no THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



The fatalistic form of exculpation meets us later on under the 

 familiar form, " God made me like that/' A boy of three was 

 blamed for leaving his crusts, and his conduct contrasted with 

 that of his model papa. Whereupon he observed with a touch of 

 metaphysical precocity, " Yes, but papa you see God had made 

 you and me different." 



These denials of authorship occur when a charge is brought 

 home and no clear justification of the action is forthcoming. In 

 many cases the shrewd intelligence of the child, which is never so 

 acute as in this art of moral self-defense, discovers justificatory 

 reasons. In such a case the attitude is a very different one. It is 

 no longer the helpless hand-lifted attitude of the irresponsible 

 one, but the bold, steady-eyed attitude of one who is prepared to 

 defend his action. 



Sometimes these justifications are pitiful examples of quib- 

 bling. A boy has been rough with his baby brother. His mother 

 chides him, telling him he might hurt baby. He then asks his 

 mother, " Isn't he my own brother ?" and on his mother admitting 

 so incontestable a proposition, exclaims triumphantly, " Well, you 

 said I could do what I liked with 7ny own things." The idea of 

 the precious baby being a boy's own to do what he likes with is 

 so remote from older people's conceptions that it is hard for us to 

 credit the boy with misunderstanding. We ought, perhaps, to set 

 him down as a depraved little sophist, and destined But pre- 

 dictions happily lie outside our metier. 



In some cases these justifications have a dreadful look of being 

 after-thoughts invented for the express purpose of self-protection 

 and knowingly put forward as fibs. Yet there is need of a wise 

 discrimination here. Take, for example, the following from the 

 Worcester Collection : A boy of three was told by his mother to 

 stay and mind his baby sister while she went downstairs. On 

 going up again some time after, she met him on the stairs. Being 

 asked why he had left the baby, he said there was a bumblebee 

 in the room, and he was afraid he would get stung if he stayed 

 there. His mother asked him if he wasn't afraid his little sister 

 would get stung. He said " Yes," but added that if he stayed in 

 the room the bee might sting them both, and then she would have 

 two to take care of. Now, with every wish to be charitable I can 

 not bring myself to think that this small boy had really gone 

 through that subtle process of disinterested calculation before 

 vacating the room in favor of the bumblebee if indeed there was 

 a bumblebee. To be caught in the act and questioned is, I sus- 

 pect, a situation particularly productive of such specious fibbing. 



One other illustration of this keen childish dialectic when face 

 to face with the accuser deserves to be touched on. The sharp 

 little wits have something of a lawyer's quickness in detecting a 



