of other engines on
the track in front of it. So when it wanted to puff smoke and go fast it
told its engineer and he put some coal in the coal car. And then the
other engines told their engineers to put coal in their coal cars and
then they all could go.

(The child then played a song by a "'lectric" engine on the piano and
tried to write the notes.)

TWO STORIES BY FIVE-YEAR-OLDS

Once upon a time there was a clown and the clown jumped on the bed
and the bed jumped on the cup. Then the clown took a pencil and
drawed on his face. And the clown said, "Oh, I guess I'll sit in a
rocking chair." So the rocking chair said, "Ha! ha!" and it tumbled
away. Then a little pig came along and he said, "Could you throw me
up and throw an apple down?" So the clown threw him so far that he
was dead. He was on the track.

* * *

There was a big factory where all the men made engines. And one man
made a smoke stack. And one man made a tender. And one man made a
cab. And one man made a bell. And one man made a wheel. And then
another man came and put them all together and made a great big
engine. And this man said, "We haven't any tracks!" And then a man
came and made the tracks. And then another man said, "We haven't
any station!" So many men came and built a big station. And they
said, "Let's have the station in Washington Square." So they pulled
down the Arch and they pulled up all the sidewalks. And they built
a big station. And they left all the houses; for where would we
live else?

(In a sequel he says: So they knocked down the Arch and chopped up
all the pieces. And they chopped all around the trees but they
didn't chop them down because they looked so pretty with our
station!)

I am far from meaning that five-year-olds should be confined to their
literal experiences. They have made considerable progress in separating
themselves from their environment though at times they seem still to
think of the things around them more or less as extensions of
themselves. Their inquiries still emanate from their own personal
experiences; but they do not end there. A child of this age has a
genuine curiosity about where things come from and where they go to.
"What's it for?" indeed, implies a dim conception beyond the "here" and
the "now," a conception which his stories should help him to clar