal mistake for those who are
+bringing up little children to
+speak in their presence of
+religious matters in a way
+which they do not desire the
+children to absorb and do not fancy that
+they understand. A child may be building
+a house of bricks in a far corner of
+the room and yet be listening with all its
+ears to the talk going on between its
+elders. A very little boy was once taken<span class="pagenum" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</span>
+to Church when a sermon was preached
+about the Will of <span class="smcap">God</span>. No one thought
+it possible that he understood a word of
+it, but at tea that afternoon he was, being
+slightly out of sorts, allowed no jam, on
+which he promptly said, “Well, if it’s
+<span class="smcap">God</span>’s Will that I should have nothing
+but bread and butter, it’s no good fighting
+against it!”—a practical and excellent
+comment upon the morning’s sermon.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb">
+
+<p>Lest anything that has been written in
+this chapter should seem to be discouraging
+as to the religious training of children,
+two things may be set down here as full
+of hope.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Influence
+of Women.</div>
+
+<p>The first may be disposed of in a few
+words. There is little doubt that women
+are naturally more religious
+than men, or at least that
+they more easily give expression
+to their feelings and beliefs.
+What a great matter it is, then, that the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</span>
+earliest training of children is in the hands
+of women! It is quite possible that the
+reason for the greater religious expression
+on the part of women lies to some extent
+in the fact that girls remain so much
+longer under the direct influence of their
+mother. But that is by the way; what
+is important is that there are multitudes
+of truly religious women who may best
+of all be trusted to impart their own faith
+to little children.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Children’s
+Delight in the
+Unseen.</div>
+
+<p>The other matter for hopefulness lies
+in the fact that the very things that
+often present difficulties to
+grown-up people are specially
+attractive to children. Anything
+connected with the
+unseen world, anything quite impossible
+according to the laws of nature as we
+know them, interests and takes hold of
+children at once. This is plain from the
+often-repeated request, “Do tell us a
+fairy story.”</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</span></p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Impression
+made by
+Beauties
+of Nature.</div>
+
+<p>When to this is added the impression
+made on a child’s mind by the vision
+of a gorgeous sunset, or of a
+great wide-spreading view,
+there seems to be a good deal
+upon which it is possible to
+work. A man friend of the
+writer has told him that his first real
+impressions of the greatness and goodness
+of <span class="smcap">God</span> came to him as a child when
+contemplating beautiful scenery; and an
+aunt of the late Bishop Walsham How
+used to say that when he was a very little
+boy, and was looking from a window at
+the sunset, he was heard to say, “Oh!
+<span class="smcap">God</span>!”</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">The Higher
+Criticism.</div>
+
+<p>How easy it would be to kill these
+beginnings of faith! How easy for a
+teacher who had studied the
+Higher Criticism to wither
+the growth of a belief in the
+unseen and incomprehensible! Is it
+worth while to risk this by scrupulously<span class="pagenum" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</span>
+teaching that Elijah’s chariot of fire and
+Jonah’s whale had better be taken as
+allegories? A teacher with great experience
+of little children has said, and said
+most truly, “Religion attracts greatly
+because of the mystery which surrounds
+the unseen. Besides this, the beauty
+and the wonderful fitness of all things in
+nature strengthen more than anything
+a child’s belief in a Divine Creator.”</p>
+
+<hr class="tb">
+
+<p>Perhaps, as one last word, it may be
+said that that mother will succeed best
+in the religious training of her children
+who feels that it is the chief and highest
+work she has to do.</p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V</h2>
+</div>
+
+<h3>THE CHILD—ITS IMITATION</h3>
+
+
+<div class="sidenote">Selection of
+those about
+the Path of
+a Child.</div>
+
+<p>No one who has to do with children can
+fail to be struck by their almost universal
+habit of imitation. This
+begins at a very early age,
+and, while some imitative
+expressions and gestures are
+partly the result of heredity,
+others are obviously copied from the
+persons with whom the child is most
+familiar. This makes it, of course, extremely
+important that the servants and
+even the friends who are brought most
+closely into contact with a child should
+be selected with the greatest care.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Meals in the
+Servants’ Hall.</div>
+
+<p>How often a bad accent or “twang” is
+picked up as soon as a child begins to
+speak, and with what difficulty it is
+eradicated afterwards! The habit, too,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</span>
+which obtains with some parents (who
+do not want to be bothered with their
+children) of letting them
+have their meals with the
+servants is greatly to be
+deprecated. It saves the trouble of a
+special nursery dinner, and it often happens
+that the servants in a house are fonder of
+the company of the children than are their
+parents, but for all that the tendency to
+imitate is so strong that habits are pretty
+sure to be learnt which it will be very
+troublesome to get rid of afterwards.
+Here is an example:</p>
+
+<p>A little girl, whom circumstances had
+relegated to the entire charge of servants,
+was taken out to a children’s tea-party,
+when she was scarcely four years old.
+It was a splendid tea, and she was a fine
+healthy little girl with an equally fine
+healthy appetite. Bread and butter,
+cake, jam sandwiches, and buns all
+disappeared with equal ease, and there<span class="pagenum" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</span>
+came a time when the rest had finished
+and she had just one mouthful left....
+There was a slight pause in the general
+chatter, and at that unlucky moment the
+little girl in question gave an unmistakable
+hiccough. Many of the children
+there would have blushed with distress
+at such an incident, but this little maiden,
+accustomed to the manners of the
+servants’ hall, looked round with an
+ingratiating smile and merely remarked—“Copplyments!”</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Swear Words.</div>
+
+<p>Everyone has heard of children who
+have occasionally used “swear words”
+in imitation of their elders,
+and some may possibly have
+heard the true story of a
+little girl who was given a cup of tea to
+hand to a visitor. As she crossed the
+short space with careful footsteps and
+eyes fixed anxiously on her burden she
+was heard to mutter to herself “By
+George, baby, you must be ’teady!”</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</span></p>
+
+<p>Examples such as these show the
+readiness with which children pick up the
+phraseology of their seniors, and it is a
+mistake to suppose that, because a child
+does not exactly understand what is said,
+therefore no impression is made upon its
+mind.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Desire to be
+Like Father.</div>
+
+<p>The greater the admiration of a child
+for an older person the greater the desire
+to imitate it. A small boy
+usually considers his father
+the most wonderful man he
+knows, and consequently spends a good
+deal of time and effort in trying to be like
+him. A little chap of four or five years
+old will throw himself into a chair and
+cross his legs in absurd imitation of his
+father, and nothing seems too small for
+children to notice and copy. The manner
+of carrying a stick, the attitude of standing
+on the hearthrug, the little trick of
+clearing the throat, will all be reproduced
+to the life, and it has sometimes been a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</span>
+matter of surprise to an onlooker that the
+mimicry of some small but absurd trick
+has not been the means of breaking the
+older person of the habit.</p>
+
+<p>An excellent example of the desire of
+a little boy to become like his father was
+brought to the writer’s notice a year or
+two ago. A small girl, the daughter of
+very “horsey” parents, was trying to
+entertain a boy cousin a little younger
+than herself. After taking him into the
+stables and showing him the horses, she
+turned to him and said, “I daresay, if
+you are <em>very</em> good, you might be a groom
+some day.” To which came the reply,
+“No, I shan’t! When I grows up I shall
+be exactly like father—skin showing
+through my hair and all!”</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Individuality
+to be
+Encouraged.</div>
+
+<p>There will often be a great desire on
+the part of one parent that a child shall
+imitate and resemble the other. If this
+natural wish be carried too far there is
+a danger lest the individuality of the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</span>
+child be interfered with. It must never
+be forgotten that no two people can be
+or were meant to be exactly
+alike, and that in every
+child that is born there are
+seeds of good qualities and
+faculties belonging specially to that child.
+A slavish copy of anyone else, however
+worthy, will assuredly tend to choke the
+growth of these. It would be impossible
+to compute how many artists with the
+seeds of greatness within them have been
+condemned to mediocrity by a life-long
+endeavour to reproduce the master from
+whom they have learned, instead of
+making an endeavour to work out their
+own salvation.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">An Affected
+Child.</div>
+
+<p>So it is with children. Nothing is more
+sad than to see a child, at an age when
+his or her natural freshness
+and simplicity should be
+most clearly in evidence,
+already cramped and artificial through an<span class="pagenum" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</span>
+effort to copy some older person. A
+gentleman once took shelter in a house
+during a heavy storm. The master and
+mistress were both out, but their little
+daughter was summoned from her A B C
+to talk to the unexpected guest. He told
+her he was sorry to have brought her
+downstairs, to which came the simpering
+reply, “Oh! pray don’t mention it!”
+<i lang="la" xml:lang="la">Imitatio ad nauseam!</i></p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Dressing Up.</div>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Dumb
+Crambo.</div>
+
+<p>One way in which the love of imitation
+comes out is in the delight all children
+take in “dressing up,” and
+in any form of charades or
+dumb crambo. This is probably
+a very useful way of developing
+originality and of setting children’s wits
+to work. Where it is not coupled with
+the putting on of gorgeous raiment, and
+is not merely an excuse for “showing
+off,” the very variety of character
+assumed ensures its being a wholesome
+exercise. Dumb crambo is especially<span class="pagenum" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</span>
+helpful, for in that pastime there is
+practically no opportunity for self-glorification,
+while it tends directly
+to stimulate the children’s
+ingenuity and to kill their
+self-consciousness.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Tricks of
+Posturing.</div>
+
+<p>All observers of child life have noticed
+in some little ones an unhealthy trick of
+making faces, posturing, or
+otherwise trying to attract
+attention. This is unnatural
+and should be carefully watched and
+eradicated. But it should be remembered
+that in most cases of that kind the <em>cause</em>
+is physical—generally a weakness in the
+nervous system—and the child must be
+dealt with most tenderly though firmly.</p>
+
+<p>On the other hand, many people can
+recall instances where what may be
+described as a true theatrical tendency
+has shown itself in a perfectly healthy
+and charming manner in very young
+children. No better example of this can<span class="pagenum" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</span>
+be found than is contained in a little paper
+lying under the writer’s hand. To transpose
+it would be to spoil the vividness of
+the story, so it is given here just in its
+original form.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Tea at the
+Vicarage.</div>
+
+<p>“I was more or less of a newcomer in
+our village when I one day received a
+pressing invitation to tea
+at the Vicarage. When I
+arrived I found my hostess, a
+charming white-haired and white-shawled
+old lady, in her usual arm-chair by the
+drawing-room fire, and, seeing the chair
+on the other side of the hearth empty,
+I dropped into it with a delicious feeling
+of comfort after my walk through the chill
+and gloom of a foggy evening. I had not
+been many minutes installed when tea
+was brought in, and the hot cakes which
+my soul loved were deposited on the little
+brass stand inside the fender at my feet.</p>
+
+<p>“Following fast on the arrival of the
+tea came the two daughters of the house,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</span>
+who had been busy in various parts of
+the parish, and were eager to compare
+notes and exchange the gossip they had
+gleaned between the gulps of hot tea
+with which they refreshed the inner
+woman.</p>
+
+<p>“Meantime, I confess to wondering
+why I had been honoured with an invitation
+which was almost as pressing as a
+three-line whip. My curiosity was quickened
+by the fact that no sooner had we
+finished our meal than the tea-table was
+carried off to a distant part of the room,
+and a smile and look of enquiry went
+round, followed by a nod on the part of
+my hostess, the signal for one of the
+daughters to run away for a minute or
+two from the room. There was just that
+little silence which precedes an ‘event,’
+and then she returned to be greeted by
+‘Well?’ ‘All right,’ she replied, and
+silence fell on us again, to be broken
+almost immediately by a tap at the door,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</span>
+a tap that would never have been heard
+had it not been for our stillness of expectation.
+The elder and more impetuous
+of the daughters made a rush from her
+chair but was called back, and then in
+a moment I knew why I had been asked.
+From behind the high screen just inside
+the door there peeped a baby face!
+And such a baby face! Roguishness,
+bashfulness, mirth, and indecision were
+mingled in the little dimpling face and
+twinkling blue eyes.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">The Entry
+of Baby.</div>
+
+<p>“There was a shake of golden curls—no,
+not quite curls, and yet nothing else
+expresses the tangle of light
+that formed a background to
+that beauty of two summers—and
+then the vision disappeared. Shyness
+had won a momentary victory, but
+was routed on a friendly hand being held
+out round the screen to encourage the
+merry mischief that was never far to seek
+in her to assert itself.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</span></p>
+
+<p>“A little shriek of pleasure, and she
+had run into the middle of the room
+towards granny’s chair, but stopped short
+just where the circle of light from a reading
+lamp fell upon her. I shall not soon
+forget the picture. I had never seen her
+before, and, coming upon me in this
+unexpected way with her brightness and
+her beauty and her marvellous expression,
+she made an impression out of all
+proportion to her years.</p>
+
+<p>“It was, I fear, the sight of me that
+caused her to stop so suddenly in her run
+to the loving arms that were stretched out
+for her.</p>
+
+<p>“Neither she nor I had been prepared
+for the sight of the other, and a strange
+and bearded man may well alarm a little
+lady of two.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">A Baby
+Actress.</div>
+
+<p>“There <em>was</em>, no doubt, at first a distinct
+look of alarm, but she rose to the occasion.
+It might no doubt be possible to overawe
+this new and ferocious-looking being:<span class="pagenum" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</span>
+at all events it would be well to try,
+or he might perhaps be open to a joke
+and be propitiated in that
+way! Some such thoughts
+were evidently in her mind,
+for first of all she stared at me with a
+frown, then made a deliciously dignified
+bow towards me, and then, almost before
+the bow was finished, stooped down, and
+drew her frock round her feet, saying,
+‘Baby dot no legs!’ going off into a fit
+of decidedly forced laughter by way of
+carrying off her joke, should I prove too
+dense to see it.</p>
+
+<p>“Well, it served her purpose: it was
+a kind of introduction, and it enabled her
+to get over the awkward moments of her
+first shyness and to reach the haven of
+granny’s chair. We were soon firm friends
+after that. I happened to have a watch
+‘like daddy’s,’ which was an assurance
+of my respectability, and I openly and
+fervently admired a certain pair of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</span>
+little red shoes, and what lady can
+resist a well-timed compliment on her
+turn-out?</p>
+
+<p>“After a short time spent in such polite
+conversation, it suddenly occurred to the
+little fairy that she was not doing her
+proper share towards entertaining the
+company. A little wriggle freed her from
+any restraining hands or inconvenient
+people, and she ran to the far end of the
+room. From this vantage ground she
+ran forward from time to time into the
+better-lit part at our end with all the
+anxiety to be well received of a born
+actress. The first ‘act’ consisted in her
+picking up her tiny skirts and walking on
+her toes, saying ‘Muddy, muddy! Baby’s
+feet wet!’ Then with a shriek of delight
+she rushed off, to come back the next
+minute waving her hands over her head
+and gazing solemnly upwards, saying,
+‘Wind b’owing! Clouds and wind!
+Baby’s f’ightened!’ But this only lasted<span class="pagenum" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</span>
+for a minute before she dashed off and
+returned declaring that she was another
+child, a little girl she had not seen more
+than once or twice, but whom she
+evidently desired to imitate.</p>
+
+<p>“It is impossible to describe the effect
+produced upon me by this extraordinary
+performance by so young a child. Her
+rapid change of mood bewildered me:
+the mischievous laughter of one moment
+was so quickly followed by a look of
+wonder or terror or sadness, to be succeeded
+in its turn by a sudden scream
+of delight, that I felt as if I were watching
+something not altogether canny. It was
+really almost a relief when at last she
+buried her face in a friendly lap and cried
+for bed and ‘nanna.’</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Baby’s Exit.</div>
+
+<p>“Even then the rapid change of mood
+was not all over, for in the midst of her
+tears she was gathered into
+nurse’s comfortable arms,
+and as she left the room a decidedly<span class="pagenum" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</span>
+pert little voice was heard to say,
+‘Baby <em>did</em> c’y!’</p>
+
+<p>“So I found out why my friends at the
+Vicarage, who knew my weakness for
+children, had asked me to tea, but I have
+never been able to analyse the exact
+impression left on my mind beyond that of
+a lovely and excited baby.”</p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI</h2>
+</div>
+
+<h3>THE CHILD—ITS PLEASURES</h3>
+
+
+<div class="sidenote">Love and
+Happiness.</div>
+
+<p>What a happiness it is that in the
+memories of most people the joys of
+childhood so far exceed its
+griefs. Two of the most
+powerful agents for good in
+the life of a child are love and happiness,
+and it may be confidently assumed that
+where there is an abundance of the
+former the existence of the latter is
+assured.</p>
+
+<p>It may happily be asserted that it has
+been the sad lot of few of those who read
+these lines to have known an unloved
+childhood. To this may be ascribed
+the happy recollections of most who
+look back upon their earliest years.</p>
+
+<p>But in this chapter some attempt will
+be made to examine certain special<span class="pagenum" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</span>
+pleasures rather than to generalise as to
+the atmosphere of happiness in which
+alone a child will really thrive.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">No Stereotyped
+Rule.</div>
+
+<p>While happiness is necessary for all
+children, those who have most closely
+studied child life will agree
+that the old saying “<i lang="la" xml:lang="la">Quot
+homines tot sententiæ</i>” may
+well be applied to the great variety of
+ways in which this happiness is sought.
+It is impossible to treat all children alike,
+or to lay down any general rule. A little
+girl will find her chief delight in dogs and
+horses, while her brother steals away to
+play with dolls. Two small boys will go
+out into the garden, and, while one is keen
+to learn any sort of manly game, the other
+stands about cold and listless, bored to
+death by the mere sight of bat or
+ball.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Failure of
+Compulsory
+Pleasures.</div>
+
+<p>Nothing is less likely to produce happiness
+than to attempt to <em>force</em> little children
+to amuse themselves in any set way.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</span>
+How many people have been disappointed
+by their efforts in this direction! A
+“recreation” ground has perhaps
+been provided by some
+charitable person at great
+expense. Ten to one it will
+be deserted by the little ones for whom it
+was primarily intended and given over to
+the tender mercies of lads and lasses in
+their “teens.” The <em>small</em> children find
+nothing left to their imagination, and
+infinitely prefer some dirty, and, to adult
+eyes, disadvantageous corner.</p>
+
+<p>There was just such a case in a large
+northern town. The recreation ground was
+opened with pomp, and was elaborately
+fitted with swings, parallel bars, etc. For
+a week or two a few children made efforts
+to amuse themselves there, but it was
+quickly deserted. In the immediate
+neighbourhood were sundry patches of
+ground where no houses had as yet
+been built, and on which lay fascinating<span class="pagenum" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</span>
+heaps of brick bats and refuse. Needless
+to say these offered far greater attractions
+than the new and orderly playground.
+Small children do not care to play “to
+order.” They have enough of that during
+school hours. When they get a bit older
+they will be willing enough to join in
+games on specified grounds and governed
+by codes of rules, but while they are little
+they like to find their own playgrounds
+and invent their own games.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">A Game in a
+Stackyard.</div>
+
+<p>Memory brings a vision of two children,
+one a little girl with soft dark hair and
+big black eyes, who is dressed
+in a blue and white cotton
+frock, and a big white straw
+hat; the other a sturdy, but commonplace
+boy, in grey knickerbockers, a
+holland blouse, with a broad black leather
+belt, and a flannel cap. They are about
+the same age, neither of them being yet
+seven, and they are playing in a stack-yard.
+It is not the stacks that are the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</span>
+attraction, for just now there are none
+there, but for all that it is a glorious playground.
+In the first place, it is well out
+of the way of the grown-up people, and
+in the next place, though there are no
+stacks, there are the stone supports on
+which they once stood. What excellent
+tables they make, these old grey upright
+blocks, of which the flat round tops
+project like real tables, and are practically
+useful in preventing rats and mice from
+climbing up. But there is something else
+which has drawn the children to that spot,
+for all about in the yard there is to be
+found a tall plant with a quantity of red
+seed, which must, I fancy, be some kind of
+sorrel. It is delicious to draw your hand
+up the stalk and bring it away full of this
+seed, and that is what these children are
+busy doing.</p>
+
+<p>Next they put it in a heap on a slate
+which they have discovered, and then
+search for pieces of brick and flat stone,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</span>
+which are piled on the top. In this way a
+certain quantity of the seed is compressed,
+and called a cheese, which is deposited with
+ceremony upon one of the stone tables.</p>
+
+<p>The little girl has been the leader
+throughout; she has decided which
+plants were ripe enough to be stripped,
+how much seed was necessary to form a
+cheese, and upon which of the stones the
+feast should be spread. The boy has been
+her obedient servant, a position of things
+which reaches its climax when the little
+lady suddenly states that she doesn’t like
+cheese, and orders him to eat it all up!</p>
+
+<p>This is a vision that has come from time
+to time for more than forty years, and
+few playgrounds have seemed so attractive.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">The Old Tree
+in the Garden.</div>
+
+<p>Then there is the old tree of the garden.
+Who does not love the memory of the
+games played beneath it, and
+the seats it afforded among
+its boughs? Maybe it was a
+mulberry, or merely an ancient laurel.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</span>
+Playgrounds may be found in and under
+both. In another case it was a mighty
+yew, noted in the annals of the county.
+A few feet up upon its massive stem, the
+children had special seats, and woe betide
+intruders caught trespassing! Beneath it
+was a long bench, of which the supports
+were obviously at one time a part of one
+of the great boughs, while the seat had
+in the distant ages been green.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Playing at
+Shop.</div>
+
+<p>What feasts were spread upon this seat—what
+shops were kept with this for the
+counter! There is a dust
+that forms beneath old yews,
+and consists of the dead and
+crumbled petals. What splendid stuff it
+is to play with! It can be sold as snuff,
+or almost anything, and it pours out of a
+teapot as easily as water. But there is
+no need to say more; everyone can
+remember the invented games, and the
+best-loved haunts of their childhood.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</span></p><div class="sidenote">A Whitby
+Playground.</div>
+
+<p>One more playground of a thoroughly
+unconventional character may well be
+mentioned here. It is just where the base
+of one of the Whitby piers
+starts from the end of a narrow
+street or passage. The huge
+stones worn and rounded at their edge
+make a couple of steps down to the
+water’s edge, but steps so big that, if you
+are still a small boy, they compel you to
+sit down and slide and scramble, holding
+on as best you may, till you have reached
+the bottom. It is great fun to watch
+the children descending by their various
+methods. Big boys (and girls too) manage
+it easily, laughing and shouting as they
+bump their way down. But with the
+little ones it is different. A girl arrives,
+with a baby wrapped up in a shawl; this
+requires management: baby is set down
+on the top step, and told to stay quite
+still, then away slides the small nurse
+on to the intermediate resting-place some
+three or four feet below; then a pair of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</span>
+arms are stretched up, and baby struggles
+into them with a chuckle of satisfaction,
+and is once more deposited, while the
+elder sister springs down on to the soft
+wet sand, and next minute baby, too, is
+safe in the desired corner. This is what
+it practically is, this desirable playground,
+just a corner in the harbour laid bare at
+low tide, and having the pier on its one
+side, and the walls of the old town on the
+other. How lovely those old walls were!
+Looking right up one sees the ends projecting
+above the gables of red-tiled roofs,
+while below are the grey walls—no, not
+grey, though many seem so at first sight,
+but yellow, blue, red, green—every colour,
+in fact, that stones will take, when long
+exposed to sea and weather. Then at the
+bottom just above the sand runs a long
+wide course of stones that are covered
+by every tide, and have in consequence
+become clothed with a fringe of brown
+and green and golden seaweed.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</span></p>
+
+<p>There are small windows here and there,
+high up in the walls, and now and again
+a sheet or a towel is hung out to dry, a
+picturesque object enough against a mass
+of building; and from above the wall of
+a yard a number of poles, leaning in the
+corner, project and break the monotony
+of the surface.</p>
+
+<p>It lies right inside the harbour, and
+every time the tide goes down it leaves
+a certain quantity of semi-decomposed
+objects to scent the atmosphere of this
+special spot.</p>
+
+<p>Then again, what is far worse, there are
+small square openings here and there in
+the wall and from these there trickle
+continuously the contents of many washtubs
+and slop-pails. Yet here it is that
+a group of children come whenever the
+tide allows, to play their quiet games—quiet,
+for they never run about or make
+much noise, but seem happiest crawling
+on hands and knees, or squatting in a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</span>
+circle and playing with the garbage and
+refuse which has stranded there.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Treasure
+Trove.</div>
+
+<p>This is doubtless the attraction; the
+beauties of the scene evidently never occur
+to them at all, the evil
+smells affect them not. But
+there are new playthings
+there continually. As the water recedes
+fresh treasures day by day are left upon
+the shiny floor—half sand, half mud—of
+their playground. What opportunities
+for their invention and imagination!
+Yesterday there were two small dead
+crabs, a broken saucer, and an empty
+sardine box; to-day’s chief items are the
+wicker end of a worn-out lobster-pot,
+a bit of rope, and a whole quantity of
+mussel shells which have been thrown
+away after the baiting of a long line.
+What endless games are played with these
+materials! First of all the shells are
+pushed into the sand squares, making
+little gardens, which are duly furnished<span class="pagenum" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</span>
+with bits of green seaweed. To them
+comes a small market woman carrying the
+fragment of wicker-work in which she
+places the green stuff she purchases and
+pays for with pebbles, the bit of rope
+being used to sling the laden basket on her
+bent back, as she walks off to market
+under the heavy load.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Another Game
+of Shop.</div>
+
+<p>Then the shells are hurriedly gathered
+up, and baby is established with her back
+against the wall, and in
+front of her the total accumulation
+of odds and ends
+is arranged in lots, each one marked off
+by a line drawn in the sand, and then the
+children come to buy at baby’s shop—a
+matter of huge delight to the shopkeeper,
+who distributes her goods rashly and
+impulsively, and is evidently bored at
+being made to receive payment!</p>
+
+<p>But an end comes at last: a voice is
+heard shouting, baby is lifted up on to
+the first step again, and all the little bare<span class="pagenum" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</span>
+legs and ruddy feet go scampering off to
+tea!</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Playing at
+Being
+Grown Up.</div>
+
+<p>It would be easy enough to give many
+more examples than these two or three,
+but they will be sufficient to
+illustrate the preference of
+little children of all and
+every class for unconventional
+playgrounds and games proceeding
+from their own vivid imaginations. Imagination
+supplies the keynote to so many
+of the pleasures of children. How
+greatly, for instance, they delight in
+playing at being grown up! Nothing
+gives them keener pleasure than being
+treated like their elders. It is partly the
+importance of it, but largely also the
+exercise of imagination and an appreciation
+(duly suppressed) of the fun of the
+situation.</p>
+
+<p>A few years ago it fell to the lot of the
+writer to witness the joys of two very
+small people who came by themselves (oh!<span class="pagenum" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</span>
+the importance of it) upon a regular
+visit.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">A Visit from
+Two Children.</div>
+
+<p>They were some six and seven years old,
+and a most reserved and old-fashioned
+little couple in their ways.
+The elder, Reggie, was singularly
+quiet and thoughtful.
+His face, of considerable beauty of feature,
+with large grey eyes, wore ordinarily an
+expression of solemnity, if not of melancholy,
+and it required an intimacy of some
+considerable standing to obtain more
+than monosyllabic replies in his high but
+very gentle voice.</p>
+
+<p>His companion was a little sister
+properly called Marjorie, but who had
+hardly yet outgrown “Baby.” Such an
+upright, delicate dimpled, flower of a child,
+with the same big eyes and curling lashes
+as her brother, but with a reserve far
+more easily overcome, and a much greater
+readiness to break into smiles or even
+indulge in romps. She completely<span class="pagenum" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</span>
+“mothered” Reggie, and her anxiety
+that he should do the right thing, and
+her little quick orders to him, were most
+amusing.</p>
+
+<p>Their hostess met them a few days
+before their visit, and their excitement
+about it all was intense.</p>
+
+<p>“What luggage shall you bring?”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh! just a hat-box or two!”</p>
+
+<p>“It’s all arranged about our visit to you.
+I do so love arranging things. Couldn’t
+we have some more arrangements?”</p>
+
+<p>This, of course, Baby. So every conceivable
+thing was “arranged,” and every
+minute of the two days planned out.
+Their hostess told them she should expect
+them to bring lots of things in their
+luggage.</p>
+
+<p>“Oh!” said Baby, “I shall bring my
+tea-gown. And what shall <em>you</em>
+wear?”</p>
+
+<p>The day arrived, and they were met at
+the station.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</span></p>
+
+<p>“Well, what luggage have you
+brought?”</p>
+
+<p>“Twelve hat-boxes,” promptly replied
+Reggie with a flicker of humour just
+lighting up his face. One turned up, and
+was found to contain the entire clothing,
+etc., of the pair. This vast piece of
+luggage was put in Baby’s room, and then
+came the request that they might be
+allowed to unpack for themselves. Reggie
+was quickly hurried into his own room
+with his tiny pile of belongings, and then
+Baby began to unpack hers. She was
+shown a large wardrobe, as well as a good-sized
+chest of drawers, and evidently felt
+that it would be <i lang="la" xml:lang="la">infra dig.</i> not to use them
+both, so, after putting one wee garment
+in one drawer and one in another till each
+held something, she gravely took the
+little bag which held her shoes and hung
+it up in solitary grandeur in the wardrobe!</p>
+
+<p>The extreme politeness and consideration
+of these little visitors were continually<span class="pagenum" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</span>
+coming out. Baby was asked whether
+she would like a room to herself or a sofa
+in her hostess’s room.</p>
+
+<p>“You see, Aunt E., I don’t know what
+to say,” was the reply. On being pressed
+further, she said, “Well, I was thinking
+about the beds! It seems a good deal of
+trouble just for us. You see, they are big
+beds.”</p>
+
+<p>Reggie, too, was just as anxious to
+consider others. “If it isn’t too much
+trouble,” he said, on being asked whether
+something should be brought him. “I’m
+afraid when we are gone you will say
+‘bother those troublesome children’!”</p>
+
+<p>He was just as attentive, too, to his
+sister, buttoning her little petticoat for
+her and anything she couldn’t manage
+for herself.</p>
+
+<p>The whole of the proceedings described
+so far were practically part of a charade
+or play. The children were for these
+two days grown-up people, and being<span class="pagenum" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</span>
+endowed with an extra allowance of
+imagination, played their part in every
+detail.</p>
+
+<p>Not that they could keep it up quite
+all the time! There were games at hide-and-seek
+that entirely dispelled illusion
+for a while. Then there were visits to the
+poultry yard and animals, when it was
+impossible to put such restraint upon one’s
+feelings of surprise and delight as to
+appear properly blasé and grown up.
+For instance, when Baby suddenly discovered
+a large field-spider, there was a
+scream of astonishment as she exclaimed,
+“Oh, Aunt E., here’s a thing with a lot
+of legs and a dot in the miggle!” And
+again, in the poultry yard, it was scarcely
+in keeping with the part of a lady who
+had arrived at years of discretion to say,
+“How I should like to lay in those nice
+lickle nests!”</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">The Children
+Leave.</div>
+
+<p>But on the whole these two little people
+carried out their intention of paying a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</span>
+real grown-up visit with perfect success
+up to the very moment when they were
+once more in the train by
+themselves on their return
+journey of some six miles,
+each one grasping firmly their half-ticket,
+and the last glimpse we had was of Reggie
+gravely lifting his little straw hat, as the
+train steamed out of the station. There
+is all the difference in the world between
+this sort of playing at being grown up, and
+the assumption of airs and graces which
+some children display. The one is real
+pleasure, the other the merest mockery.
+Children who are no sooner out of the
+nursery than they ape their elders in an
+insatiable desire for a succession of smart
+clothes and evening parties are seldom
+happy children. Those who care for their
+little ones and want to fill their early
+years with real pleasures will take care
+to avoid the causes which produce children
+such as these.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</span></p>
+
+<p>It may perhaps be said that the main
+factors are two.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Modern
+Defiance of
+Authority.</div>
+
+<p>If children be allowed to absorb the
+spirit that is pervading the world at the
+present day—the spirit of
+revolt against all authority,
+the notion, that is, that
+everyone is to do exactly
+as he or she chooses—that will of itself
+bring about a state of mind which is
+destructive of real happiness. Notions
+such as these are quickly picked up, and
+parents who themselves set all rules and
+authority at defiance cannot expect their
+children to submit to control.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Self-Conscious
+Jealous
+Children.</div>
+
+<p>Then there is a second cause which is
+too often at work, and which does a great
+deal towards turning some
+children into disagreeable
+and discontented young folk.
+When people are continually
+trying to emulate if not excel their
+neighbours in appearance and in the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</span>
+entertainments they provide, children are
+quick enough to take their cue from what
+they see and overhear, with the result
+that they are miserable if they think their
+frocks are less fashionable than their
+neighbours’, and are rude and discontented
+if at one party they do not get as
+handsome presents as at some other.</p>
+
+<p>This is all wrong, and distinctly diminishes
+the pleasure that these children
+might otherwise enjoy.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Desirability
+of Simpler
+Children’s
+Parties.</div>
+
+<p>It would without doubt add enormously
+to the real happiness of children
+if a league could be formed
+of all parents who should be
+bound to limit children’s
+parties within certain specified
+bounds of simplicity and within
+certain reasonably early hours.</p>
+
+<p>But this is by the way. It is pleasanter
+to turn for another minute or two to speak
+of the pleasures childlike children find in
+the simple joys that lie around their path.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</span></p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Natural
+Pleasures
+the Most
+Enjoyed.</div>
+
+<p>There can be no doubt that the more
+natural the employment or amusement
+the greater the pleasure. A
+little girl is given a tiny
+dustpan and allowed to
+sweep the carpet, or she has
+a drawer full of odds and
+ends and is asked to sort and arrange
+them. She will spend an entire morning
+in such an occupation with the keenest
+pleasure, and if anyone who has watched
+her should also see her when dressed up
+at some “smart” party that same evening
+there would be no doubt in the mind of
+the onlooker as to which brought most
+real happiness to the child.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Story-telling.</div>
+
+<p>One of the greatest delights that can be
+afforded to children must come in for a
+word of mention. Who does
+not remember the story-teller
+of his or her childhood?
+Perhaps it was “father,” who when he
+came in at tea time would let the whole<span class="pagenum" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</span>
+family swarm on and about his arm-chair,
+and would tell another bit of the thrilling
+tale which he always broke off each
+evening at the very most exciting point.
+Or sometimes it would be one of the bigger
+children, gifted with an extraordinary
+power of calling up robbers and demons,
+who enthralled an audience by the narration
+of horrors which stimulated their
+imagination and made them feel deliciously
+“creepy.” No such things as
+“chestnuts” exist for children. The
+oftener the story has been told the better
+they like it, and never hesitate to choose
+an old favourite before a brand new tale.</p>
+
+<p>But this chapter is already becoming
+too long. It would be easy to enumerate
+numberless simple amusements which
+bring real pleasure to children. But the
+same moral can be drawn in every case.
+The simpler and more natural the occupation
+the greater the pleasure. Do not
+all children revel in playing with the earth<span class="pagenum" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</span>
+and water that lie about their feet?
+Whether they are the lucky ones who can
+build sand castles and let the sea-water
+fill the moats, or whether they can only
+play in the gutter by their door, they are
+ten times happier in such pleasures as
+these than in any grander or more
+elaborate amusements. To the recognition
+of this fact those who plan children’s
+pleasures will owe their chief success.</p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII</h2>
+</div>
+
+<h3>THE CHILD—ITS PATHOS</h3>
+
+
+<p>Just as there is no summer without its
+cool grey days, so among the sunny
+crowd of children about our path there is
+here and there a child who seems to live
+beneath a shadow.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Quiet
+Children.</div>
+
+<p>Just, too, as the tender colouring of the
+grey landscape has a special charm which
+only needs the seeking, so
+these quiet little ones amply
+repay the observation of
+those who do not let them steal away and
+escape notice as they always wish to do.</p>
+
+<p>No one who cares for children can have
+failed to have come in contact with some
+who are silent when their comrades shout,
+grave when the rest are laughing, and
+look wistfully on when games are in
+progress.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</span></p>
+
+<p>They are, possibly, well enough liked
+by the rest, but somehow they are
+<em>different</em>, and because of this difference
+go their own way to which the others have
+become accustomed.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Reasons for
+the Difference.</div>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Lonely
+Children.</div>
+
+<p>There are, of course, sometimes obvious
+reasons. In the greater number of cases
+the child’s health—or want
+of health—accounts for the
+separateness of its life and
+pursuits. Sometimes, it may be feared
+that harsh surroundings in its home have
+crushed the spirit out of it and made it
+timid and suspicious. But sometimes it
+is a mere question of temperament. The
+child has, perhaps, inherited some queer
+strain of sentimental self-consciousness,
+or some nervous dread of publicity, which
+causes it to be like the famous parrot
+which said little but thought a lot—a
+condition of things exactly the reverse
+of what may usually be found in a
+thoroughly healthy-minded child. But,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</span>
+whatever the cause, it is for the most
+part true that it is well worth while to
+lay siege to the affections of such a child,
+and try to establish confidential relations.
+The result of a habit of thoughtfulness
+and of a life a little lonelier
+than that of others will
+generally tend to the laying
+up a store of quaint fancies and imaginings
+about the objects of everyday life, as well
+as often developing a sympathy which
+the lonely child has no wish and few
+chances to exhibit. These things are
+well worth bringing to the light by anyone
+who is sufficiently persevering to win the
+affection and confidence of the little one.</p>
+
+<p>Such children are not averse to <em>all</em>
+companionship, but are terribly afraid of
+anyone who does not understand. They
+have often enough been laughed at, and
+they keep their thoughts and interests
+carefully hidden from all who cannot be
+absolutely trusted, and it is so very few<span class="pagenum" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</span>
+indeed whom they discover to belong to
+this category. Once, however, they are
+perfectly sure of anyone, they will lead
+them to their secret haunts in field or
+garden, will confide to them their dread
+of certain places and people, and finally
+will allow their most cherished wishes to
+escape them. In almost all cases the
+great desire of such children is for something
+to love, or for somebody in whose
+affections they may be first.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Early Natural
+Bents.</div>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Not a Mother
+Yet!</div>
+
+<p>In this connection it is curious to notice
+how early the natural bent of a child will
+show itself. This is especially
+the case with girls
+whose mothering propensity
+comes out at a very tender age. A
+wistful little maiden who always seemed
+to want something more than satisfied
+her more boisterous companions had slid
+her hand into that of a grown-up friend
+in whom she had learnt to confide, and
+who was trying to amuse her by telling<span class="pagenum" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</span>
+her about a litter of puppies which had
+been born to a retriever called Topsy.
+Looking down, the lady saw that the
+child’s face had grown serious even to
+sadness, which was accounted for by the
+conversation that followed.
+“How old is Topsy?” said
+the little girl. “I think she
+is four,” was the answer. At once the
+child’s eyes filled with tears as she sighed,
+“And I am six and I’m not a mother yet!”</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">A Boy’s
+Secrets.</div>
+
+<div class="sidenote">The Toad.</div>
+
+<p>With boys it will generally be found
+that, if they have taken to solitary ways,
+and belong to the class of
+children who are pathetically
+different to the rest, they
+have some bent, some special interest,
+which they keep carefully to themselves
+until a really sympathetic friend wins
+their secret from them. Not infrequently
+it is a hiding-place inside a bush or in
+some corner of the garden where rubbish
+has been thrown and where the small boy<span class="pagenum" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</span>
+has made himself a “house” with pieces
+of an old packing case and any other
+oddments that have come to hand.
+Sometimes it is an animal of which he has
+found the home and with which he spends
+most of his spare time. A toad in a hole
+in a wall was for a long time
+the secret joy of a very
+small boy until his little
+sister confided to him that she had got a
+toad in a hole close by, which on examination
+proved to be the same animal
+which had two outlets to its abode! The
+boy’s secret being thus discovered all his
+pleasure was gone, and he at once deserted
+his pet.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">The Very Dead
+Frogs!</div>
+
+<p>The present writer happened once to
+pay a visit to some friends who had a
+little son of about three or
+four years old. This little
+fellow used often to disappear
+in the garden, and was evidently
+in enjoyment of some secret which he was<span class="pagenum" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</span>
+too shy to impart to anyone. After a few
+days his confidence was gained, and he led
+off his new friend to a spot where there
+was a muddy little pool about two feet
+in diameter. On the edge of this were
+two frogs which he had found dead, and
+had brought here hoping that they would
+revive. They had been dead for some
+time and were anything but sweet, but
+he stroked them and looked up in the
+most wistful way to see whether his pets
+were properly appreciated. It was really
+pathetic to see his eyes fill with tears
+when he was told that they were quite,
+<em>quite</em> dead, and must be buried without
+further delay.</p>
+
+<p>Sometimes, of course, the pathos in a
+child is accounted for by some physical
+infirmity which separates him or her
+from the rest. Here is an instance.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Children
+and the
+Painter Man.</div>
+
+<p>A painter had one day set up his
+umbrella and easel close to a little hamlet,
+and when school was over there was<span class="pagenum" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</span>
+the usual rush of the children to look at
+“the man” and see what he was doing.
+Hating solitude and delighting
+in children, he faced
+quickly round upon his stool
+and gave them a nod of
+welcome. “Come to see what sort of a
+picture I’m making, eh?” was his greeting.
+“Yezzur,” was the reply in the broad
+dialect of the district. “Well, now,
+what do you think of it?” he asked,
+as he held it up for them to see. At
+first there is only much drawing in of
+breath and many an “Oh!” as they
+look at what seems to them at first
+sight a meaningless kaleidoscope of
+colours. At last one makes out one
+thing and one another in the unfinished
+drawing. “There’s the tree, look!”
+“See the blue sky!” “I can see
+William Timms’s house, <em>I</em> can!” And
+so on for some minutes until almost every
+part of the picture had been properly<span class="pagenum" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</span>
+identified. Just then a shout from one
+or two women proclaimed the fact that
+those who wanted any dinner had better
+make haste and get it while they had a
+chance. This gave “the man” a few
+quiet minutes during which he ate his own
+sandwiches, but before he had swallowed
+the last mouthful the troop of children
+was back again to see all that might be
+seen before the school bell rang.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Jacob.</div>
+
+<p>It was during these last few minutes
+that the painter noticed a boy whom
+he had not seen among the
+others before. He was a
+little chap—not more than
+six or seven years old—with soft fair hair
+and a pink and white complexion. Two
+things attracted his attention to the boy.
+One was the extreme neatness and cleanness
+of his dress. His clothes were not
+of better material than those of the other
+boys, but they were so very <em>tidy</em>. His
+collar, too, was spotlessly white, and his<span class="pagenum" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</span>
+hair glossy and unruffled. The other
+thing about him which seemed peculiar
+was the amount of deference and consideration
+that was shown him by the
+rest. He was given a good place close
+behind “the man’s” elbow, and once or
+twice, when there was some pushing, one
+of the children called out, “Now, then,
+keep quiet, can’t you? Don’t you see
+you’re shovin’ against Jacob Joyce?”</p>
+
+<p>Now and then, too, there would be a
+curious sort of appeal to the little fellow:
+someone would say, “Isn’t it lovely,
+Jacob? There’s red and blue and all
+manner of colours?” And Jacob would
+solemnly answer “I likes yed!” Then a
+whisper would go round, “Hearken to
+him; he likes red, Jacob does.”</p>
+
+<p>And all the while to the painter as he
+worked away there seemed something odd
+about the boy, and something unusual
+if not uncanny in the way in which the
+others treated him.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</span></p>
+
+<p>At last the school bell rang, and all but
+three of the children rushed off helter
+skelter to their lessons. The three who
+stayed behind were a big girl of twelve
+who was looking after a baby sister, and
+Jacob Joyce.</p>
+
+<p>The picture was nearing completion.
+That most absorbing half-hour had
+arrived when just a little deepening of a
+shadow here, and the wiping out of a curl
+of smoke there, made all the difference,
+and the painter was wrapped up in his
+work, and scarcely noticed the three
+children.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Jacob Sings.</div>
+
+<p>The elder girl was busy plaiting grasses,
+and the baby had crawled nearer and
+nearer to the easel until a
+paint brush suddenly shaken
+out sprinkled her little face
+and she set up a dismal cry. In vain the
+sister hushed and rocked her. Nothing
+seemed of any use until the girl said,
+“Shall Jacob sing to baby?” Then the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</span>
+sobs were instantly quieted, and from
+close behind him the painter heard a
+strangely sweet voice begin clear and true
+“Once in ’oyal David’s City.” Right
+through the dear old children’s hymn the
+singer went, and long before the end
+each of the three listeners were enthralled
+by the melody.</p>
+
+<p>Leaning a little backwards the big
+grown man, whose thoughts had gone back
+to the days when he, too, sang carols,
+stretched out a hand to caress the little
+singer who edged himself along the grass
+till he was able to rest his head against the
+painter’s knee. So they stayed quietly
+for a time, a detail being now and then
+added to the picture, while a little hand
+crept up every few minutes to touch the
+coat or stroke the knee of the boy’s
+new-found friend.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Jacob was
+Blind.</div>
+
+<p>So the other children found them when
+they came back from school. Now the
+picture was more easily understood<span class="pagenum" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</span>
+and far more to their liking, but in all
+their anxiety to see, no one pushed in front
+of little Jacob. “Bootiful
+picture,” he said, and all
+of them echoed his words.
+“I can’t do a picture,” he added, and the
+other children said not a word. “No,”
+said the painter, “but Jacob can make
+beautiful music,” and stooping down he
+lifted the little fellow on to his knee.
+Then for the first time he understood.
+Jacob Joyce was blind.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">A Child’s
+Perception
+of Sorrow.</div>
+
+<p>Although children frequently fail to
+realise the great shadows which from time
+to time darken the lives of
+their elders, yet sometimes
+a perception of a great sorrow
+will force its way to the
+mind of a child, and nothing more pathetic
+can be witnessed than the dumb perplexity
+with which a child faces such
+trouble. There is something in it that
+reminds one of the wistful expression in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</span>
+the face of a favourite dog when it is
+restlessly wandering about a house watching
+the preparations for its master’s
+departure, or has incurred a measure of
+chastisement for an offence that it does
+not understand.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Two Little
+Boys Blue.</div>
+
+<p>Two little boys lived at a small farmhouse
+on the outskirts of a Cotswold
+village. One evening the
+grey homestead with its
+deep stone-slatted roof was
+all aglow in the sunset, the latticed windows
+blazing like so many separate suns,
+while beneath them chrysanthemums—yellow,
+red, and white—added their
+brilliance to the picture. Close by an
+immense elm tree shone in the golden
+glory of its autumn robe. Beneath it on
+an old dry wall the two little boys were
+perched just where some of the stones
+had been knocked away. One was sitting
+astride, the other faced the road with his
+two little brown legs dangling side by side.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</span></p>
+
+<p>The boys seemed much the same age,
+and to the eyes of a lady who was passing
+by very much alike, but this was no doubt
+owing to the fact that they were each
+dressed in a blue blouse and each had a
+little blue flannel cap on the top of a
+cluster of fair curls.</p>
+
+<p>It was not long before the lady had
+made friends with the little chaps, and she
+always kept an eye on the watch for the
+blue blouses when she was walking in the
+fields or lanes near the farm. It was
+soon obvious that one was not only decidedly
+the elder of the two, but leader,
+protector, champion, and hero of his
+little brother. The devotion of the
+younger child was touching. If he were
+asked a question he mutely referred it to
+the other. If he were given anything he
+never failed to see whether it would be
+acceptable in the eyes of the superior
+being whom he worshipped. The two
+little boys blue were inseparable, and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</span>
+were bound by the best of all ties in which
+each needs something that the other has
+to give.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Where is
+Willie?</div>
+
+<p>There came a day when the lady, who
+had taken the pair of them into her
+affections, went away from home. She
+did not return for several
+weeks, and when she did so
+she determined to walk the
+mile and a half from the station to the
+village to enjoy the freshness of the
+country air after that of a stuffy railway
+carriage. Her shortest way was by a
+footpath which led through the fields at
+the back of the farmhouse. Near the
+stack-yard was a bit of grass ground,
+once an orchard, where a few old apple
+trees were still standing. Here the clothes
+lines were accustomed to be stretched
+between two or three sloping posts. Here
+she had often noticed the bit of colour
+against the greys of the house and the old
+tree stems when the two blue blouses had<span class="pagenum" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</span>
+undergone the necessary wash, and were
+hanging out to dry.... On this particular
+afternoon the lady was hurrying
+home, delighting in every well-known
+sight and sound. She heard the geese
+in the yard, and saw the smoke curling up
+against the great elm-tree. Then she
+reached the orchard wall and looked
+across. The patch of blue caught her eye
+at once: but there was something wrong:
+never before had she seen only <em>one</em> blouse
+on the line, just as she had never seen one
+of the boys alone. What did it mean?
+In another moment she caught sight of
+the younger child. “Why, where is
+Willie?” was the quick question. But
+there was no answer. For a moment the
+boy looked at her with big wondering eyes,
+then turned and was gone in an instant.
+She lost sight of him behind the laurel
+bush near the farmhouse door.</p>
+
+<p>So long as she lived that lady will never
+forget the dumb pathos of the child’s<span class="pagenum" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</span>
+expression. Its explanation was one
+more little grave in the children’s corner
+of the churchyard.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb">
+
+<p>These examples that have been given
+are of cases where the cause of the pathos
+discerned in children can be easily traced.
+It is not infrequently the case that something
+unhappy—something appealing—is
+noticed in a child, but that nothing can
+be discovered to account for it. The
+observer feels sure that there is something
+wrong, but all efforts to bring it to
+light or to be of any help are baffled.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">The Deserted
+Cottage.</div>
+
+<p>It was not so long ago that a man for
+whom children had a special interest
+found himself compelled to
+pass along the same country
+lane for many days in succession.
+At one point there stood a
+cottage which presented a blank end to
+the road, its windows and door facing a
+small garden and being in full view of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</span>
+passers-by for some distance. It had at
+first a most melancholy appearance owing
+to its having been for a long time unoccupied.
+The windows looked gloomy
+and black, the scrap of garden was overgrown
+and bedraggled, the old pear tree
+on the front had been blown loose and one
+branch hung in a dissipated manner over
+the porch, while on the path lay a couple
+of broken stone tiles which had fallen
+from the roof.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">The Yellow
+Curtains.</div>
+
+<p>One day, however, the passer-by noticed
+a great change. Evident signs of habitation
+made their appearance, and
+signs of a most unusual kind
+in a primitive country-place,
+for in every window in the house there
+appeared bright fresh yellow muslin
+curtains.</p>
+
+<p>Needless to say, conjecture was rife as
+to the newcomers but no one seemed to
+know who they were or whence they came.</p>
+
+<p>At last one day the above-mentioned<span class="pagenum" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</span>
+pedestrian passed a child whom he had
+not seen before, and by that time he knew
+the face of every child who lived within a
+mile or two.</p>
+
+<p>She was about nine years old, and better
+dressed than most of the cottage children.
+Her white pinafore was spotlessly clean,
+and of fine material, and there was something
+dainty about the white linen hat
+which shaded her from the June sunshine.
+But the most striking things about her
+were her hair and her complexion. The
+former was of a particularly beautiful
+shade of red, and fell thick and curling
+beneath the white brim of her hat. The
+latter was pink and white, and, though
+perfectly healthy, a strong contrast to
+the browns and reds of the villagers’
+bairns. She was pushing a perambulator
+containing a thoroughly well-appointed
+baby, and seemed so absorbed in the task
+that she gave no sort of response to the
+man’s greeting as he passed by.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</span></p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">The
+Mysterious
+Child.</div>
+
+<p>After this they met on most days, and
+more than once he saw her entering or
+leaving the house with the
+yellow curtains. She never
+seemed to speak to anybody,
+and never had anything to
+do with other children who were playing
+in the lane.</p>
+
+<p>Do what he would the man could never
+get so much as an answering smile from
+the child’s full and sensitive-looking lips.
+There was a curious air of mystery about
+her, and a reserve and habitual melancholy
+of expression that went to his heart.
+Added to this there was an appearance of
+loneliness about her life, for no other
+member of the family ever seemed to come
+to the door when she went or came, and
+for all that could be seen she and the baby
+might have been living all alone.</p>
+
+<p>To a child-lover this daily vision of
+an unnaturally solitary and probably
+unhappy life was insupportable. He was<span class="pagenum" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</span>
+continually on the look out for a chance
+of breaking through the girl’s reserve,
+and trying to brighten her life.</p>
+
+<p>At last one day it seemed as if the
+opportunity had come.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">On the Low
+Stone Bridge.</div>
+
+<p>A mile or so beyond the cottage the lane
+crossed a stream by a low stone bridge.
+It was a cheerless spot in the
+dusk of evening, for the
+water ran dark and stealthily
+between old grey willow-trees, but here
+it was that he found her, by herself and
+leaning over the low stone parapet. He
+went straight up to her and said “Good
+evening,” before he noticed that she was
+crying quietly, as those people do whose
+tears are frequent. Putting his hand
+over hers as it lay on the wall he asked
+her what was amiss. For one second she
+looked up in his face, and he made sure
+that he would learn her secret. The next
+instant a look of terror passed over her,
+and she snatched her hand away. Before<span class="pagenum" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</span>
+he could say a word or recover from his
+surprise she was gone. He saw the white
+flutter of her pinafore as she ran homewards
+down the murky lane, and he never
+saw her again. By the next evening the
+house was unoccupied once more, and he
+had nothing but the memory of a child’s
+pathos which could never be explained.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb">
+
+<div class="sidenote">A Slighted
+Child.</div>
+
+<p>There is just one other bit of pathos
+which crops up now and again in children’s
+lives. It happens sometimes
+that their devotion to someone
+who has shown them
+kindness or taken notice of them is
+accidentally overlooked, and the consequent
+feeling of desertion is most
+pathetic. Girls are more liable to this
+experience than boys, and when it is borne
+in upon a small child for the first time
+that she is less attractive than her fellows
+and must in consequence expect to
+receive less notice even from those upon<span class="pagenum" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</span>
+whom she has poured out her chief store
+of affection, the suffering entailed is
+frequently acute.</p>
+
+<p>In selecting a teacher or companion for
+children it would be no bad plan to
+observe those who on an occasion when
+many little ones are gathered together
+take notice of the ugly children. They
+are the true child-lovers.</p>
+
+<p>An example of the kind of pathos
+referred to came to the notice of the
+writer some years ago at a children’s
+party, and he set down the sensations of
+the little girl in question in some lines
+which she is supposed to speak.</p>
+
+<p class="center fs80">“<span class="smcap">My Bissop.</span>”</p>
+<div class="poetry-container2 fs80">
+<div class="poetry">
+  <div class="stanza">
+    <div class="verse indent0">I went to the Bissop’s party</div>
+    <div class="verse indent2">In my vi’let velveteen:</div>
+    <div class="verse indent0">The others went last year, you know,</div>
+    <div class="verse indent2">But I hadn’t never been.</div>
+  </div>
+  <div class="stanza">
+    <div class="verse indent0">I was only four; and mother said</div>
+    <div class="verse indent2">It was really <em>much</em> too late!</div>
+    <div class="verse indent0">But now I’m five—though all a year</div>
+    <div class="verse indent2">Was a <em>’mendous</em> time to wait!</div><span class="pagenum" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</span>
+  </div>
+  <div class="stanza">
+    <div class="verse indent0">I knew the Bissop very well,</div>
+    <div class="verse indent2">For didn’t I sit on his knee</div>
+    <div class="verse indent0">When he came for Confummation,</div>
+    <div class="verse indent2">And stopped at our house for tea?</div>
+  </div>
+  <div class="stanza">
+    <div class="verse indent0">He’s a dear old man—our Bissop—</div>
+    <div class="verse indent2">And he’ll hardly ever miss</div>
+    <div class="verse indent0">Stroking the hair of a little girl</div>
+    <div class="verse indent2">And giving her a kiss.</div>
+  </div>
+  <div class="stanza">
+    <div class="verse indent0">So I <em>did</em> look forward to going,</div>
+    <div class="verse indent2">(And I whispered it all to my doll)—</div>
+    <div class="verse indent0">Though Tom said he didn’t see the good</div>
+    <div class="verse indent2">Of taking a mealy-faced Moll.</div>
+  </div>
+  <div class="stanza">
+    <div class="verse indent0">But I didn’t know I was ugly,</div>
+    <div class="verse indent2">And nothing about being shy,</div>
+    <div class="verse indent0">So I couldn’t sit still with ’citement</div>
+    <div class="verse indent2">All the whole way in the fly!</div>
+  </div>
+  <div class="stanza">
+    <div class="verse indent0">We got there at last: there was numbers</div>
+    <div class="verse indent2">Of boys and girls at their teas,</div>
+    <div class="verse indent0">And oh!—in the corner—the Bissop!—</div>
+    <div class="verse indent2">With two little girls on his knees.</div>
+  </div>
+  <div class="stanza">
+    <div class="verse indent0">I knew they was much more pretty</div>
+    <div class="verse indent2">Than me; but I thought perhaps</div>
+    <div class="verse indent0">Their turn would be over bye and bye</div>
+    <div class="verse indent2">And he’ld take <em>me</em> up on his laps!</div>
+  </div>
+  <div class="stanza">
+    <div class="verse indent0">So I went quite close, till Susie</div>
+    <div class="verse indent2">Told me I mustn’t stare—</div>
+    <div class="verse indent0">But I don’t b’lieve it mattered,</div>
+    <div class="verse indent2"><em>He</em> didn’t know I was there!</div>
+  </div>
+  <div class="stanza">
+    <div class="verse indent0">Then the rest of the children got dancing,</div>
+    <div class="verse indent2">And I was knocked down on the floor,</div>
+    <div class="verse indent0">So I w’iggled my way to a corner,</div>
+    <div class="verse indent2">And sat just close to the door.</div><span class="pagenum" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</span>
+  </div>
+  <div class="stanza">
+    <div class="verse indent0">For I thought <em>he</em>’ld pass and see me,</div>
+    <div class="verse indent2">And once he did really stand</div>
+    <div class="verse indent0">Quite close to me—<em>my</em> Bissop!—</div>
+    <div class="verse indent2">And I touched his coat with my hand.</div>
+  </div>
+  <div class="stanza">
+    <div class="verse indent0">But oh! he never noticed;</div>
+    <div class="verse indent2">He didn’t seem to see:</div>
+    <div class="verse indent0">And when he was kissing anyone</div>
+    <div class="verse indent2">They was other children than me.</div>
+  </div>
+  <div class="stanza">
+    <div class="verse indent0">I fink I <em>must</em> be ugly.</div>
+    <div class="verse indent2">It wasn’t the velveteen,</div>
+    <div class="verse indent0">’Cause when she had it on last year</div>
+    <div class="verse indent2">Susie looked like a queen!</div>
+  </div>
+  <div class="stanza">
+    <div class="verse indent0">Yes; I had some toys and a bootiful tea,</div>
+    <div class="verse indent2">And my cracker had got a ring!</div>
+    <div class="verse indent0">And I <em>fink</em> I enjoyed the party</div>
+    <div class="verse indent2">’Cept p’raps for only one fing!</div>
+  </div>
+  <div class="stanza">
+    <div class="verse indent0">And when I got home to dolly,</div>
+    <div class="verse indent2">And she was in bed by my side,</div>
+    <div class="verse indent0">I <em>twied</em> to tell her about it—</div>
+    <div class="verse indent2">But she was asleep—and I <em>cwied</em>.</div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</span></p>
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII</h2>
+</div>
+
+<h3>WAYSIDE CHILDREN</h3>
+
+
+<p>The study of some particular child is of
+great interest. If the child be one with
+whom one is brought into daily contact
+the study may become most exhaustive
+and may prove the means of imparting
+a new and helpful knowledge of childhood
+generally.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">The Study of
+Flowers
+and
+Children.</div>
+
+<p>A noted botanist has devoted years to
+the study of the chickweed. He has
+added to his own and to the
+general knowledge of botany
+a vast store of information
+by his temporarily exclusive
+attention to this one plant. But he would
+be the last to deny the charm of a stroll
+through lanes or fields where multitudes
+of flowers claim passing attention and
+admiration. To pause every few minutes
+to observe a cluster of primroses, a bank<span class="pagenum" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</span>
+of mercury, or even a pink-tipped daisy—to
+halt suddenly as a whiff of sweet perfume
+tells us of a hidden nest of violets—to
+gather two or three of the cowslips
+that spangle the meadows—all this may
+belong to the lightest side of the study of
+botany. But it has a charm that few can
+resist, and thus far at least the veriest
+beginner can follow.</p>
+
+<p>So it is with the study of childhood.
+Almost everywhere we go on our daily
+road of life there are children to be found,
+children differing one from another as
+widely as the primrose from the violet,
+but each one worth our notice and
+possessed of a special charm.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">The Loss to
+those who
+Fail to Notice
+Children.</div>
+
+<p>It is extraordinary to find on talking to
+one and another how few
+people realise the pleasure
+that they lose by failing
+to observe the little wayside
+children. There are many
+persons capable of passing by without<span class="pagenum" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</span>
+seeing the loveliest of wayside flowers, but
+there are more who take no heed at all of
+our wayside children. And yet, if the loss
+to the former is great, the loss to the latter
+is greater far. A flower can charm the
+eye or delight the sense of smell: it can
+interest the scientific observer who notes
+its construction and mode of growth;
+but that is all. There is no reflected
+light, no joy felt by the flower and
+flashed back in happy answering glance,
+be its eye never so bright. For most
+people there is no increase of knowledge
+from day to day, and certainly there is
+none of that increase of understanding
+between observer and observed which
+lends such charm to the chance meetings
+with the children who are about our path.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Self-important
+People.</div>
+
+<p>Some people are too busy and rush
+along in too great a hurry. Some people
+are too self-important. They are grown
+up, and fancy that the fact that they
+are older has so greatly increased their<span class="pagenum" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</span>
+value that it would be lowering themselves
+to take notice of children. They will
+assert that they cannot be
+bored with them. They will
+brush them impatiently aside
+if they are too closely approached by
+children when other people are present.
+There is a certain amount of insincerity
+in all this, for when such people fancy
+that they are unobserved they not
+infrequently yield to the natural temptation
+of noticing and even playing with
+little children.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Keeping the
+Proper
+Balance.</div>
+
+<p>Some people, again, fancy that to let
+children know that they are observed is
+bad for their character, and,
+of course, it is possible to
+make them self-conscious
+and conceited by taking too
+much notice of them. On the other hand,
+there is a danger of children becoming
+morbid, nervous, and secret if they find
+themselves ignored and unappreciated.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</span>
+A child’s nature is essentially responsive.
+It opens out and expands to a show of
+affection just as a flower to the sunshine,
+and, as a bud will become withered and
+diseased when continuously exposed to
+grey skies and rain, so the character of a
+child will suffer irretrievable damage
+from a prolonged course of neglect and
+cold looks.</p>
+
+<p>Taking it, then, for granted that
+nothing but good is likely to follow from
+a habit of noticing the children whom we
+meet, it is interesting to remember how
+greatly our days have been brightened
+and our own enjoyment increased by this
+very thing.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">The Children
+Under the
+Wall.</div>
+
+<p>There is a long grey wall leading
+towards the centre of the village. It is
+what is called a “dry”
+wall, that is to say, it is built
+without mortar. There is,
+therefore, no great interest in
+it nor any special beauty except where the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</span>
+tints of the little lichens catch the eye of
+the close observer. The monotony is
+broken here and there by a bulge in the
+stonework where an elm-tree in the field
+has gradually pushed its roots against the
+foundations.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Two Nests of
+Children.</div>
+
+<p>But the path beside the wall is seldom
+lacking in attractions. It is the daily
+playground of the children
+from the cottages which lie
+back from the road between
+where the wall ends and the big barn
+juts out endways on to the footpath.
+These cottages are but two in number and
+have all the picturesqueness of old gables
+and steep stone-slab roofs. Hoary and
+bent and lined with the passage of years
+they seem to speak of old age in every
+feature. But they echo to-day with the
+sound of children’s voices, and their old
+stone flags speak from morning to night
+with the patter of little footsteps. From
+these two houses come the troop of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</span>
+children who play beneath the long grey
+wall. As a matter of fact there are ten of
+them altogether—six from one cottage,
+four from the other. Of these the two
+eldest boys of the six are just getting too
+old to play, and are generally doing jobs
+for mother, or even sometimes for the
+farmer for whom their father works, on
+the days when they are free from school.
+Then there is in each house a baby too
+small to be trusted anywhere except in
+its cot or in its mother’s arms. This
+leaves six children for the wayside, when
+the two little girls who are old enough to
+go to school have returned to superintend
+the amusements of the rest, or four who
+may be found there at any hour of the
+day when the weather is at all propitious.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Good
+Marnin’.</div>
+
+<p>What bits of sunshine they make!
+Let the day be as dull and the road as
+monotonous as possible it cannot be
+altogether cheerless when a couple of
+little chaps with sunny tousled hair and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</span>
+ruddy cheeks stop pulling their soap box
+full of mud and stones to laugh up in
+your face and say “Good
+marnin’, Sir,” though it be
+four o’clock in the afternoon.
+Whereby hangs a tale. These two urchins
+are somewhere between two and four
+years old, and it had been their habit
+to greet a friend with a friendly pat and
+a shout of “Hey!” Thereupon one day,
+the friend, thinking that their manners
+might now be taken in hand and it being
+then shortly after breakfast, said “You
+must say ‘Good morning, Sir,’” which
+after one or two tries they very creditably
+did, and have continued at all hours
+from that day forward.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Friendly
+Children.</div>
+
+<p>But further down the wall is a little
+group of three. One, a still smaller boy,
+evidently the next in order
+of the fair-haired family.
+He cannot yet keep up with
+his brothers, and so is taken in hand by<span class="pagenum" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</span>
+the two dark-haired little girls who look
+up shyly and smilingly from beneath long-fringed
+lashes. The younger, “Nellie,”
+has been ill and is a queer little figure
+pinned up in a shawl which reaches to
+the ground; the elder is a fat roundabout
+lady of nearly four, with dark beady eyes,
+and a trick of sliding a grubby little hand
+into that of her special friends when they
+stop for a minute’s chat. She is full of
+character and thoroughly appreciates the
+importance of being in charge of the
+other two, looking up with an absurd
+apologetic smile when the little invalid
+thrusts forward a few bits of dusty grass
+and a much-mauled daisy as an offering
+to the powers that be.</p>
+
+<p>But, meantime, school has come out,
+and the number of wayside children is
+rapidly increasing. A girl of ten or so is
+quietly knitting as she strolls homewards,
+her busy fingers hardly stopping as
+she smiles and curtseys, turning as an<span class="pagenum" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</span>
+afterthought to ask whether she may
+bring some water-cresses to the house.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Over the
+Garden Wall.</div>
+
+<p>Leaning over a garden wall is a delightful
+little person. She has a very short
+way to go home and knows
+that tea will not be ready
+yet. So she stops as soon
+as she is inside the wicket to indulge in
+a further look at the “busy world,” of the
+lane in which she lives, and to seize any
+chance there may be of a gossip. The
+garden ground inside the wall is considerably
+above the level of the road—a most
+convenient thing for this sturdy little lady
+of five, for it enables her to lean her arms
+upon the wall and her face upon her arms,
+and so to survey the world in much
+comfort.</p>
+
+<p>Should any one approach whom she
+wishes to avoid, nothing is simpler than
+to crouch down and hide until the undesirable
+passer-by is out of sight. Should,
+however, a friend appear who is welcome,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</span>
+but whose presence causes a sudden fit
+of shyness, the rosy cheeks are quickly
+hidden in the dimpled arms and a cloud of
+dark curls tossed over all until a finger
+judiciously inserted somewhere where the
+crease of the fat little neck may be supposed
+to be causes a chuckle of delight,
+and a crimson face and two great blue
+eyes are momentarily lifted to be buried
+again in an instant beneath the mass of
+soft dark hair. But this is a regulation bit
+of by-play which never lasts long. Confidences
+are soon exchanged and news
+imparted about the sort of day it has
+been in school and the health of a doll
+which fell to her lot at the last treat.
+Then sometimes—when she is in her
+tenderest humour—a pair of bright red
+lips are put up for a kiss, and she trots
+off down the path to where mother is
+waiting under the porch of clematis.</p>
+
+<p>And so it would be possible to go on for
+long enough.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</span></p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">In the
+Country.</div>
+
+<p>By the roadside, in the field ways, by
+the pathway near the brook, at many a
+cottage doorway, by many a
+wicket-gate, our country
+children, in the beauty of
+healthfulness and youth, add a hundredfold
+to the happiness of those who passing
+by have eyes to see and hearts to
+understand.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">And in
+the Town.</div>
+
+<p>But there are others. It is impossible
+to pass along the side streets of our many
+towns without finding the
+little wayside children. They
+are mostly those who are of
+that specially attractive age which makes
+them just too young to go to school and
+just too old to be kept in the house, so
+they get somewhere between the two places,
+and are generally playing in the gutter.</p>
+
+<p>They have not often the same beauty
+as the country children, and they have
+not the same readiness to accept the
+approaches of “grown-ups.” Their<span class="pagenum" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</span>
+surroundings almost from their birth make
+them suspicious and on their guard against
+possible dangers. But they are children
+for all that. They will notice and
+respond to a friendly smile. It is wonderful
+how a sharp and anxious little face is
+beautified by the smile that after a
+moment of doubt will come in answer.</p>
+
+<p>Go down a long street of mean houses,
+each one the counterpart of every other,
+and see if there be anything to brighten
+the way that can compare with the laughter
+and the play of the wayside children.
+It is more difficult perhaps to appreciate
+these little ones, but it should be remembered
+that a friendly greeting is worth
+more to them than to a country child who
+gets a dozen such on its way from school.
+The reflected light, the responsive happiness
+is not so evident at first sight as in
+the case of country children, but it is even
+more real when once confidence has been
+established.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</span></p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">How a Child’s
+Friendship
+was Won.</div>
+
+<p>A man whose daily walk led him down
+a certain dingy street saw a tiny boy with
+grimy face and badly developed
+limbs playing with a
+banana skin in the gutter.
+The man nodded to him—the
+boy shrank away in terror. Next day
+the man nodded again. The boy had
+decided there was nothing to be afraid
+of, and spat at the man. Next day the
+boy only stared. The day after he
+shouted “Hi!” as the man went on.
+In time the little fellow smiled back at
+the greeting which he now began to
+expect. Finally the triumph was complete
+when the boy—a tiny chap—was
+waiting at the corner and seized the man’s
+fingers in his dirty little fist. It was a
+dismal street, but it became one of the
+very brightest spots in all that man’s
+walk through life.</p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX</h2>
+</div>
+
+<h3>CHILDREN’S MEETINGS</h3>
+
+
+<p>In these days, when the teaching of any
+virtue necessitates a special Society, and
+when no Society is complete without its
+Children’s Branch, children’s meetings are
+matters of almost everyday occurrence.</p>
+
+<p>To say that these meetings are for the
+most part successful would be scarcely
+accurate. They are too numerous, and
+speakers to whom children will listen are
+too few.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">To Whom
+will
+Children
+Listen?</div>
+
+<p>To whom, then, <em>will</em> they give a hearing?
+That is a difficult question, almost
+as difficult to answer as if it
+were asked “Who can
+whistle a tune?” At all
+events it is quite as difficult
+to tell people how to gain the attention of
+children as it is to tell them how to whistle
+a tune. If they can, they can; and if<span class="pagenum" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</span>
+they can’t, it isn’t much use telling them.
+However, it is just possible that anyone
+who has looked through the pages of this
+little book may have been stirred to think
+about children, and to try to understand
+them. In that case a step has been taken
+on the road to being one of those lucky
+people to whom children will listen.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Children
+Know their
+Friends.</div>
+
+<p>Small boys and girls, like dogs, know
+by intuition the people who are fond
+of them, and unless the
+would-be speaker belongs to
+this class he need not hope
+to get their attention.
+Grown-up people listen to someone whom
+they do not like on the chance of finding
+something to criticize or ridicule. Children
+simply do not listen at all.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Children
+must be
+Understood.</div>
+
+<p>But a love for children is not enough.
+There must be the effort to understand
+them. Unless there be at least some
+comprehension of their characters, there
+is bound to be a lack of that sympathy
+which is the essential requisite.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</span>
+Somehow or other, children seem to feel
+at once whether or not
+there exists that subtle link
+between themselves and the
+speaker, and if they cannot discover
+it they will not—perhaps even cannot—listen.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">A Difficult
+Art.</div>
+
+<p>The mistake so often made is to imagine
+that it is easy to understand children.
+The exact opposite is the
+fact. It is far easier for anyone
+to understand grown-up
+people whose minds work much in the
+same way as his own than to comprehend
+and sympathise with the curiously complex
+thoughts and reasonings of children.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">An Honest
+Saleswoman.</div>
+
+<p>It has been seen how strangely imaginative
+all children are, but at the same time
+they are often most literal. There is a
+well-known story of a little girl selling
+artificial flowers at a bazaar who was so
+anxious that there should be no mistake
+on the part of the purchasers that she
+said to each, “They are not <em>real</em>, you<span class="pagenum" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</span>
+know; they are <em>stuffed</em>!” No doubt
+this same child would have
+treated these same flowers
+as absolutely real if she had
+had them to play with, and would have
+let her imagination run riot with them.</p>
+
+<p>Again, children are often so tender-hearted
+that they cannot bear to hear of
+the sufferings of other children, but will
+inflict intense pain on some insect with
+complete callousness, the reason being
+that the one comes within their
+comprehension while the other does not.</p>
+
+<p>These simple matters are mentioned
+here merely to show the complicity of
+children’s characters, and to try to induce
+those who wish to teach them to abandon
+the idea that it is perfectly easy to
+understand children.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Infection
+Spreads
+Rapidly.</div>
+
+<p>The next necessity for anyone who
+wants to gain the attention
+of a group of little ones is
+to remember that they are
+extraordinarily liable to infection.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</span></p>
+
+<p>Just as chicken-pox introduced into
+a children’s party by one child will spread
+to most of the others, so if one person at a
+meeting be thoroughly interested and
+keen, the rest will be sure to catch the
+infection. That person must, of course,
+be the speaker.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Platitudes
+Useless.</div>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Simplicity
+Essential.</div>
+
+<p>It is no sort of use talking to children
+because the speaker has got to say
+something. It is essential
+that he should have something
+to say. Further, it is
+no use his having something to say unless
+he is himself enthusiastically interested.
+Anyone who has tried to speak to children
+will know how their attention is gone in
+a moment so soon as he says half-a-dozen
+words of mere platitude. All this points
+to the need of careful preparation and
+thorough knowledge of what he has to say.
+Then he must say it simply.
+Children do not understand
+long words, and cannot follow
+involved sentences. It is not unusual<span class="pagenum" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</span>
+to hear the chairman of a children’s
+meeting begin by saying, “My dear
+young friends,—if I may be allowed so
+to designate some whose acquaintance
+I have hitherto not been so fortunate as
+to cultivate—the admirable society to
+which, as I understand, you have given
+your adherence inculcates those principles
+of self-abnegation which have long been
+designated as the true foundations of all
+existence at once joyous and altruistic.”
+Can anything be more hopeless? The
+succeeding speakers must be uncommonly
+vivacious and interesting if the children
+are to recover from such a fatal beginning.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">A Sermon in
+Monosyllables.</div>
+
+<p>It is no bad thing to try to speak
+in words of one syllable. If that is
+thought hopeless it may be mentioned
+that the Bishop of Bristol
+not long ago published a
+whole sermon in monosyllables,
+just to show what can be done.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Children
+Resent
+Feeble Talk.</div>
+
+<p>But, on the other hand, it is a serious
+mistake to talk down to children. That<span class="pagenum" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</span>
+is to say, the stuff must be good though
+the language be simple.
+Children resent having washy
+sentiments served up to
+them in baby language.
+They can understand great thoughts if
+properly presented.</p>
+
+<p>It has been suggested that when very
+young indeed they dislike the nonsensical
+manner in which they are addressed
+by many adoring women. This
+has been given as one reason why a baby
+on being first introduced to a strange
+man and a strange woman will generally
+prefer to go to the man. The supposition
+is that the baby thinks he will stand more
+chance of hearing rational language. It
+is certain that most people have heard
+ladies speak to little children in a babble
+which they would not use to a self-respecting
+dog for fear he should bite
+them!</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">The
+Ingredients
+of a Speech
+to Children.</div>
+
+<p>But to speak more seriously: yet
+another matter to bear in mind is that<span class="pagenum" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</span>
+monotony must at all costs be avoided.
+A speech which, however
+good in other ways, is entirely
+pathetic, will fail to keep
+children’s attention, while a
+speech that is entirely funny will fail to
+rouse their interest in the object of the
+meeting. There may be tears—a few—there
+must be laughter—now and then.
+There must be stories and there must be
+morals: the art is to make the one almost
+as interesting as the other.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Position of
+Speaker
+Important.</div>
+
+<p>It may perhaps be allowed to insert
+here one or two practical hints. For
+instance, it is absolutely essential that the
+children should be able to see the face
+of the speaker clearly. It is
+well that he, too, should be
+able to see the faces of his
+audience. But the former
+is the more important. If a room, then,
+has windows so placed that either the
+speaker or the children must face them,
+it is better that the speaker should do so.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</span>
+Children find it almost impossible to
+listen to anyone whom they cannot see,
+a fact which points to the value of a
+sustained effort on the part of the speaker
+to catch the eye of first one and then
+another of his audience.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Meetings as
+Informal
+as Possible.</div>
+
+<p>That leads on to the desirability of
+getting rid so far as possible
+of <em>formality</em>. There should
+be no barriers between the
+speaker and the children. A
+high platform is fatal. It is even more
+fatal when there is also a table and a
+water bottle. The speaker should be
+as close to the children as he can,
+consistently with being able to see and
+be seen.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">A Successful
+Meeting.</div>
+
+<p>Here is a description of a thoroughly
+successful children’s meeting. A large low
+room with old oak beams
+and a dark polished floor.
+The only light a blazing fire
+of logs. In the darker corners a few
+groups of mothers and other “grown<span class="pagenum" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</span>
+ups.” Near the centre of the floor, two
+or three large Indian mats, and in front
+of them a big low easy chair facing the fire
+light. In this chair is the speaker, and
+on his knees and on the arms of the chair
+cluster three or four of the smallest
+children. The rest are sitting just
+anyhow upon the coloured mats. They
+are all perfectly quiet and well inclined
+for a rest, for they have just had a succession
+of games—blind man’s buff and
+“Jacob, where art thou?” the favourites.
+For half-an-hour or so they sit and listen
+to the story of other children less happy
+than themselves, and learn how best to
+help them. Then comes “Good-night,”
+and they go away with impressions still
+vivid, and with new and brave resolutions.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Garden
+Meetings.</div>
+
+<p>Some such happy informal talks as this
+may often be held in summer on the grass
+beneath the trees, but the
+many distractions of the
+open air—a butterfly may
+turn away all thoughts—make such<span class="pagenum" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</span>
+meetings more difficult than those held
+indoors.</p>
+
+<p>The hints given in these few pages seem
+utterly inadequate, and to include only
+such matters as must occur to all. They
+have been set down here as some reply
+to the frequent question “How can
+children’s meetings be made successful?”</p>
+
+<p>There is but one more word to be said.
+Grown-up people are so greatly distracted
+by the cares and occupations of their daily
+life that it needs special preparation before
+they can understand little children. To
+anyone who wishes to influence their
+simple yet imaginative minds the task is
+almost hopeless unless he will try to fulfil
+that most difficult command and himself
+“become as a little child.”</p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="Appendix">Appendix</h2>
+</div>
+
+
+<p class="no-indent">It is of considerable interest, and may be in some
+cases of practical value to those interested in the
+well-being of children to notice in order some of the
+principal Acts of Parliament which have been passed
+during the last twenty-five years on behalf of
+children:—</p>
+
+<p class="indent">1883. 46 &amp; 47 Vic., c. 53. Employment of Children<br>
+in Factories and Workshops.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">1885. 48 &amp; 49 Vic., c. 69. Criminal Law Amendment<br>
+Act, relating to criminal assaults on<br>
+children and to the finding of children in<br>
+disorderly houses.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">1887. 50 &amp; 51 Vic., c. 58. Employment in Coal<br>
+Mines.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">1889. 52 &amp; 53 Vic., c. 44. The Prevention of<br>
+Cruelty to Children Act. This was the first<br>
+of the three Acts, the others being passed in<br>
+1894 and 1904 respectively. Sometimes called<br>
+“The Children’s Charter.” It is very wide in<br>
+application, making it an offence to assault,<br>
+illtreat, neglect, abandon, or expose a child under<br>
+sixteen years of age in a manner likely to cause<br>
+such child unnecessary suffering or injury to<br>
+its health.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">1891. 54 &amp; 55 Vic., c. 3. The Custody of Children<br>
+Act, dealing with the power of the Court to<br>
+decline to issue a writ for the production of a<br>
+child to an unfit parent, and with the power of<br>
+the Court to order repayment of costs of bringing<br>
+up a child.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</span></p>
+
+<p class="indent">1891. 54 &amp; 55 Vic., c. 75 &amp; 76. Further enactments<br>
+concerning employment in Factories and<br>
+Workshops.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">1892. 55 &amp; 56 Vic., c. 4. Betting Act, whereby<br>
+it became a misdemeanour for anyone for the<br>
+purpose of earning commission to send circulars,<br>
+etc., to invite an infant to make any bet or wager.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">1893. 56 &amp; 57 Vic., c. 48. Reformatory Schools<br>
+Act, giving power to a Court to remand a youthful<br>
+offender to a prison or to any other place,<br>
+which has in practice always been assumed to<br>
+be a workhouse.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">1894. 57 &amp; 58 Vic., c. 33. Industrial Schools Act.<br>
+Education.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">1897. 60 &amp; 61 Vic., c. 57. Infant Life Protection<br>
+Act, concerning persons receiving infants for<br>
+hire for the purpose of maintenance. An Act<br>
+for the abolition of illicit baby-farming.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">1899. 62 &amp; 63 Vic., c. 37. Poor Law Act, concerning<br>
+the control of guardians over orphans and<br>
+children of persons unfit to have control of them.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">1901. 1 Ed. VII, c. 20. Youthful Offenders Act,<br>
+providing for (1) the removal of disqualifications<br>
+attaching to felony, (2) the liability of parent<br>
+or guardian in the case of youthful offenders,<br>
+(3) the remand of youthful offenders to other<br>
+places than prisons, (4) the recovery of expenses<br>
+of maintenance from parent or person legally<br>
+liable, etc., etc.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">1901. 1 Ed. VII, c. 27. Intoxicating Liquors (Sale<br>
+to Children) Act, forbidding the sale or delivery<br>
+save at the residence or working place of the<br>
+purchaser of any description of intoxicating<br><span class="pagenum" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</span>
+liquor to any person under the age of fourteen<br>
+years, except in corked and sealed vessels, in<br>
+quantities not less than one reputed pint. It<br>
+should be noticed that the Licensing Act of 1872<br>
+prohibited the sale of any description of spirits<br>
+to any person apparently under the age of<br>
+sixteen years.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">1903. 3 Ed. VII, c. 45. The Employment of<br>
+Children Act, containing restrictions on the<br>
+hours of employment, age of employees, nature<br>
+of employment, etc., etc.</p>
+
+<p>There have also been several Education Acts
+either passed or proposed, but it is doubtful whether
+these have not usually had their origin in the exigencies
+of party politics rather than in a <em>bonâ fide</em>
+desire for the welfare of children. An honourable
+exception is the Elementary Education (Defective
+and Epileptic Children) Act of 1899.</p>
+<br>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<p class="center"><em>Printed by Sir Isaac Pitman &amp; Sons, Ltd., Bath.</em></p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+
+<div class="transnote">
+<h2>Transcriber’s Notes</h2>
+
+<ul>
+<li>pg 10 Changed The helpless ness to: helplessness</li>
+<li>pg 58 Changed my finishing he to: the</li>
+<li>pg 126 Added period after: our visit to you</li>
+<li>The cover page was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.</li>
+</ul>
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BOOK OF THE CHILD ***</div>
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