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of the Child 241 



his hands, and lo ! they took flight and soared 

 away, the heaven-child had sent the birds to his 

 home, where birds ever sing and the flowers of 

 Galilee and Judea ever bloom. He never forgot 

 the birds or the flowers, or the children. &quot; Let 

 the children come to me,&quot; he said, &quot; don t hinder 

 them. Your only opportunity of the kingdom 

 of love is the child s heart.&quot; In such manner of 

 language he taught, and not as the scribes, for you 

 will not find that in Moses s law. 



Do not be afraid of the children s fictions or 

 of fictions for the children. Trust them, they 

 will not fail to discover the difference between 

 dreams, which they know so well, and wilful de 

 ceits, which they should never know. It is not 

 Santa Claus legends that hurt the tender soul of 

 the child, it is the hard worldliness of lying ex 

 cuses, false reasons for forbidding things, the inner 

 hideousness of the cheat. Poetry is healthy ; tis 

 dishonesty that wounds. 



The children s day ! Let us love childhood and 

 foster the heart of the child in boy and girl, and 

 most of all in ourselves. 

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