t build a ship. They do not Know how to get
iron from the mines, _and they do not know enough._

"Besides, they do not like to work, and like to fight
_better_ than to work.

"When they want to sail, they burn off a log of wood, and
make it hollow by burning and scraping it with sharp stones."

Now we ask, does not this satisfy your ideal of food for the youthful
mind? Observe that it is simple, direct, graphic, satisfying. It cannot
enfeeble the intellect. It will be useful. There is something tangible
about it. The child at once perceives that if the Indians knew how to
"get iron from the mines," and "knew enough" in general, they would
build ships, in spite of their distaste for work. There can be no doubt
that this is "all truth--no fiction," for Indians are sadly in want of
ships. They like to sail; for we learn that "when they want to sail"
they are so wild for it, that they even go to the length of "burning off
a log of wood, and making it hollow by burning and scraping it with
sharp stones." We thus perceive the significance of the apothegm, "Truth
is stranger than fiction." The day is not far distant when children will
think as much of the new literature as they formerly did of certain
worm-lozenges, for which they were said to "cry."

And where everything has been inspired by the love of Truth, even the
cuts may teach something. If "a canoe," contrary to the general
impression, is at least as long as "a ship," it is very important that
children should so understand it; and if "a pin-fish" is really as big
as "a shark," no mistaken deference to the feelings of the latter should
make us hesitate to say so.

No child, we are convinced, is too young to get ideas of science. In one
of the model books we are pleased to find this great truth distinctly
recognized:

"'Is there anything like a lever about a wheelbarrow?' said
his father. 'O yes, sir,' said JAMES. 'The axle; and the
wheel is the prop, the load is the weight, and the power is
your hand.'"

This, we should say, speaks for itself.

Nor is a child ever too young to get ideas of thrift. One of our writers
for infants observes, after explaining that the Dutch reclaimed the
whole of Holland from the sea by means of dykes, "they worked hard,
saved their money, and so grew rich." Any child can take such hints.

Neither is it wholly amiss to demonstrate that a child can't put a clock
in his pocket. For it is plain th