Show I Playing House the Great Joys of Pretending BY BEATRICE FAIRFAX ESTERDAY I saw a picture that YESTERDAY Y V carried me back a good many years yellow haired girl playing In a back yard In a country low Ion Such a sun Y back yard ard with chIckens in n It and anda a n woodpile beside 1 there was waa aa always an enchanting pile of ot sawdust and chips In one corner a made by placing placIng placing ing a layer of bricks end to end the lit little litlie littie tie lie maid kept house The furniture con consisted consisted consisted of pieces of board laid on blocks of wood which made very VOl tottery chairs continually falling to pieces and landing the small housekeeper flat In the dirt And the dishes were beautiful bits of ot broken china cups without handles pitch pitchers ers era with the bottoms out tins full of holes etc tc But oh the bliss of those days in the sunny back yard Yesterday I saw two little girls engaged In precisely the same occupation The bride brick house was there the tottery chairs the broken china the broom It was all the same and the grown woman with a homesick thrill for the long ago aso agon n ted the little maids with all her heart Every woman that lives has played house Perhaps it was in a corner of a gorgeously appointed city nursery per perhaps perhaps haps on the steps of some Iome house in a city tenement perhaps In a sunny back yard But ut In all cases the thrill was exactly the same Rich or poor a little mUe girls one Idea of bliss la Is 1 playing house Have HaYe you ever opened a pretend oven door and gazed with housewifely concern at a batch of delicious mud pies No 20 real pie can ever be more interesting than those marvelous mud confections In the tha crowded city districts there are many U little tle girls whose opportunities for play are all alt too few While more fortunate little girls are Bre playing they are working When they should be playing with dolls they are taking taJ ta ng care rore of real al babies their small email brothers and sisters The Tho playing house houe hou spirit is i simply a forerunner of what whar the th little girls later life Ufa will ill be It proves more clearly than any argument argument ment mont could that womans earliest earlest strong strongest strongest est Interest Is for home homo and children And the tha t play house is conducted much muchas mucha aa as a the real house wilt wH be later Some Bore play lay houses are models model of neat neatness neatness neatness ness the broken dishes shine with wih clean cleanliness cleanliness liness the whole house is swept and gar garnished garnished garnished twenty times a day da Others are untidy mixtures s of odds adds and ends there thEre IB is iano no attempt at decoration or neatness Those Tose little girls will wU keep kep their real homes In the future much aa as a they do their pretend ones one Neatness can be taught even in play and aaa ad If it the children are taught to tobe be neat when they t are young they the wilt will wU grow up to love lore neatness I know myself that It is desperately hard had for some little Ute girls girl to be neat It ItIs I Itis Is 1 so 80 easy esy to fling ribbons or boots boot boob on tho the floor toor when you know that a mother or nurse will Wil pick nicU them up upI If I you form fort the th habit of ot untidiness ness neB it 1 woefully hard ti to outgrow lt It I it You Yau stay sy untidy until you are ar gid enough to be b ashamed of It i It If I mothers mother and nd big sisters will alit i teach the e little slaters to t be b tidy td they will wl bo ho b doing the tha small people an inestimable service serice Teach them to keep their play ay Muses houses and playthings plaything neat neat Dont curtail them tom in their play pIa Life Lite with all al its It responsibilities will wU be serious I enough by and by Let t the dear clear babies pretend Just as long longas aa as they can cn The land of pretend is such fuch a beau beautiful bu beautiful place and we grownups are shut shutout shutout out of it It But we have all al been ben there and now we 6 must mut do our aur best bes to make it I a beautiful ful happy h py place for tor the wee people who belong blong there here until they too nail outgrow its 11 enchantment enchantment |