ascinated with the games and gifts of the kindergarten, which aims to
_teach something_, not to _repress everything_. Children are delighted
to learn little polite phrases; to make a bow; to hold a fork daintily;
to offer little courtesies, and to receive a smiling approbation. They
would rather do things prettily than not. They are _not "contrary,"_
exceptional cases of hereditary ugliness aside. They are apt pupils,
whether their tutor be a philosopher or a fool. And if a faulty
example be a child's most constant and influential teacher, what wonder
that the lessons, well-learned, are put in practice? And just then, if
you listen, you will hear some one issue the emphatic but vacuous
command, "Don't!" And the baby _doesn't_, for the space of a few
seconds; after which, unable to get any new suggestions out of the
idea-less instructions given him, he proceeds to do the same thing
over, only to be again commanded to desist, a spanking for
"disobedience" this time varying the monotony of the universal
prohibition.

The profane poll-parrot is not a more startling witness to the
character of its surroundings than the "terrible infant," whose rude
snatchings, pert contradictions, and glib slang phrases are sure to be
most effectively "shown off" in the presence of visitors. It is of
little use to affect grieved surprise, or stern reprobation, when one's
children are merely exhibiting their daily discipline. Most parents
feel keenly the embarrassment of having the infant misbehave so
inopportunely, and they are apt to offer a tacit apology and a vague
self-defense by sharply reprimanding the child in words that are meant
to give the visitor the idea that they--the parents--never _heard_ or
_saw_ such conduct before, and are now frozen with amazement. The
nonchalant or incredulous or impish way in which the children receive
these reproofs only confirms the suspicion that such scenes have been
frequent, and the discipline attending them has been inconsequent.

One parent I have heard acknowledge the truth of the matter. An
elderly clergyman was his guest, and the four-year-old daughter of the
house was entertaining the "grandpa" with a toy puzzle, which he
fumbled with in vain, unable to put it together or to take it apart.
Impatient at last, the little girl hastily snatched it from his hand
with a childish growl of contempt, and proceeded to show him the trick,
saying, with an airy mingling of criticism and condes