Page:A Book of Nursery Rhymes.djvu/16

viii then independently, and they will delight in "Ding Dong Bell," "Three Little Kittens," "I love Little Pussy," etc. Then, or at about the same time, they begin to take cognizance of the flight of time; and days and nights, months and years, sun, moon, and stars, the weather, etc., form appropriately the subject of the rhymes repeated to them. Other children and grown-up people in their relation to the child now begin to attract the awakening attention, and "Jack and Jill" and "Tom Tucker" will have a message for the little ones. Then plays, games, riddles, counting out rhymes, etc., come in natural order; and with his wider experience the child will appreciate the didactic rhymes, the rhyming alphabets, and the like, and will begin to store his memory with the proverbs, riddles, paradoxes, etc. Following out this idea, - proceeding from the simple to the complex, and keeping pace so far as may be with the order and progress of the mental development of the average child,- the rhymes and jingles have been classified and arranged in this volume, after considerable experiment and study, and conference with some of the foremost students of child psychology. The order may be found to vary sometimes according to the environment of particular children, but it is believed that it will be found to be, broadly speaking, the logical and natural order.

Such a book will, it is hoped, be welcomed in the nursery, in the kindergarten, and in the school room; for, without any attempt at a cast-iron grading,- which of course is impossible, -it relieves those who have the care of the little ones from the trouble of seeking for them the different kinds of material in the order in which they are ready for it. Some slight attempt has been