The citizen-Republican. (Scotland, Bon Homme County, S.D.) 1???-19??, 1912-06-06
I IN MENTAL
GROWTH OF INFANTS
EMOTIONS OF A CHILD OF THREE.

! emphasis a little while ago when the first
tardy spring days arrived and I saw a
3-year-old turned loose on the out-of-doors
after the long winter housing. The mar
row walls Of the house broke away from
before his eyes as he went through the
open door and before him stretched the
wide expanse Of field and sky. The light
filled space invited him with impelling
solicitation and one ecstatic shout spoke
his rapturous acceptance. Over the board
fence and he stopped to see the flicker
drumming on the roof. A shout of joy
and recognition and then the swing that
had hung neglected through the tortuous
winter called him to stop for old friend
ships sake as well as for the delight of
motion.
But not for long; out into the field where
the clover was Just showing its first shoot
and then a robin whistling in the naked
top of the maple tree called forth the
shout Of knocking bird"
This much he had saved over from his
second summer when the hooking birds
had been numerous about the place. Every
bird was a hooking bird; sparrows, robins,
thrashers, meadow larks, were all the
same to him. He greeted them all as old
acquaintance and welcomed their sight
with joy, which was always turned to
partial pain when he was told the real
name of the bird, and that it was not a
hooking bird.
Across the field to where the other chill
dren lad been getting the early blood root
and his eager hands gathered in great
punches Of the creamy blossoms. About,
and the spring beauties were growing at
his feet. Down the hillside and the old
walnuts molding in the grass brought
back the memory OF the last years har-
vest, and he filled his rolled-up sweater,
as he trudged up the other slope he spied
the robins last years nest, now hanging
bare amid the struggling boughs of the
haw tree. Then back along the fence and
under it he came dragging his heavy boots
up the back porch steps and painted out,
I'm hungry" He dropped his walnuts
on the porch and his flowers upon the
kitchen table. With hat and sweater off.
his head in steaming curls, he looked the
picture when he said, I'm tired"
Exhausted BY the Rush of Newness.
In truth there was reason. The daily
round of indoor playthings had made life
quite the same and his mind was well or
ganized and unified on blocks and books.
on rocking horse and paper dolls, on
chairs and rugs. on pictures, tables, fire.
place, telephone and the members of the
family, on the daily course Of meals and
sleep, but here the perfect cycle Of the
days events was down up by the influx
of a new world of things. A score of
times the old familiar forms of thought
We're interrupted and new adjustments
must be made and always in hat most
expensive way, to the accompaniment of
, great emotions. The vital energy that
went into that mornings run is compre-
hensible to an adult only when he thinks
what it meant to him to take his first
trip to New York or into the mountains
or to the distant college.
Yet day after day as the season adj
vances this Tebirth into a new world OF
things takes place for the child. New
birds, new bugs, new blossoms, make life
for him one continuous voyage along the
seasons current, all this varied scenery
along the way demanding new adjust
ments. new associations, the whole
amounting to a genuine reconstruction of
the mind before the summer is gone. Who
can doubt that it states the truth mildly
to say that this process of reconstruc-
ton goes on with terrific speed and who
can doubt that if to grow from stage to
stage with terrific speed constitutes the
f~ullness of life that then the life of the
child vertically overflows while for the
most of US the cup is never full to the
briln. For some of us the bottom is hard
w covered