But on the whole these two little people carried out their intention of paying a real grown-up visit with perfect success up to the very moment when they were once more in the train by themselves on their return journey of some six miles, each one grasping firmly their half-ticket, and the last glimpse we had was of Reggie gravely lifting his little straw hat, as the train steamed out of the station. There is all the difference in the world between this sort of playing at being grown up, and the assumption of airs and graces which some children display. The one is real pleasure, the other the merest mockery. Children who are no sooner out of the nursery than they ape their elders in an insatiable desire for a succession of smart clothes and evening parties are seldom happy children. Those who care for their little ones and want to fill their early years with real pleasures will take care to avoid the causes which produce children such as these. It may perhaps be said that the main factors are two. [Sidenote: Modern Defiance of Authority.] If children be allowed to absorb the spirit that is pervading the world at the present day—the spirit of revolt against all authority, the notion, that is, that everyone is to do exactly as he or she chooses—that will of itself bring about a state of mind which is destructive of real happiness. Notions such as these are quickly picked up, and parents who themselves set all rules and authority at defiance cannot expect their children to submit to control. [Sidenote: Self-Conscious Jealous Children.] Then there is a second cause which is too often at work, and which does a great deal towards turning some children into disagreeable and discontented young folk. When people are continually trying to emulate if not excel their neighbours in appearance and in the entertainments they provide, children are quick enough to take their cue from what they see and overhear, with the result that they are miserable if they think their frocks are less fashionable than their neighbours’, and are rude and discontented if at one party they do not get as handsome presents as at some other. This is all wrong, and distinctly diminishes the pleasure that these children might otherwise enjoy. [Sidenote: Desirability of Simpler Children’s Parties.] It would without doubt add enormously to the real happiness of children if a league could be formed of all parents who should be bound to limit children’s parties within certain specified bounds of simplicity and within certain reasonably early hours. But this is by the way. It is pleasanter to turn for another minute or two to speak of the pleasures childlike children find in the simple joys that lie around their path. [Sidenote: Natural Pleasures the Most Enjoyed.]