One fine day he hurries up with his watering-can in his hand.  What a scene of woe!  Alas! all the beans are pulled up, the soil is dug over, you can scarcely find the place.  Oh! what has become of my labour, my work, the beloved fruits of my care and effort?  Who has stolen my property!  Who has taken my beans?  The young heart revolts; the first feeling of injustice brings its sorrow and bitterness; tears come in torrents, the unhappy child fills the air with cries and groans, I share his sorrow and anger; we look around us, we make inquiries.  At last we discover that the gardener did it.  We send for him.

But we are greatly mistaken.  The gardener, hearing our complaint, begins to complain louder than we: 

What, gentlemen, was it you who spoilt my work!  I had sown some Maltese melons; the seed was given me as something quite out of the common, and I meant to give you a treat when they were ripe; but you have planted your miserable beans and destroyed my melons, which were coming up so nicely, and I can never get any more.  You have behaved very badly to me and you have deprived yourselves of the pleasure of eating most delicious melons.

Jean Jacques.  My poor Robert, you must forgive us.  You had given your labour and your pains to it.  I see we were wrong to spoil your work, but we will send to Malta for some more seed for you, and we will never dig the ground again without finding out if some one else has been beforehand with us.

Robert.  Well, gentlemen, you need not trouble yourselves, for there is no more waste ground.  I dig what my father tilled; every one does the same, and all the land you see has been occupied time out of mind.

Emile.  Mr. Robert, do people often lose the seed of Maltese melons?

Robert.  No indeed, sir; we do not often find such silly little gentlemen as you.  No one meddles with his neighbour’s garden; every one respects other people’s work so that his own may be safe.

Emile.  But I have not got a garden.

Robert.  I don’t care; if you spoil mine I won’t let you walk in it, for you see I do not mean to lose my labour.

Jean Jacques.  Could not we suggest an arrangement with this kind Robert?  Let him give my young friend and myself a corner of his garden to cultivate, on condition that he has half the crop.

Robert.  You may have it free.  But remember I shall dig up your beans if you touch my melons.

In this attempt to show how a child may be taught certain primitive ideas we see how the notion of property goes back naturally to the right of the first occupier to the results of his work.  That is plain and simple, and quite within the child’s grasp.  From that to the rights of property and exchange there is but a step, after which you must stop short.

You also see that an explanation which I can give in writing in a couple of pages may take a year in practice, for in the course of moral ideas we cannot advance too slowly, nor plant each step too firmly.  Young teacher, pray consider this example, and remember that your lessons should always be in deeds rather than words, for children soon forget what they say or what is said to them, but not what they have done nor what has been done to them.