174 ^^^ POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



saying, " No Nana (name for nurse) look at it till Sunday ."And 

 sure enough, when Sunday came and the pencil was restored to 

 him, he promptly showed nurse his picture. This is an excellent 

 observation full of suggestion as to the way in which a child's 

 mind works. Among other things it seems to show pretty plainly 

 that the little fellow looked on the nursery and all its belongings, 

 including the nurse, during these three days as a place of disgrace, 

 into which the privileges of the artist were not to enter. He was 

 allowed the indulgence of drawing downstairs, but he had no 

 right to exhibit his workmanship to the nurse, who was insepara- 

 bly associated in his mind with the forbidden nursery drawing. 

 Thus a process of genuine child-thought led to a self-instituted 

 extension of the punishment. 



A month later this child "pulled down a picture in the 

 nursery " the nursery walls seem to have had a fell attraction 

 for him by standing on a sofa and tugging till the wire broke. 

 He was alone at the time and very much frightened, though not 

 hurt. He was soothed and told to leave the picture alone in fu- 

 ture, but was not in any way rebuked. He seemed, however, to 

 think that some punishment was necessary, for he presently asked 

 whether he was going to have a certain favorite frock on that 

 afternoon. He was told " No " (the reason being that the day 

 was wet or something similar), and he said immediately, " 'Cause 

 Neil pulled picture down ? " Here, I think, we have unmistak- 

 able evidence of an expectation of punishment as the fit and 

 proper sequel in a case which, although it did not exactly resem- 

 ble those already branded by punishment, was felt in a vague way 

 to be disorderly and naughty. 



Such stories of expectation of punishment are capped by in- 

 stances of punishment actually inflicted by the child on himself. 

 I believe it is not uncommon for a child, when possessed by a sense 

 of having been naughty, to object to having nice things at table, 

 on the ground that previously on a like occasion he was deprived 

 of them. But the most curious instance of this moral rigor to- 

 ward self which I have met with is the following : A girl of nine 

 had been naughty, and was very sorry for her misbehavior. She 

 was noticed coming to her lesson limping, and remarked that she 

 felt very uncomfortable. Being asked by her governess what 

 was the matter with her, she said, " It was very naughty of me 

 to disobey you, so I put my right shoe on to my left foot and my 

 left shoe on to my right foot." 



The facts here briefly illustrated seem to me to show that 

 there is in the child from the first a rudiment of true law-abid- 

 ingness. And this is a force of the greatest consequence to the 

 disciplinarian. It is something which takes side in the child's 

 breast with the reasonable governor and the laws which he or 



