The Men Who Found America (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from The Men Who Found America

OW quickly the years pass! But yesterday they were babies; now he is a great boy, clamoring for trousers with vast, mysterious pockets; and she, dear little girl, is a mother, caressing her dolls with an infinity Of maternal graces. Could they but stay young! Were there but a fountain, like the one in these stories, to keep them forever safe in a mother's arms. It is sad to think Of their ever leaving Baby land. There is no country like unto this beautiful bourn Of our children. Here are the dim, magic forests, the enchanted castles, the deep, hidden caves, the secret tree — hollows, where dwell sparrows and fairies and lost little children. In this land the princess is ever young and ever beautiful; the bold Prince Charming slays always the wicked, watchful dragon; the fierce Ogre, with his one malevolent eye forever eats the tender children at his ravenous evening meal. The land is always full, yet always filling; the sun is forever shining, and ?owers spring up under the patter Of little feet. Here bad is bad, and good is good, and always the good comes true. For is there not a fairy godmother to save the Child from all the childish evil in the world? What a land Of adventure it is! What daring deeds! What heroic exploits! The little white crib, into which we tuck him so tenderly — why, that is no crib at all! It is a great ship, with ?apping sails unfurled, creaking under stress Of storm and sea, sailing oceans unknown to lands Of which we have never heard. It is also a locomotive, a dizzy air — ship, an automobile, and, inturn, a fort, a palace, a forest and a wicked robber's cave. Resolutely the little captain, aeronaut, king, robber and police man marches through all this brave realm Of limitless adventure. Only too soon the child must leave this warm, fair land, and, losing his baby's heritage, enter upon the schoolboy's_ estate. The wicked giants, the fairy princesses, the wonderful, magic animals who talk and think, vanish forever before the spelling book and arithmetic. A little learning is a dangerous thing.