STUDIES OF CHILDHOOD. 197 



commonly called in, the questioner being told tliat tlie baby has 

 been sent down from heaven in the arms of an angel, etc. Fairy 

 stories with their pretty conceits, as that of the child Thumbkin 

 growing out of a flower, in Andersen's book, contribute their sug- 

 gestions, and so there arises a mass of child lore about babies in 

 which we can see that the main ideas are supplied by others, 

 though now and then we catch a glimpse of the child's own con- 

 tributions. Thus, according to Dr. Stanley Hall's report, the 

 Boston children said, among other things, that God makes babies 

 in heaven, lets them down or drops them for the women and doc- 

 tors to catch them, or that he brings them down a wooden ladder 

 backward and pulls it up again, or that mamma and nurse or 

 doctor goes up and fetches them in a balloon. They are said by 

 some to grow in cabbages, or to be placed by God in water, perhaps 

 in the sewer, where they are found by the doctor, who takes them 

 to sick folks that want them. Here we have delicious touches of 

 child fancy, quaint adaptations of fairy and Bible lore, as in the 

 use of Jacob's ladder and of the legend of Moses placed among 

 the bulrushes, this last being enriched by a thorough master 

 stroke of child genius the idea of the dark, mysterious, wonder- 

 producing sewer. In spite, too, of all that others do to impress 

 the traditional notions of the nursery here, we find that a child 

 will now and again think out the whole subject for himself. The 



little boy C is not the only one, I find, who is of the opinion 



that babies are got at a shop. Another little boy, I am informed, 

 once asked his mamma, in the abrupt, childish manner, " Mamma, 

 vere did Tommy (his one name) tum (come) from ? " and then, with 

 the equally childish way of sparing you the trouble of answering 

 his question, himself answered it quite to his own satisfaction, 

 " Mamma did tie (buy) Tommy in a s'op (shop)." This looks like 

 a real childish idea. To the young imagination the shop is a 

 veritable wonderland, an El Dorado of valuables ; and it appears 

 quite reasonable to the childish intelligence that babies, like dolls 

 and other treasures, should be procurable there. 



The ideas, partly communicated by others, partly thought out 

 for themselves, are carried over into the beginnings of animal 

 life. Thus, as we have seen, one little boy supposed that God 

 " helps pussy to have 'ickle kitties, seeing that she hasn't any kit- 

 ties in eggs given her to sit upon." 



Enumerating the climatic influences of forests, Prof. I. B. Balfour showed, ia 

 the British Association, that they improve the soil drainage and modify miasmatic 

 conditions. Trees, like green plants, assimilate carbon and purify the air, but it 

 is not established that foj-ests increase ozone. They stop air currents laden with 

 dust particles and germs; they prevent extremes of temperature; they increase 

 humidity, precipitate rain, and control waterflow. 



