czytanie teksty (5)

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Wcc Ihe Mouse bas ten on a broud Icaf with Goo-Goo Ihe Cal^r'i eipilisu, and irt which Fuzfcy i ho Skunk givcs talk* on animal lilc that would do Tor Zoolog y Clu.ss I ut Hurvurd,

Bul do we—do ihcy—can wc cscapc after uli from ihe ji crucl c»vimnmcn! that mukes up the life in which we livc? Arc ihe animals after alt su much sufler thun the ogtes, so much kinder ihtin the pinites? Whcn Slick the Cal crucklcs up the boites of Wee-Wee the Mouse, how docs thsil stand! And when Old Mr. Hnwk luwers iit the air wutebing for Chcep-Chcep the chickcn vv!k» trics in vain to hłdc tmdcr Ihe gniss. and calls for its łosi moi hor—how is thnl for terroi! To my Ihinking the timorous and imugiinilivc child can get ntorc real terror from the pictured angiiislt of a liunled animal than from the deulh* of all the Wctslt glants that cver llved on Plynlimnum.

The tears of chlldhood fali fast and casily. and cvil be to jj him w|m mukes theni llow.

How casily a child will ery ovcr the story of a littlc boy w Insi. how casily m the tulę of poverty und want, how incon-solably »t deulh. Toitch but evcr so Jightly these real springs of miguish and the reudy tears will comc. But tu Red Kiding Hoods gnindmothcr! Nevcr! She didn’t dtc! She was merely cnicu.And the sailors, and the pirates. and Ihe Apache Indi-ans! They don’t ilic. not in any real sensc to the child. They arc merely “swept off.” and "mowetl down”-—in fact, seat-icred like the piece* on att upsot ehessboard.

Ihe morał otuli which is. don't worry about the appar- u ent terror and bloodshed in the cffildren's books, the real chil* dicn's books. There is nonę there. li only represents the way in which linie children. from generution to generation. learn in ways as painless as can be lollowed, the slem erwironmcpt of life and death. Ą ^9    y/9    ^'^ar*^Sx$~^> <

STef>tiJ£fj LWĄCaefe soTT-nfjisj©. Tttscreetes Pe* cttu-fikeM

What ts the story that you arc reading, Pcggy?" I asked

0of a wide-cycd child of eight. who sat buried in a story hook. “I Jule Red Kiding Hood.” she nnswered.

“Havc you come to the part,’' I asked, "wherc the grandmothcr gets eaten?”

“She didn't get eaten!** the child protested in surprise. “Ycs—the wolf comes to her cottagc and fcnocks a* the

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<Joor and she thinks that il is Litlle Red Kiding-Houd and

opens ihe door and ihe wolfcats her.”

She shook hcr head.

'*Tbnt‘s not it at all in this book.” she snid.

So I fpok a krok ul Ihe pagc bcfoic hcr and t rcad:

“Thcn the wołf pushcd opcn the door of (he collage und i rushed in but the grandmothcj was not there as she happened not 16 be ał hornc."

Iixaclly! The grandroother. bemg a truły up-to-dalc i# grandmothcr, was probabiy out on the golf links, or pluying bridge with a few olher grand mothers like herself.

At any raić she was not there and so she escaped getting u eaten by the wolf. In other words, Liltlc Red Riding Hood, like all the good oid stories that have come down from the bad

old times, is having to give way to the tcndcncies of a human agę. It is supposed to be too horrible foiuhe childrenjo rcad. The awful fale of the grandmotherfchawcd bp hy the wolf—

riefaiuhc chil^tii (chawcdjip by

agę. It is supposed to be too horrible foy^the childrcn to rcad. The awful fale of the grandmother(chawcd bprby the wolf— or, no. swallowed u 'holelike a Malpećquc oyster, is too terrible for thern to hcar. So the slory. like u hundred olher stories and ptetures. has gol to bc censorcd. re-edued, nndrihuden*

and as to children. There is no necd to soften down a story for them. They like it rough.<-

U ł_ .L l '. T " ' i * »    i . .    _ * **.«    i

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All of which rests on a fundantenial error as to literaturę n|<y^e9'-^ is to children. There is no necd to sof ten down a story for

"In the real story." I said to the little girl. "(he grand- o

mol ber was at homc, and the wolf rushed in and ate hcr in one

moolhful!"    ,

"Oh! thut‘s much better!” she exclaimed.    u    •']

"And Ihen, afterwards. when the hunters eamc in. they is kiiled the wolf and eiit his słomach opcn and the giundmothcr jumped out and was savcd!'*

“Oh. isn'i that splendlid!" erted the child.    u,

In other words. all the terror that grown-up peoplc sec in ttsis sort of slory is there for grown-up peoplc only. The chil* dren look clean over it. orjrast it. or under ii. In rcality, the vision of the grand mol he(teebT^ defending herself against the sawage beast. or perhaps lenptng round the room to get away from him, and jumping up on top of the grundfalher“s dock— is either horrible. or weird. or pathetic. or evcn comic, as we

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