ked plainly--_Nur fur Fussganger_, and if you will
follow my advice, you will hasten down it; you are not allowed to stand
here and hesitate."

"It doesn't lead a bit in the direction I want to go," said the old lady.

"It leads in the direction you _ought_ to want to go," I replied, and we
parted.

In the German parks there are special seats labelled, "Only for grown-
ups" (_Nur fur Erwachsene_), and the German small boy, anxious to sit
down, and reading that notice, passes by, and hunts for a seat on which
children are permitted to rest; and there he seats himself, careful not
to touch the woodwork with his muddy boots. Imagine a seat in Regent's
or St. James's Park labelled "Only for grown-ups!" Every child for five
miles round would be trying to get on that seat, and hauling other
children off who were on. As for any "grown-up," he would never be able
to get within half a mile of that seat for the crowd. The German small
boy, who has accidentally sat down on such without noticing, rises with a
start when his error is pointed out to him, and goes away with down-cast
head, brushing to the roots of his hair with shame and regret.

Not that the German child is neglected by a paternal Government. In
German parks and public gardens special places (_Spielplatze_) are
provided for him, each one supplied with a heap of sand. There he can
play to his heart's content at making mud pies and building sand castles.
To the German child a pie made of any other mud than this would appear an
immoral pie. It would give to him no satisfaction: his soul would revolt
against it.

"That pie," he would say to himself, "was not, as it should have been,
made of Government mud specially set apart for the purpose; it was nor
manufactured in the place planned and maintained by the Government for
the making of mud pies. It can bring no real blessing with it; it is a
lawless pie." And until his father had paid the proper fine, and he had
received his proper licking, his conscience would continue to trouble
him.

Another excellent piece of material for obtaining excitement in Germany
is the simple domestic perambulator. What you may do with a
"kinder-wagen," as it is called, and what you may not, covers pages of
German law; after the reading of which, you conclude that the man who can
push a perambulator through a German town without breaking the law was
meant for a diplomatist. You must not loiter with a perambulator, and
you mu