Page:How to show pictures to children (IA howtoshowpictur00hurl).pdf/52

 IV

insatiable thirst for stories is one of the demands which every mother has to meet as best she may. The story-teller’s gift is a special endowment not vouchsafed to many. The most of us have to cultivate it assiduously for the benefit of the little ones. We rack our brains for new ideas, or look through many books in search of interesting subjects. Even when we have a good story to tell, we begin haltingly, failing in the power to express ourselves fluently, and unable to produce a vivid impression. Now here is where a certain class of pictures can help us out amazingly. The picture which illustrates a dramatic situation, in other words, the anecdotic or story picture, has undreamed-of possibilities in the way of story entertainment. It furnishes us a subject and puts the story into our very mouths, so to speak. All children take naturally to pictures, and we secure their attention at once when we produce a print or open an illustrated book. Usually, however, their interest quickly flags, unless guided by an older companion. The young mind, untrained to concentration, flits from subject to subject, as a butterfly from one blossom to another. But let the mother begin to talk about the picture, and the child fixes eager eyes upon it, and follows every word with breathless atten-