The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1914-01-18

boy and a drowned kitten they were
reluctant to make additions without
severest censorship; but the pool In
Hayward's woods won them with the
certainty Of some unidentified spell OF
enchantment under its darkling sur
face. "The mud that squelched under
our feet as we stood on the brink seemed
to be good. honest mud. and gave our
boots the proper holiday finish. Never
theless, we stared silently at the waters.
half expecting to see them thicken and
part In brown foam, to allow some red
mouthed prehistoric monster to rise
Oozily from his resting place In the mud,
some such mammoth as We had seen
carved In stone on the borders of the
lake at Crystal Palace. but no monster
appeared: only II rabbit sprang up sud
denly on the far side of the pool. and,
seeing we had no gun and no dog. limped
off In a leisurely manner to the war
rem" Ordinary enough: but: after
a while we grew weary of our doubts
and. tacitly agreeing to pretend that 1t
was only an ordinary pond, fell to pad
ding In the shadows with II good heart"
Pretending that real things are so: the
man who remembers that game has n
right to write of childhood.
Of "a piece with this IN the attribution
Of half the charm of Alice" to the
natural and sensible means by which
she reached her Wonderland" the au-
thors pretencc that this clearly vera
cious narrative was only a dream was
an unforpivable offence to the children.
who raw in II u device Of "the Olym-
plans" grownups. to Keep them from
slipping Off through rabbit holes to
wonderlands of their own. The joy of
digging is revived in memory:
We never dug without feeling the thrill
proper to treasure seekers Even half a
brick becomes cvcntful when found In
these circumstances. and the earth had "a
hundred pleasant secrets In the shape .
fragments Of pottery. mysterious humps Of
metal and excited insects for those VINO
approached her rcvercntly, trowcl Ia hand
u was this variety of treasure that made
US prefer inland digging to those more
fashionable excavations that We carried on
at the seaside.
Contrastcd with tile child's quick
turning to play In the sand is tho emo
ton Of "a sensible grown up person
looking at the sea for the first time"
division between the impulses to yawn-
ing and to liquid suicide; but II doubt
whether a child has any sense of what
| may call the appeal Of breadth. Con-
fronted with a fine view. IT will con-
centrate It's interest on a windmill or a
dolls house. II il not at all
excited by the consideration that there
Is II lot more sea beyond the horizon:
the extent OF its interest in the water
Is the limit to which il may paddle"
In another vein IS the facetious sug-
gestion:
when from time to time brain workers"
write to the newspapers to suggest that
street musicians should lie suppressed 7 feel
that the hour has almost come to start "A
movement In favor of Votes for children.
Writers Of essays reminiscent Of
childhood are sure to ba accused of con-
fusing the infantile and the mature
outlooks. and Mr.. Middleton is not i'm
mune from such a charge. But the
condemnation is commentators: 1t is
precisely In such confusion that
grown up readers find the charm of
writings about child ways and beliefs,
troubles and play. Frank Norris wrote
that the novelist Is a child grown up
without loss of his make believe"
powers; perhaps the child who digs in
the back yard Is father to the man who
discovers rare pottcries 10y dclving III
ancient ruins. The wide variety Of
Mr.. Middleton's topics saves his graceful
writing from monotony.
II there is any element OF literary
Immortality in the work he left it will
surely be found not in the poems but in
these papers. To adopt the phraseology
enormously attached by Mr. Savage to
the two series of poetry, We are mot
using words idly" when we say these
papers are "of that rare quality which
will sooner or later assure" them "a
recognized position in the front ranks
Of those who turn childhood into lit
erature. They are "of that substance
which lives