There was no more interesting and charming lesson of paternal love to be learned than among the birds, and it was noticed that no longer was the mother of sole interest, but the father’s habits and life became of interest. The children received their lesson of father love, through the birds.
Where the father flowers, fish and frogs gave themselves no concern over the young, here was a higher creature, whose love of offspring was not purely physical, but represented something higher in his makeup. This was not only the desire to procreate, but to protect and care for his offspring after their creation.
This is perhaps one of the best times to begin to talk to the child of its own body, if one has not done so before.
The study of the birds gives the boy particularly a beautiful impression of the father’s part in life, so that it is quite natural for him to think of himself in this relation too.
Teach the child that there is no shame in nature. Mothers should never say “shame on you” when a child exposes any part of its body.
Always allow perfect freedom in his acts and affections. Teach him that love and affection are beautiful, and let him follow his impulses in these. Never make children kiss people for “form’s” sake, either aunts or uncles or any others; let them alone in this for their instincts are keener, often, than ours.
It was not until all the familiar birds had gone that their thoughts turned to the higher stage, the mammals.
Chapter VI.
The Mammals and Their Children.
The first question one of the boys asked was, “What is a mammal?” It was explained to the children that a mammal is an animal with a hairy covering, who breathes with lungs, and has warm or quick circulating blood. They have little ones, which when born are not in the form of eggs, like the frogs or birds, but have the same shape as their parents, though smaller and weaker. The mother mammal nurses these little ones with milk secreted from glands, called mammary glands. And that is why they are called “mammals.”