art. There is probably some way of talking to
such a child without being badly scored off. But I do not seem to
have the gift. This is the more unfortunate because the thing usually
happens before I have finished my breakfast, and nothing is quite so
damaging to my self-esteem as to be soundly snubbed in my own house
before the day's work has begun.

Mind you I do not honestly believe that my logic is at fault. I
believe that there is usually a flaw in the reasoning of the child.
But you cannot very well say to an infant of three, "You are now being
guilty of an undistributed middle or a _petitio elenchi_ or whatever
it is." She would do what I have heard even older women do in like
circumstances. She would change the subject at once. Perhaps the
MONTESSORI system ... But let us take a typical case.

I found her sitting at a large table by the dining-room window, in a
high chair that left her red shoes eighteen inches from the ground, a
complete doll's tea service in front of her and a small stuffed lamb
on her right-hand side. The tea-pot appeared to contain real water
and the sugar-basin real sugar, and although she was supremely busy
watering and sugaring and rearranging her cups and jugs and spoons
she greeted me with the composure of an experienced _chatelaine_. Our
conversation went something like this:--

_She._ Will you have any cup of tea?

_I_ (_having drunk a small cup of water with a very little real sugar
and a large quantity of real grit in it_.) Thank you. How delicious!
But I must go and have my breakfast now.

_She_ (_taking no notice at all and offering me a small fragment of
moist toast_). Will you have any piece of cake?

_I._ Thank you. What lovely plum-cake!

_She_ (_with infinite scorn_). Ho! that isn't _plum_-cake. There isn't
any plums in it. It's _choclat_ cake.

_I_ (_humiliated_). Oh, well, I don't think I will have any more tea,
thank you.

_She_ (_coldly_). I'm going to give my lamb tea now.

[_The method of giving tea to a lamb, in case it is not generally
known, is to plaster the lamb's nose with spoonfuls of sugar and
then lick off the sugar with one's tongue. At least that is the way
Priscilla does it._]

_I_ (_reprovingly from the breakfast-table_.) What a funny way to give
your lamb tea, Priscilla.

_She._ My lamb says he likes having his tea like this. (_A longish
pause._) Please will you draw me a picsher?

_I._ What kind of a picture?

_She._ A picsher of a hous