istic trait of the girl even at this early age, she is on
the whole more aggressive in these early love affairs than the boy
and less guarded about revealing her secret. However, the impulse to
conceal the emotion,--to inhibit its direct manifestations--is
fundamental to this stage of the emotion's development in both sexes
and is, as we shall see later, of the deepest significance.

As in every other field of investigation, so here, we find that not
all of the facts conform to our classification. Thus occasionally
couples between eight and twelve or fourteen years of age are found
who enjoy each other's company and so pair off and freely express
their feelings as they do in the previous stage and also in the one
that follows. The boys of these couples are generally those of
effeminate tendencies who have been accustomed to play with girls
instead of with boys. They are never very highly respected by the
other boys, and later, at adolescence, are tolerated by the girls
rather than respected and sought by them. Again there are individuals
who are very timid in their general disposition, and are consequently
undemonstrative and inhibitive at all times.

We have emphasized the fact that children that have sex-love in this
second stage of its development, as a rule, avoid all direct
expressions of their feelings and that lovers are awkward,
embarrassed, self-conscious and ill-at-ease in each other's presence.
This is true when the conditions are such that their personalities
meet in mutual recognition without a third thing as a shield. They
are not yet in that stage of development wherein they, themselves,
become the chief objects of conversation and wherein endearments and
compliments become the chief stock-in-trade. However, the emotion has
its expression indirectly through games, plays and other incidents
that can be used as masks. Instead of direct contact of personalities
through the love confession as such, it is long-circuited through
some conventionality. In this regard the games of children are used
very effectively. The following games are the ones which I have
personally seen used oftenest: Post-office, Clap-in-clap-out,
Snap-and-catch-it, Skip-to-my-Lou, Way-down-in-the-Paw-Paw-Patch,
King-William, London-Bridge, Thread-the-Needle, Picking Grapes,
Digging-a-Well, Black-Man, Prison-Base, Tag, All-I-Want-is-a-Handsome-Man,
Green Gravel, Down-in-the-Meadow, All-Around-this-Pretty-Little-Maid.
These are merely the