s Sir Walter Scott: "Indeed I rather suspect
that children derive impulses of a powerful and important kind from
reading things which they do not comprehend, and therefore that to write
down to children's understanding is a mistake. Set them on the scent and
let them puzzle it out."

From time to time I have allowed my pupils to give me written
reports from memory of these essays, and have often found these little
compositions sparkling with pleasing information, or full of that
childlike fun which is characteristic of the author. I have marked the
errors in these exercises, and have given them back to the children
to rewrite. Sometimes the second papers show careful correction-and
sometimes the mistakes are partially neglected. Very often the child
wishes to improve on the first composition, and so adds new blunders as
well as creates new interest.

There is a law of self-preservation in Nature, which takes care of
mistakes. Every human soul reaches toward the light in the most direct
path open to it, and will correct its own errors as soon as it is
developed far enough. There is no use in trying to force maturity;
teachers who trouble children beyond all reason, and worry over their
mistakes, are fumbling at the roots of young plants that will grow if
they are let alone long enough.

The average mechanical work (spelling, construction of sentences,
writing, etc.) is better under this method than when more time is
devoted to the mechanics and less to the thought of composition. I have
seen many reports of Burroughs's essays from the pens of children more
pleasing and reliable than the essays of some professional reviewers;
in these papers I often find the children adding little suggestions of
their own; as, "Do birds dream?" One of the girls says her bird "jumps
in its sleep." A little ten year old writes, "Weeds are unuseful
flowers," and, "I like this book because there are real things in it."
Another thinks she "will look more carefully" if she ever gets out into
the country again. For the development of close observation and good
feeling toward the common things of life, I know of no writings better
than those of John Burroughs.

MARY E. BURT

JONES SCHOOL, CHICAGO, Sept. 1, 1887.

BIRDS.

BIRD ENEMIES.

How surely the birds know their enemies! See how the wrens and robins
and bluebirds pursue and scold the cat, while they take little or no
notice of the dog! Even the swallow will fight t