NATURE-PLAY 



343 



Seaside Collecting. 



stitute a helpful adjunct to nature-play. These more primitive people 

 are but grown up children, living in that closer touch with nature often 

 forbidden the dwellers in brick apartments. The beginnings of romance 

 are found in the thrilling adventures of " Brer Eabbit " and the contest 

 of " B'Helephant and B' Wale." Such mythical tales as " Why the Bat 

 is Blind " and " How the Animals Secured Fire " are among the first 

 fanciful attempts to account for natural phenomena. Boys and girls are 

 at home with the ant people, while these intelligent and industrious 

 creatures transport and care for their young, hunt their enemies, culti- 

 vate their aphid herds, or fill their subterranean granaries with the seeds 

 which the workers have harvested. We shall not deny mind in the ants 

 simply because they do not perceive and think just as we do. It is quite 

 as efficacious to touch and smell at the same time, through antennal end- 

 organs, as to have these functions separately performed through fingers 



"1 



Children on the Rocks at Low Tide. 



