BOB THE SQUIRREL.
Bob writing his Travels.
PREFACE.
The following little story has been put in thepresent shape by a Father; and he takes the privilegeof a Preface to say a word in behalf ofchildren, as REASONABLE BEINGS. Whoever willtake pains to talk to them, and to listen to andunderstand what they say, and what they ask,will find in the first much that will be worth remembering,and in the second much that willchallenge the mature reason to answer. It isonly those who are ignorant of the capacity of infancy,who pronounce children uninteresting, orwho imagine it beneath the intellect of the adultto converse with the child.
In whatever household it is made a daily practiceto hold a conversation in which the childrencan participate, for an hour on each day, it willbe found that the time thus spent is more fruitfulin good influences than all the time which is devotedto set and formal instructions can be; indeed,such twilight conversations, if properly directed,develope what the child daily learns, byenabling him to apply it. Give a boy a knife,and a girl a box of colours, and each will at onceput the present to use, and affix a value to it.But give them a task in certain things which youtell them to commit to memory to apply “whenthey grow up,” and they will, in spite of themselves,forget nearly as fast as they learn, and findthe acquisition of knowledge an irksome and apparentlyprofitless occupation—disheartening anddisagreeable.
Converse with them daily, and you put whatthey acquire to instant profit. They discover theadvantage of education, by being enabled to makeit instantly available in their conversation withtheir elders. And, on the other hand, those elderswill not fail to perceive that there are aspects ofalmost every subject to which children are the firstto call their attention. The little fellow in frockand trowsers looks under the table, while his seniorssee only the cover.
“Stories” are always interesting to children—an