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846 ILLUSTRATED WORLD
Manhattan, and it gives this impression to a mere
adult immediately. There are no knickknacks, but a
good vase or two, an open bookcase lines one wall,
the colors are in good harmony, the desk is not too
orderly, and the chairs are deep and comfortable.
Mother and child were at home very quickly.
After a few minutes' talk Mrs. Scott invited the
youngster to come downstairs to the playroom.
The child in question was extremely nervous,
anaemic, easily startled and very shy. He stood at the
door and watched his mother and Mrs. Scott with big
round eyes, too shy to enter the gorgeous playroom.
Mrs. Scott then went to one of the shelves and took up a
Russian wooden egg. brightly painted, and brought it
over to the lacquered green octagon table in the center
of the room. Without saying anything she opened the
egg and disclosed a slightly smaller ovoid within, painted
Bad Table Manners
Ten chances to one the fault does not lie with the child
but with the parents themselves.
a different color. Then
she opened that and disclosed another. By the
time she had come to the third the child was
beside her, watching with pitiful intentness.
"Guess what color the next will be?"
she invited, in a kindly tone.
The youngster was silent while
another egg appeared, but before
another was ready he had assimilated
the idea completelv, and
shouted, "Red!" in a delighted
voice.
The ice was broken. Mrs.
Scott gave him the egg, which
contained seventeen others, and
left him to his own devices. To
open and close the combination egg
again required some manual skill, coordination
of muscles, and eye for size
and order and other important mental
and physical abilities. This child was
deft. He played with the egg for an
hour and a half, during which time
his mother annoyed him continually
by pointing out other things he
might play with, suggesting that he
build castles with the halves of eggs
which he took off, and asking him
foolish questions about the colors.
Yet the child went on until he was
perfectly satisfied about that egg.
He tried to ignore his mother while he
found out how the toy worked, what
colors there were and what he could
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