Even as we must learn that our time, when it is long, is too long for
children, so must we learn that our time, when it is short, is too short
for them. When it is exceedingly short they cannot, without an unnatural
effort, have any perception of it. When children do not see the jokes of
the elderly, and disappoint expectation in other ways, only less
intimate, the reason is almost always there. The child cannot turn in
mid-career; he goes fast, but the impetus took place moments ago.




THE CHILD OF TUMULT


A poppy bud, packed into tight bundles by so hard and resolute a hand
that the petals of the flower never afterwards lose the creases, is a
type of the child. Nothing but the unfolding, which is as yet in the non-
existing future, can explain the manner of the close folding of
character. In both flower and child it looks much as though the process
had been the reverse of what it was--as though a finished and open thing
had been folded up into the bud--so plainly and certainly is the future
implied, and the intention of compressing and folding-close made
manifest.

With the other incidents of childish character, the crowd of impulses
called "naughtiness" is perfectly perceptible--it would seem heartless to
say how soon. The naughty child (who is often an angel of tenderness and
charm, affectionate beyond the capacity of his fellows, and a very
ascetic of penitence when the time comes) opens early his brief campaigns
and raises the standard of revolt as soon as he is capable of the