dann haben die Kinder gesagt:
_die wid, de immi immi wid_ ["Der Wind, der Wind, das himmlische
Kind"] Der Wind, der himmlische,
himmlische Wind.

(There were once a mama and a papa, and they had two children.
And the children went into the woods and fetched wood. Then
they came to a little sugar house and ate. Then the witch said:
"Nucker, Nucker Neisle, who is crawling in my little house?"
Then the children said: "The wind, the wind, the heavenly
child"--The wind, the heavenly, heavenly wind.)

I told the same story to my boy for the first time when he was two years
and eighteen days old. He repeated, with an effort:

_Ess ets aine mama unn ain papa edam (wesen)._
_unn (unt) diesa abn wais (twai) kinna (tinder) ghatf (dehappt)._
_unn die kinna sint (dsint) in den walt tegang (gangen)._
_unn-daben (habn) holz (olz) geh[=o]l (ohlt)._
_dann sint (dsint) sie an ain utsom-haendom (zuke-haeussn) zezan
(gangn)._
_unn (unt) habn (abn) ge ... (dessen)._
_dann hatt die hetse (hekksee) dsa (tsakt)._
_nanuck (nuke nuke) nana nainle (naisle)._
_wer ... (drabbelt) mir am haeultje (aeusle)._
_dann baben (habn) die ... (tinder) ze-a (dsagt)._
_der wi[)e]ds (wind) ... (der fint)._
_ds[=e]r wenn daz (das) himmelae (immlis) khint (tint)._

Where the periods are, his attempts were all vain. At any rate, he would
say _pta-pta_ as he usually did in fruitless efforts at imitating
sounds. Just two months after these first attempts, the same child
recited for me the narrative, using the expressions in the parentheses;
this indicated a distinct progress in articulation. A year after the
first attempt, he easily repeated the whole, with only a single error.
He still said _himmelae_, and then _himmliss_, for "himmlische."

A third boy (Duesseldorf) repeated the narrative much better, as early as
his twenty-fifth month. He made only the following errors, which were
noted by his mother, and kindly communicated by her to me:

_gewesa_ for gewesen
_gehat_ " gehabt
_gehat_ }
_gehakt_ } " gesagt
_gegannen_ " gegangen
_hamen_ " haben
_hind hie_ " sind sie
_kabbell_ " krabbelt
_himmli-he_ " himmlische
_fai_ " zwei
_kinner_