THE CHILD’S IMAGINATION.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CIX, Issue 13066, 4 March 1903, Page 8

THE CHILD’S IMAGINATION.

(English Magazine.) The child who is blessed with a vivid imagination may be vastly entertained if the mother has the wit to make;ithis possession an assistant in her methods of dealing with the little one. There was once a little girl of this kind who was never quite ready to go to bed when bed-time came, and was always unwilling to be left alone until she had gone to sleep. It was sometimes a bit inconvenient to stay with her, especially when there were guests to he entertained or something special to be done in another part of the house, and the mother tried to devise some wav of managing.her without seeming to have" any reason but the entertainment of the. child.

She is very fond of “make-believe” plays, so one day the mother had an invitation delivered to her-for a make-be-lieve party that very night. The child, without any suspicion of an ulterior motive, entered into the spirit of the occasion. So when bed-time came the little nightdress was a make-believe party gown ; when the hair was brushed for the night it was being dressed for the party, and when mother took her upstairs it was not mother at all, but the coachman taking her to the party, and her bed was the scene of the party. She was all ready to go, and she made no fuss at being left alone, and she played party until she went to sleep, which was very soon. In the morning she had wonderful stories to tell about this make-believe party. To vary the entertainment, the next night she “went to London in a train. 1 ' To be sure, the.“train” was her own bed, but she had a little bag packed, and- her mother gave her a card with a number on it for her berth, and another for her ticket, and oil she went to dreamland alone. The little one travelled somewhere ©very night until she got so used to going to bed at the proper time and staying by herself that she had ceased to mind it, and there was no need to keep up the game. The little one got quite a bit of instruction in geography, too, in this way, for she. would ask questions about the place she was to visit, where it'was, and which way she went, and her mother used to tell her about it and what she 'was likely to see there, so that the child got very much interested and was ready to study geography with interest and understanding when' sire was advanced so far after .she went to school.