At first the Pinkstons were amused, then they were indignant. They too felt that the two colored children had no business in a school for white children. But when Miss Stone had shown them that a separate school was impracticable in a town that had but one colored family, that conditions were very different from those of a southern city, and that a change in Sallie Lou’s attitude would avert a personal tragedy for two innocent little girls, the parents came finally to see the matter from her point of view. They promised to talk to Sallie Lou and to persuade her to change her tactics. Miss Stone thanked them, and changed the subject quickly and brightly to something else. Sallie Lou, at first with formal and awkward condescension, but later with the same frank charm that won everyone to her, asked the two little outcasts back into the fold of fifth grade fun. The rest fell easily into their old democratic way of sharing things. Miss Stone had solved the problem of race prejudice by changing the example. 2. Play—A Second Form of the Adaptive Instincts The child never reveals his whole nature as he does when playing. His physical, mental and moral powers are all called then into vigorous exercise. On the playground the boy begins to learn how to struggle with his fellow men in the great battle of life. His strength and his weakness both manifest themselves there, so that it pays to study him. —_Hughes._ Much school trouble is caused by the purely sportive impulses of childhood, impulses which are in themselves entirely innocent and wholesome. One of the most valuable parts of a child’s training is the acquiring of a set of notions as to appropriateness—the knowledge of when he may, and when he may not, rightly give rein to his wish to play. Some children acquire these ideas of propriety readily, and adapt themselves seemingly without effort to the customs of their environment; but most children stumble through the period of adaptation with many backslidings, for the instinct of play is stronger than the instinct of adaptation to requirement. But let it be remembered meanwhile that this same play instinct is one of the strongest allies of the teacher in securing such adaptation, if the instinct is properly directed. What lesson of politeness, neatness, unselfishness, protection of the weak, promptness, responsibility, care of pets, coöperation, chivalry—yes, even of duty and religion—may not be taught through play! Draining off the play impulses into these legitimate channels will relieve many a wearisome, perplexing day for both teacher and pupils, and at the same time speed on the child toward conscious self-control.