Nor are such answers useless, as might at first be supposed.

They give the child practice in the use of language, and, if properly managed, they may be made the means of greatly extending his knowledge of language and, by necessary consequence, of the ideas and realities which language represents.
"Father," says Mary, as she is walking with her father in the garden, "what makes some roses white and some red ?" "It is very curious, is it not ?" says her father.

"Yes, father, it is very curious indeed.

What makes it so ?" "There must be _some_ cause for it" says her father.

"And the apples that grow on some trees are sweet, and on others they are sour.