His little sister of a
year older seemed thoroughly to enjoy the humour of the situation.
"Listen to him, mother. He's trying to talk like God. He often does."
Bulls are made by a less imaginative child who likes to find some reason
for things--a girl. Out at the work of picking blackberries, she
explains, "Those rather good ones were all bad, mother, so I ate them."
Being afraid of dogs, this little girl of four years old has all kinds of
dodges to disguise her fear, which she has evidently resolved to keep to
herself. She will set up a sudden song to distract attention from the
fact that she is placing herself out of the dog's way, and she will
pretend to turn to gather a flower, while she watches the creature out of
sight. On the other hand, prudence in regard to carts and bicycles is
openly displayed, and the infants are zealous to warn one another. A
rider and his horse are called briefly "a norseback."
Children, who see more things than they have names for, show a fine
courage in taking any words that seem likely to serve them, without
wasting time in asking for the word in use. This enterprise is most
active at three and four years, when children have more than they can
say. So a child of those years running to pick up horse-chestnuts, for
him a new species, calls after his mother a full description of what he
has found, naming the things indifferently "dough-nuts" and "cocoa-nuts.
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