Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 84.djvu/344

340 and of assisting, if not being absolutely essential, in the processes of digestion.

To develop narrative skill we have introduced a game called caravan. Beginning in one of the rooms of the upper grade, the teacher selects three pupils especially interested in nature-play, each to describe some animal from the course. The name of the creature is not to be given by the narrator, but must be guessed by the others. Contrary to most guessing games, the object is to have given such a lucid description that the name of the animal will be guessed very soon. Then every one is invited to add anything not mentioned, or to correct any misstatements; so that the descriptions may become the general contribution of the room. By a majority vote the animal is selected to represent the room in the caravan, and then in a similar manner the pupil who can best describe the selected animal. Thus, the caravan starts on its way, in each room, adding a new animal after those already in the caravan have been described. The game proves an admirable review, in which each participating mind is keenly stimulated by the spirit of competitive play.

When man first became superior to the other animals he used weapons to kill them with. The vestige of that primitive struggle for existence is found now in hunting, sometimes necessary for the supply of food, but generally indulged in as a "sport." One summer day,

 Vegetation on bank reflected in pool. Copyright 1909 by J. Z. Gilbert and F. C. Winter and reproduced by their permission.