There can be no doubt that the more natural the employment or amusement the greater the pleasure. A little girl is given a tiny dustpan and allowed to sweep the carpet, or she has a drawer full of odds and ends and is asked to sort and arrange them. She will spend an entire morning in such an occupation with the keenest pleasure, and if anyone who has watched her should also see her when dressed up at some “smart” party that same evening there would be no doubt in the mind of the onlooker as to which brought most real happiness to the child. [Sidenote: Story-telling.] One of the greatest delights that can be afforded to children must come in for a word of mention. Who does not remember the story-teller of his or her childhood? Perhaps it was “father,” who when he came in at tea time would let the whole family swarm on and about his arm-chair, and would tell another bit of the thrilling tale which he always broke off each evening at the very most exciting point. Or sometimes it would be one of the bigger children, gifted with an extraordinary power of calling up robbers and demons, who enthralled an audience by the narration of horrors which stimulated their imagination and made them feel deliciously “creepy.” No such things as “chestnuts” exist for children. The oftener the story has been told the better they like it, and never hesitate to choose an old favourite before a brand new tale. But this chapter is already becoming too long. It would be easy to enumerate numberless simple amusements which bring real pleasure to children. But the same moral can be drawn in every case. The simpler and more natural the occupation the greater the pleasure. Do not all children revel in playing with the earth and water that lie about their feet? Whether they are the lucky ones who can build sand castles and let the sea-water fill the moats, or whether they can only play in the gutter by their door, they are ten times happier in such pleasures as these than in any grander or more elaborate amusements. To the recognition of this fact those who plan children’s pleasures will owe their chief success. CHAPTER VII THE CHILD—ITS PATHOS Just as there is no summer without its cool grey days, so among the sunny crowd of children about our path there is here and there a child who seems to live beneath a shadow. [Sidenote: Quiet Children.] Just, too, as the tender colouring of the grey landscape has a special charm which only needs the seeking, so these quiet little ones amply repay the observation of those who do not let them steal away and escape notice as they always wish to do. No one who cares for children can have failed to have come in contact with some who are silent when their comrades shout, grave when the rest are laughing, and look wistfully on when games are in progress.