STUDIES OF CHILDHOOD. 813 



punishment, Even the mother herself, beloved as she undoubt- 

 edly is, comes in for this antagonism. When the moral regime 

 is severe and something like dread of punishment arises, the 

 problem of self-protection is wont to be solved by well-known 

 devices in the shape of subterfuges. In this way a child will 

 say, " I didn't hear you," when a command is given and not at 

 once obeyed ; " I didn't make the mess, it was my hand," and so 

 forth. Quite young children will find their way to little ruses 

 and deceits of this sort when brought face to face with a sharp- 

 faced threatening authority. Thus a mite of three, having in a 

 moment of temper called her mother "monkey," and being ques- 

 tioned as to what she had said, replied, " I said I was a monkey." 

 In some cases the child does not wait to be questioned. A little 

 girl mentioned by Compayre', being put out at something the 

 mother had done or said, cried " Nasty ! " (vilaine) ; then, after a 

 significant silence, corrected herself in this wise : " Dolly nasty " 

 (poupee vilaine). The skill with which this transference was 

 effected without any violence to grammar argues a precocious art. 



I do not wish to say that these prevarications, these dodges for 

 getting out of obedience, or, if disobedience has been detected, 

 of evading punishment, are not rightly named untruths. With 

 every wish to excuse children's peccadillos one can not but recog- 

 nize here a rudiment of the wish and intention to deceive. 



Yet surely it is a matter deserving of reflection that our modes 

 of governing (or misgoverning) children so frequently develop 

 these tricky prevarications. It is not too much to say that any- 

 thing in the nature of a brutal and terrifying government drives 

 children to these subterfuges as their only resource. I at least 

 should never blame a child greatly for trying to save himself by 

 an untruth with the terror of the " giant " armed with stick or 

 cane hanging over him. 



Our moral discipline may develop untruth in another way. 

 When the punishment has been inflicted and the governor, relent- 

 ing from the brutal harshness, asks, "Are you sorry ?" or "Aren't 

 you sorry ? " the answer is exceedingly likely to be " No," even 

 though this is in a sense untrue. More clearly is this lying of 

 obstinacy seen where a child is shut up and kept without food. 

 Asked, " Are you hungry ? " the hardy little sinner stifles his 

 sensations and pluckily answers " No," even though the low and 

 dismal character of the sound shows that the untruth is but a 

 half-hearted affair. 



There is much even yet to be done in clearing up the modus 

 operandi of children's lies. How quick, for example, is a child to 

 find out the simple good-natured people, as the servant-maid or 

 gardener, who will listen to his romancing and flatter him by 

 appearing to accept it all as gospel ! More significant is the fact 



