ither do they, perhaps;
but presumably by the time they're twenty-eight months old they must
have formed some ideas as to what is possible and what isn't. And
therefore it seemed to the Urchin's curators sound and advisable to take
him out to the Zoo one Sunday afternoon just to suggest to his
delightful mind that nothing is impossible in this curious world.

Of course, the amusing feature of such expeditions is that it is always
the adult who is astounded, while the child takes things blandly for
granted. You or I can watch a tiger for hours and not make head or tail
of it--in a spiritual sense, that is--whereas an urchin simply smiles
with rapture, isn't the least amazed, and wants to stroke the "nice
pussy."

It was a soft spring afternoon, the garden was thronged with visitors
and all the indoor animals seemed to be wondering how soon they would be
let out into their open-air inclosures. We filed through the wicket gate
and the Urchin disdained the little green go-carts ranked for hire. He
preferred to navigate the Zoo on his own white-gaitered legs. You might
as well have expected Adam on his first tour of Eden to ride in a
palanquin.

The Urchin entered the Zoo much in the frame of mind that must have been
Adam's on that original tour of inspection. He had been told he was
going to the Zoo, but that meant nothing to him. He saw by the aspect of
his curators that he was to have a good time, and loyally he was
prepared to exult over whatever might come his way. The first thing he
saw was a large boulder--it is set up as a memorial to a former curator
of the garden. "Ah," thought the Urchin, "this is what I have been
brought here to admire." With a shout of glee he ran to it. "See stone,"
he cried. He is an enthusiast concerning stones. He has a small
cardboard box of pebbles, gathered from the walks of a city square,
which is very precious to him. And this magnificent big pebble, he
evidently thought, was the marvelous thing he had come to examine. His
custodians, far more anxious than he to feast their eyes upon lions and
tigers, had hard work to lure him away. He crouched by the boulder,
appraising its hugeness, and left it with the gratified air of one who
has extracted the heart out of a surprising and significant experience.

The next adventure was a robin, hopping on the lawn. Every child is
familiar with robins which play a leading part in so much Mother Goose
mythology, so the Urchin felt himself greetin