Q. Where hast thou been this Sabbath morning?
A. I have been coursing of the squirrel.
Q. Art not afraid so to desecrate the Lord's Day with idle
sport?
A. By no means: for I should tell you that I am an Atheist.
I forget what happened to that boy: but doubtless it was, as it should have been, something drastic.
The spell of prohibition, of repression, lies so strong upon these authors that when they try to break away from it, to appeal to something better than fear in the child, and essay to amuse, they become merely silly. For an example in verse:
If Human Beings only knew
What sorrows little birds go through,
I think that even boys
Would never think it sport or fun
To stand and fire a frightful gun
For nothing but the noise.
For another (instructional and quite a good memoria technica so far as it goes):
William and Mary came next to the throne:
When Mary died, there was William alone.
Now for a story of incident.—It comes from the book "Reading Without Tears," that made my small sister weep. She did not weep over the story, because she did not claim to be an angel.
Did you ever hear of the donkey that went into the sea with the little cart?… A lady drove the cart down to the beach. She had six children with her. Three little ones sat in the cart by her side. Three bigger girls ran before the cart. When they came to the beach the lady and the children got out.
Very good so far. It opens like the story of Nausicaa ["Odyssey,"
Book vi, lines 81-86].
The lady wished the donkey to bathe its legs in the sea, to make it strong and clean. But the donkey did not like to go near the sea. So the lady bound a brown shawl over its eyes, and she bade the big girls lead it close to the waves. Suddenly a big wave rushed to the land. The girls started back to avoid the wave, and they let go the donkey's rein.