Suggestions to mothers on the management of their children / by a mother. Rev. throughout by a physician.

Date:
1889
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Suggestions to mothers on the management of their children / by a mother. Rev. throughout by a physician. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    it may still read an amazing quantity of novels with great delight and excitement, provided only that they are each its favourite story over and over again, with the same characters, the same incidents, the same scenery, the same names, and the same words. You are half-disposed to admit the identity of the characters, incidents, and scenery; hut you doubt the identity of the words/1 How often has one not had to tell the familiar, old, but ever new, Robinson Crusoe !—the same interest and the same delight being shown at exactly the same parts always. Children are never tired of hearing their favourite tales, and if the stories are what the ‘schoolboy’ calls ‘jolly ones’ the interest in them never flags. Red Riding Hood, the utter improbability of which never suggests itself to the child’s mind, only the pleasure of hearing over and over again ‘ What big eyes you’ve got! The better to see with, my dear. But what a big nose ! The better to smell with, my dear. But what a big mouth ! The better to eat with—and then the feint of gobbling up the wee pet. With what delight this is always received ! Instead of being, as one might imagine, a terrifying tale, cheerfully told by father or mother, it is on the contrary most delightful, and is ever received with the greatest laughter. In pantomime or in tale the old, old stories—Red Riding Hood, Blue Beard, Mother Goose, Jack and the Bean- stalk—still have the same attractions for our children that they had for us. As I write, I hear a merry little voice in the garden warbling— I wish I were over the sea, Jacky, In the land where the gum-trees grow, I’d certainly stop with the ’possum on top When lesson-time came, you know. I wish I were over the sea, Nellie, In the kingdom of Cariboo, With wool for my hair, and nothing to wear, And nothing at all to do. We’d never be combed any more, hurrah ! We’d never be brushed, hurroo ! Have dinner at seven, stay up till eleven, And do as all other folks do. 1 ‘ Old Stories in New Novels,’ Pall Mall Gazette, November 23, 1887.
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