ence depends.

But at its best this latter-day acquaintanceship is never so strong nor
so helpful as that which begins when the child is an infant and
continues through boyhood to the larger youth and manhood. And it is
easy to win the confidence and respect of the very young, easy to retain
it when won. Yet many a sincere and anxious man fails utterly to earn
that sympathetic companionship which any father may have for the asking,
if the request is made in a way the child can understand and appreciate.
The foundation of it all is a sympathy in the things that children know
and love. _A child lives on a plane of his own. You cannot take him very
far from it nor substitute anything in its place except by the slowest
and most careful management._ There can be no sympathy, no understanding
that is not located on the childish plane. The father must come down
where the child lives, must find his interest in the things that the
child loves and must be sincere in every manifestation of that interest.
Right here is where so many fathers fail. They try to interest the child
in things which the older mind enjoys, and finding themselves unable to
create the artificial atmosphere give up in discouragement and disgust.
Such a course is foolish in the extreme. The older person who knows more
and has had the experiences that are now new to youngsters must go back
into his memories and join in the little things that make up the big
complex of a child's world. Unless you become as little children you can
never enter into the lives of children.

To become young again in a genuine fashion is not permitted to many of
us and we must accordingly seek some common ground where we can meet the
children and be as they are in seeming if not in reality. We may not be
able to play their games with interest and sympathy, or the boys may be
so skilful that we lose standing rather than gain influence by
participation. We may not be able to sympathize with the rivalries of
school or talk intelligently on the sports that make up a large part of
their daily occupation. Where, then, can we meet them and how shall we
put ourselves on an equality with them and at the same time preserve our
leadership?

Such a question is not easy to answer in detail, but many a man has
found a way and a simple one at that. In the first place, play is part
of the life of every child and he has as much right to his fun as any
adult has to the recreation he finds necessary t