For Kitty White is coming near,
And she will catch the mouse, I fear.”
“One player is chosen for the mouse and stands in the center, and another for Kitty White, who stands outside the circle. The other players join hands in a ring and move around, while singing the first four lines. Meanwhile Kitty White is creeping around outside of the circle, peeping in at little Mousie Gray. When the fourth line is reached, ‘And quickly runs away,’ the circle stops moving and drops hands while the mouse runs out and in through the circle, chased by Kitty White. For the last four lines, while the chase is going on, the players in the circle stand in place and clap their hands while singing ‘Run, run,’ etc. When the mouse is caught, both return to the circle, and another mouse and kitty are chosen.”
Between seven and nine still wider possibilities are found in the dramatic use of materials. Sliced animals and other puzzles which consist of building pictures from sections of cardboard, dolls furnished with patterns for dressing, “Magic Changelings” (cutouts representing Mother Goose characters so pasted together that they may be two or three characters, according to the way in which they are folded), pasteboard farms and villages, a dolly’s school outfit, Miss Duncan’s pasteboard garden with labeled plants, stamped patterns of birds and animals to be sewed and stuffed, the “Dynamobile,” which goes by being wound up or attached to power, these are some of the store-made plays that are worth while.
A child, however, will have equal enjoyment by making a toy village out of blocks, stones, and twigs; he can make a miniature theater out of an old kennel that will satisfy him better than the brightly colored ones which can be bought, and he can play store, train, expressman with nothing more than some boxes and a cart. The larger skill and knowledge of the child gives more content to plays of an earlier period. He now invents and conducts elaborate sieges and defenses for his toy soldiers; he not merely plays with his pets, but he harnesses and drives them. He can get up such varied entertainments as a circus, a Wild West Show, a minstrel performance and a Japanese impersonation.
The child continues to play with dolls, but can now be induced to produce an entire puppet show, one of the most educative employments, by the way, possible to youthful play. He or she is now old enough to be interested also in the simpler festivals, such as those of the May Pole, Halloween, and the Fourth of July. Among the formal games appropriate to these years are Bird Catcher, The Wee Bologna Man, Fox and Geese and All Aboard.
We may provide an important stimulus to observation by encouraging it in imaginative play. Miss Nora A. Smith makes this suggestion: “Half-grown boys and girls too would be delighted to play at ‘Scouting,’ it being understood that a scout is always a special person, selected for his special qualifications, and that he is supposed to be unusually active, intelligent and trustworthy.
“The commanding officer, peacefully seated under a tree meanwhile, sends out such a child scout to bring him a full report of the country up to a given point, stating the condition of the roads, fences and bridges; giving a description of the rocks or trees behind which the enemy might take shelter; noting the presence of any figures in the distance—dust rising or birds flying—the foot-marks, wheel-marks, hoof-prints in the road, etc., or the presence of any object by the wayside which would indicate that the foe had passed by.
“If it is explained that the expedition is a dangerous one, necessitating great care and discretion on the part of the recruit, and if it is suggested that it will perhaps be well to make certain marks to guard against losing his way on return, by breaking small branches, piling up stones, ‘blazing’ trees, scratching fence-posts, etc., the excitement will be great and the game delightful, as well as preeminently useful.”
This is about the time when he begins to get up entirely original amateur shows, dramatizing either the stories he has read or the dramas he has witnessed. In his The Coming Generation Dr. Forbush gives these illustrations from his own household: “On going upstairs in the country, the author has often been confronted by a large brown paper poster which reads: