Secondly, our play should never interfere with the rights of those who desire to be quiet or to observe the day in ways differing from ours.  We must respect the rights of all.

Thirdly, our play must not cause additional or unnecessary labor.

Fourthly, our play must not interfere with the pleasures of others.  For instance, in the city children who can use the public tennis courts every day should keep off them on Sunday in order to give opportunity to those who can use them only on that day.

Having said so much on play on Sundays, we must not leave the impression that play is the principal thing.  It would be the principal thing for children compelled to work or confined in crowded tenements on all other days.  This is a day of rest.  Play should not be carried beyond the rest and refreshment stage.

Nor must we assume that a recognition of play involves neglect of worship and instruction.  Both should be cherished among the delights of the day.  Every attempt to make the day a happy one, by normal play, associates the emphasis on worship with increased happiness in the child’s mind.

Sec. 6.  THE SUNDAY AFTERNOON PROBLEM

“What shall we do?” the children ask restlessly on Sunday afternoons, and it is by no means a strange question.  All the week they have their school work, on Saturdays their play.  No wonder Sunday afternoon seems dull.  Yet if we older ones use it aright this is our opportunity to give them the best time of all the week.  We can make this part of the day really a holiday if we just take time to plan it right.  There is something wrong in the home in which the child, as he grows up, does not look forward happily to his Sunday afternoons.

Sunday afternoon should be a family festival time.  Keep it sacred to the family.  Business and social life claim us all the week, and the church claims its share of this day; but these afternoon hours we can, if we will, reserve for our own home life, for the closer drawing together of children and parents.  To hold this time sacred for the children and their interests will help to solve “the Sunday afternoon problem.”

1. The child’s question, “What shall I do next?"—­Children are dynamic, perpetually active.  They grow in the direction toward which their activities are turned.  Repression is impossible.  We must either find the best things for them to do, or let them chance on things good or bad.  The following outline for Sunday afternoon is given in the hope that it may help to answer the “what next.”

     1.  Begin to make The Family Book.

     2.  Give “festival name” to the day, and take an excursion in honor
     of the one for whom the day is named.

     3.  Organize an exploring party to discover peoples and scenes of
     long, long ago.

     4.  Get acquainted with some beautiful home thoughts.