The twenty-eighth month is characterized by a rapid increase of activity in the formation of ideas, on the one hand, and by considerably greater certainty in the use of words, on the other. Ambition is developed and makes itself known by a frequent _lainee_ (_allein_, alone). The child wants to undertake all sorts of things without help. He asks for various objects interesting to him, with the words _Ding haben_ (have the thing). That the faculty of observation and of combination is becoming perfected, is indicated by the following: The child sees an ox at the slaughter-house and says _mumu_ (moo-moo); I add "todt" (dead); thereupon comes the response _mumu todt_, and after a pause the child says, of his own accord, _lachtett_ (_geschlachtet_, slaughtered); then _Blut heraus_ (blood out). The beginning of self-control is perceived in this, that the child often recollects, of himself, the strict commands he has received to refrain from this and that. Thus, he had been accustomed to strike members of the family in fun, and this had been forbidden him. Now, when the inclination seizes him still to strike, he says emphatically _nicht lagen_ (_schlagen_,--not strike), _Axel brav_ (good). In general the child names himself only by his name, which he also tells to strangers without being asked. His parents, and these alone, are mostly named _Papa_ and _Mama_, but often also by their names. The following is a proof of independent thinking while the understanding of language is still imperfect: At breakfast I say, "Axel is breakfasting with papa, is he not (_nicht wahr_)?" He replies earnestly, with genuine child-logic, _doch wahr_ (but he _is_)! The earlier appellation _swer_ and _wer_ (schwer--heavy) for muede (tired) is preserved. This transference, like the other one, _locotiwe wassa trinkt_, when the engine is supplied with water, is the intellectual peculium of the child. The number of such childish conceptions has now become very large. On the other hand, the words independently formed out of what has been heard are not numerous: _beisst_ for gebissen (bitten), _reit_ " geritten (ridden), _esst_ " gegessen (eaten), _wesen_ " gewesen (been), _austrinkt_ " ausgetrunken (drunk up), _tschulter_ " Schulter (shoulder),