OUR CHILDREN.

Shannon News, 26 August 1924, Page 4

OUR CHILDREN.

(BY ANGELO PATRL) LITTLE. It isn’t right to keep telling childxen how little they are. In the fli'st place they do not like it, and in the second place it is not true. Children are not little at are children, of course, and, therefore, on a smaller scale than adults. But that does not make them little. They are really big when you measure tlieir work in propoi’tion to tlieir strength and expei'ience. Yet people love to call them “little.” “Now close your little eyes and go to sleep!” What makes a person so silly as to call a child’s eyes little ! • eyes that have, the whole day through,, taken in the vision of tlio world as it passed by his door, letting not a single bit of it pass unheeded or unrecorded. What is little about them? "Give me your little hand,” says the thoughtless grown-up. Little indeed! The hand that touched and expiored everything that came within its reach and recorded the investigation agaixxst that day when it should most be needed. The hand that clutched and held the child in his seai’ch, illuminating and pointing the way. A child’s hand little? “Hold your little head still till I get your hati on!” My, my! His little head! The head that holds a mind so keen, so alert that a flicker of a sunbeam across the floor is caught and I interpreted and filed away for toI morrow. The head*that is filled with dreams and visions and memories! The head that carries intelligence as a king might carry his crown nobly and with majesty. Wliat is little about a child’s, head?

Nothing! And the mischief of it is that constantly telling a child how little he is tends to make him accept his littleness as a fact and to make him act accordingly. His little hand" cannot do, and his little head cannot plan. Constant belittling has its effect and the little child does it in the little fashion. It is not fair. Send the “little” idea into limbo along with the fixed kindergarten smile. Neither of them has any place where children are to be taught. People aren’t born again, and it’s an artificial, ~ conventional bit of hypocrisy that deceives no child, while it annoys all thoughtful children, which is to say, all intelligent- children. Tei-ming them “little” in any sense is a form of cajolery that never misleads them. They quite undei’stand what you are up to, and play accordixxgly. Say “little” and they’ll be little! Give them a touchy smile and they’ll return it twenty-six-fold. Children ar e dignified, and in the main, honest. They are not little in the true sense of littleness. “I’m just as big for me,” he said “As you are big for you.”

pink or red roses of the monthly blooming type. The pretty pink hanging sprays of-currant are already beginning to open. The hedge could ba planted from cuttings. There is also a dai'k-leaved species of barberry obtainable, which would make an ideal hedge, but would need to be planted alone, as it) makes a thick growth, which would tend to choke a slower-growing shrub. for Hot Weather. There are many varieties of trees of pendulous habit, which provide excellent shade, and which might well be given prominent positions on lawns, particularly when such lawns are used for afternoon teas, and games. On a hot summer day, the shade of a large weeping elm or ash is very acceptable. Apart from this trees of pendulous habit are a necessity in a large garden, from a landscape point of view, particularly in the vicinity of water, for they tend to relieve the monotony of trees of more rigid outline. Some consideration must be given to the • selection of varieties. Some are not worth garden room, and it would have been a good plan to have burnt them, rather than to have given them distinctive names; and distributed them broadcast. The weeping ash (Frascinus pendula), the weeping Wych elm (Ulmus montama pendula), the weeping holly (Ilex aqui-folium pendula), the weeping thorn (crataegus monogyna pendula), and the weeping beech (Fagus sylvatiea pendula) are all useful for general purposes. The various larches are also of graceful outline, and a well-grown tree of Prunus pendula is really ornamental, and a pleasure to look upon. There are- many other varieties of pendulous habit, but those mentioned are the most useful. No attempt should be made to plant them in the small garden. To be ,seen to the best advantage they must have plenty of room to develop their umbrella shaped branches.