All in a garden fair; the simple story of three boys ... - University Library

ALL L\ A CAKPL.X LAIR. 63
as if tlierc were once walls round it ; a strangely
quiet town, which looks as if. it had never even
heard of the outer world, and took no interest
in anything but itself, but proposed to go on in
this retired fashion, as secure and ha])})y and
peaceful as the city of Laish.
A child wlio is brought up beside the sea
learns daily lessons in the vastness and illimit-
able variety of the world. lie sees the stately
ships go by ;
he watches the waves and gathers
the shells ; his mind may become full of great
thoughts ; it cannot learn from the sea any
thoughts that are small and mean. A child
brought up in the monotony of endless streets
must get great and noble thoughts in spite of
the houses standing innumerable, row after
row, line ui)on line ; tliere is no education for
such a child outside its home. A boy born on
the steppes of Central Asia is not so badly off,
because there are quantities of things to watcli
and wonder at on the steppe—snakes, wolves,
bears, Kurd and Co?siick, Turcoman and Tartar.
But a cliild biought up in a forest learns,