- dren, in their ordinary clothes, the people. The
delight of "dressing up" may sometimes be allowed; but a mere suggestion in costume, if it be something distinctive of the character impersonated, is all that is necessary; a gold paper crown, for example, will at once make a queen of any child. Why not with the little children talk simply and naturally: "Let us play" (not act nor dramatize) so and so. Who'll be so and so? I'll be so and so. Where will you have your home? And so on. Do not at the beginning press even this simple kind of planning; let the play develop with the playing of it. Help the children, however, gradually to gain in planning.
Playing has a tendency to make the form static; it is a mistake to let this happen too soon. Do not, as is the practice, stop telling the story yourself after the children have once played it. You will find that their intimate experience in playing it will bring a more pointed attention to the next hearing of it, and that their next playing will be richer in detail, or stronger in structure, or truer in characterization, or more appropriate in dialogue. Do not, of course, keep the children on one story either for playing or other form of reproduction until they weary of it.
Far from deploring, by the way, the child's crud-
