Now I have always noticed that when a boy plays horse, it
is not because he has any desire to be the horse, but the
driver. He is willing to be horse for a time, in order that he
may be allowed to be driver for a still longer time. A large
boy was playing horse with a smaller one, the latter acting
as the beast of burden. This continued for some time, when the
smaller, either discovering that a horse is larger than a man, or
that it is more noble to be a man than a horse, balked, and said:

"Now you be horse."

The older was not yet inclined to be horse, and tried in
vain, by coaxing, scolding and whipping, to induce him to
move, but the horse was firm. The driver was also firm, and not
until the horse in a very unhorselike manner, gave away to tears,
could the man be induced to let himself down to the level of a
horse. From all of which it will be seen that the disposition of
Chinese children is no exception to that longing for superiority
which prevails in every human heart.

All kinds of trades, professions, and employments have
as great attraction for Chinese as for American children. A
country boy looks forward to the time when he can stand
up in the cart and drive the team. Children seeing a
battalion of soldiers at once "organize a company." This
was amusingly illustrated by a group of children in Peking
during the Chinese-Japanese war. Each had a stick or a
weed for a gun, except the drummer-boy, who was provided
with an empty fruit-can. They went through various
maneuvres, for practice, no doubt, and all seemed to be going on