hed--if the least obstacle is encountered he can only give way.
And yet this pitiable being makes no appeal to the spirit of
helpfulness. Do what you can for him it is impossible to raise him up,
the only thing is to go down with him to his own level and stay there.
The Golliwog is at heart a pessimist.

In contrast with this the presence of an altar or nursery shrine, though
not a plaything, gives a different tone to play--a tone of joy and
heavenliness that go down into the soul and take root there to grow into
something lasting and beautiful. There are flowers to be brought, and
lights, and small processions, and evening recollection with quietness
of devotion, with security in the sense of heavenly protection, with the
realization of the "great cloud of witnesses" who are around to make
play safe and holy, and there is through it all the gracious call to
things higher, to be strong, to be unselfish, to be self-controlled, to
be worthy of these protectors and friends in heaven.

There is another side also to the question of nursery play, and that is
what may be called the play-values of the things provided. Mechanical
toys are wonderful, but beyond an artificial interest which comes mostly
from the elders, there is very little lasting delight in them for
children. They belong to the system of over-indulgence and
over-stimulation which measures the value of things by their price.
Their worst fault is that they do all there is to be done, while the
child looks on and has nothing to do. The train or motor rushes round
and round, the doll struts about and bleats "papa," "mama," the
Teddy-bear growls and dances, and the owner has but to wind them up,
which is very poor amusement. Probably they are better after they have
been over-wound and the mechanical part has given way, and they have
come to the hard use that belongs to their proper position as
playthings. If a distinction may be drawn between toys and playthings,
toys are of very little play-value, they stand for fancy play, to be
fiddled with; while playthings stand as symbols of real life, the harder
and more primitive side of life taking the highest rank, and all that
they do is really done by the child. This is the real play-value. Even
things that are not playthings at all, sticks and stones and shells,
have this possibility in them. Things which have been found have a
history of their own, which gives them precedence over what comes from a
shop; but the highes