companies of from four to twelve they went where trees or long
grass hid them from observation, and exhibited their persons to
one another; sometimes, also, they handled one another, but not
in the way of masturbation. Of this last, M.O. was wholly
ignorant. Sometimes when but two or three were together,
intercourse was attempted. In M.O.'s case there was eager sexual
curiosity, and a more or less keen desire, but actual contact
brought no great satisfaction. On two or three occasions girls
practised _fellatio_, and he then reciprocated with
_cunnilinctus_, but without pleasure. In all these plays he is
sure that girls took the initiative as often as boys did.

During all this period, M.O. had now one girl sweetheart and now
another. This was conventional among the children, and was
fostered by the banter of older persons. M.O.'s sexual curiosity
was certainly greater in regard to the opposite sex. At this
time, however, his homosexual interests appeared. With a boy two
or more years older he frequently went to some hiding-place where
they looked at each other's organs and handled them. He and
another boy were once in an abandoned garden, and they took off
all their clothes, the better to examine each other. The other
boy then offered to kiss M.O.'s fundament, and did so. It caused
a surprisingly keen and distinctly sexual sensation, the first
sexual shock that he can remember experiencing. He refused to
reciprocate, however, when asked.

Toward the end of this period there was a new and increasing
development of another sort, not recognized then as at all sexual
in character. He began to feel toward certain boys in a way very
different and much keener than he had done thus far toward girls,
although at the time he made no comparisons. For instance there
was a boy whom he considered very pretty. They visited each other
often and spent long times playing together. In school they
looked and looked at each other until delicious, uncontrollable
giggling spells came on. Sexual matters were never discussed or
thought of. These experiences were, in their way, very
sentimental and ideal. M.O. is sure that with himself the main
consideration was always the other boy's beauty. He began to
recall with great fondness a certain much older and very handsome
youth who had lived nea