dear, not so much for its own sake, as because it is a trophy.  Such a child knows not the joy of sharing; he knows only the joys of wresting victory against odds.  This is indeed an evil that grows with the years.  The child who holds onto his apple, his Candy, or toy, fights tooth and nail everyone who wants to take it from him, and resists all coaxing, is liable to become a hard, sordid, grasping man, who stops at no obstacle to accomplish his purpose.

Yet in the beginning, this fault often hides itself and escapes attention.  The selfish child may be quiet, clean, and under ordinary circumstances, obedient.  He may not even be quarrelsome; and may therefore come under a much less degree of discipline than his obstreperous, impulsive, rebellious little brother.  Yet, in reality, his condition calls for much more careful attention than does the condition of the younger brother.

[Sidenote:  The Only Child]

However, the child who has no brother at all, either older or younger, nor any sister, is almost invited by the fact of his isolation to fall into this sin.  Only children may be—­indeed, often are—­precocious, bright, capable, and well-mannered, but they are seldom spontaneously generous.  Their own small selves occupy an undue proportion of the family horizon, and therefore of their own.

[Sidenote:  Kindergarten a Remedy]

This is where the Kindergarten has its great value.  In the true Kindergarten the children live under a dispensation of loving justice, and selfishness betrays itself instantly there, because it is alien to the whole spirit of the place.  Showing itself, it is promptly condemned, and the child stands convicted by the only tribunal whose verdict really moves him—­a jury of his peers.  Normal children hate selfishness and condemn it, and the selfish child himself, following the strong, childish impulse of imitation, learns to hate his own fault; and so quick is the forgiveness of children that he needs only to begin to repent before the circle of his mates receives him again.

This is one reason why the Kindergarten takes children at such an early age.  Aiming, as it does, to lay the foundations for right thinking and feeling, it must begin before wrong foundations are too deeply laid.  Its gentle, searching methods straighten the strong will that is growing crooked, and strengthen the enfeebled one.

[Sidenote:  Intimate Association a Help]

But if the selfish child is too old for the Kindergarten, he should belong to a club.  Consistent selfishness will not long be tolerated here.  The tacit or outspoken rebuke of his mates has many times the force of a domestic rebuke; because thereby he sees himself, at least for a time, as his comrades see him, and never thereafter entirely loses his suspicion that they may be right.  Their individual judgment he may defy, but their collective judgment has in it an almost magical power, and convinces him in spite of himself.