rreptitiously into the store-closet and
upset the milk-pitcher. Terrified, he crept behind the flour-barrel,
and there Nemesis found him, and he looked so charming and so guilty
that two or three others were called to come and enjoy the sight. But
he, unhappy midget, did not know that he looked charming; he did not
know that his guilty consciousness only made him the more interesting;
he did not know that he seemed an epitome of humanity, a Liliputian
miniature of the great world; and his large, blue, solemn eyes were
filled with remorse. As he stood there silent, with his grave, utterly
mournful face, he had robbed a bank, he had forged a note, he had
committed a murder, he was guilty of treason. All the horror of
conscience, all the shame of discovery, all the unavailing regret of a
detected, atrocious, but not utterly hardened pirate, tore his poor
little innocent heart. Yet children are seeing their happiest days!

These people--the aforesaid three fourths of our acquaintance--lay
great stress on the fact that children are free from care, as if
freedom from care were one of the beatitudes of Paradise; but I should
like to know if freedom from care is any blessing to beings who don't
know what care is. You who are careful and troubled about many things
may dwell on it with great satisfaction, but children don't find it
delightful by any means. On the contrary, they are never so happy as
when they can get a little care, or cheat themselves into the belief
that they have it. You can make them proud for a day by sending them
on some responsible errand. If you will not place care upon them, they
will make it for themselves. You shall see a whole family of dolls
stricken down simultaneously with malignant measles, or a restive horse
evoked from a passive parlor-chair. They are a great deal more eager
to assume care, than you are to throw it off. To be sure, they may be
quite as eager to be rid of it after a while; but while this does not
prove that care is delightful, it certainly does prove that freedom
from care is not.

Now I should like, Herr Narr, to have you look at the other side for a
moment: for there is a positive and a negative pole. Children not
only have their full share of misery, but they do not have their full
share of happiness; at least, they miss many sources of happiness to
which we have access. They have no consciousness. They have
sensations, but no perceptions. We look longingly up