Child:  She has grown old.

Nurse:  Will you grow old too?

Child:  I don’t know.

Nurse:  Where are your last year’s frocks?

Child:  They have been unpicked.

Nurse:  Why!

Child:  Because they were too small for me.

Nurse:  Why were they too small?

Child:  I have grown bigger.

Nurse:  Will you grow any more!

Child:  Oh, yes.

Nurse:  And what becomes of big girls?

Child:  They grow into women.

Nurse:  And what becomes of women!

Child:  They are mothers.

Nurse:  And what becomes of mothers?

Child:  They grow old.

Nurse:  Will you grow old?

Child:  When I am a mother.

Nurse:  And what becomes of old people?

Child:  I don’t know.

Nurse:  What became of your grandfather?

Child:  He died. [Footnote:  The child will say this because she has heard it said; but you must make sure she knows what death is, for the idea is not so simple and within the child’s grasp as people think.  In that little poem “Abel” you will find an example of the way to teach them.  This charming work breathes a delightful simplicity with which one should feed one’s own mind so as to talk with children.]

Nurse:  Why did he die?

Child:  Because he was so old.

Nurse:  What becomes of old people!

Child:  They die.

Nurse:  And when you are old——?

Child:  Oh nurse!  I don’t want to die!

Nurse:  My dear, no one wants to die, and everybody dies.

Child:  Why, will mamma die too!

Nurse:  Yes, like everybody else.  Women grow old as well as men, and old age ends in death.

Child:  What must I do to grow old very, very slowly?

Nurse:  Be good while you are little.

Child:  I will always be good, nurse.

Nurse:  So much the better.  But do you suppose you will live for ever?

Child:  When I am very, very old——­

Nurse:  Well?

Child:  When we are so very old you say we must die?

Nurse:  You must die some day.

Child:  Oh dear!  I suppose I must.

Nurse:  Who lived before you?

Child:  My father and mother.

Nurse:  And before them?

Child:  Their father and mother.

Nurse:  Who will live after you?

Child:  My children.

Nurse:  Who will live after them?

Child:  Their children.

In this way, by concrete examples, you will find a beginning and end for the human race like everything else—­that is to say, a father and mother who never had a father and mother, and children who will never have children of their own.