THE GUIDE TO NATURE 



A Local Department of Observations and Suggestions, with the "wisdom," 



not of an owl but of a frog. 



The Needless Repression of Little 

 Children. 



I had occasion recently to visit a 

 factory in the southern part of Stam- 

 ford. This with other factories is lo- 

 cated in a district where the homes are 

 mostly those of working - men. Return- 

 ing from that factory, I missed the trol- 

 ley car, but found, as a convenient wait- 

 ing place, a drug store on the corner. 

 While I was sitting fhere the door 

 opened and in came an intelligent, mid- 

 dle-aged woman. She had a shawl over 

 her head, and carried a baby in her 

 arms. A little tot of a girl, about four 

 years of age, had been dancing along 

 on the sidewalk in front of her, as I 

 had seen through the window. The 

 little one was in great glee, but I ob- 

 served that the mother seized her by 

 the shoulder two or three times within 

 a few rods, and gave her a shake. But 

 the little one seemed to be irrepressible, 

 and again gleefully danced on ahead. 

 As the little one rushed in the door, 

 she called delightedly, "O Mama, see : 

 there they are ; that's just what 1 

 want." The mother, instead of taking 

 delight in the child's joy, looked like 

 a thunder-cloud, grabbed the little one 

 by the shoulder, and said angrily, 

 "Now, Estelle, behave yourself. If 

 you don't keep still I will never take 

 you with me again. Why don't you 

 learn to behave yourself?" But the 

 little one, evidently accustomed to that 

 kind of conversation, unless the su- 

 preme joy of seeing some blissful penny 

 attraction had made her oblivious to 

 everything else, danced up so delight- 

 edly to the show case as to make the 

 druggist and myself laugh with sym- 

 pathetic joy. It was a delightful ex- 

 emplification of youthful glee. Even 

 the baby clapped her hands, and cooed 

 at the present prospects. But the 



mother's face grew darker, and even 

 more angrily she gave the child another 

 shake, with the admonition to, "Hush, 

 keep still now," so strong this time that 

 it threw a damper over the druggist's 

 and my own joy and delight, and 

 brought tears to the little girl's eyes. 

 After she had made the purchase, and 

 the child had resumed her liveliness 

 under the first taste of an all-day suck- 

 er, the mother began to apologize for 

 the little girl's noise, explaining that 

 she dreaded to take her out because 

 she made so much trouble. 



Here is a puzzle, and here is a little 

 child that needed an attorney. So I 

 ventured, "Beg pardon, madam, but 

 will you please tell me why you do not 

 wish Estelle to express her delight with 

 her penny specialty?" 



"Why-why-why," she exclaimed, "I- 

 I-I don't want her to be disturbing 

 everybody." 



"But on the contrary, madam, if you 

 will permit me to say so, you are the 

 only one who has disturbed anybody. 

 You have put a damper upon our de- 

 light in seeing your little girl's happi- 



ness 

 it 



Why, sir," she said, "I don't want 

 to get the reputation of having dis- 

 orderly children, and I try to make 

 them behave themselves." 



I explained that I had failed to find 

 anything in the child's conduct that 

 was not to be encouraged. She had 

 been indulging in real childish joy that 

 should make any adult, except a fos- 

 silized one, delighted to see. I think 

 that the mother failed to relish the 

 little sermon that I preached on that 

 text, but I felt that some emphatic 

 words should be spoken in behalf of 

 that happy little girl, who, by this 

 time, was dancing sidewise on the 

 cross walk. The child was pretty, and 



