It is a pity to make children acquire what they will soon despise when they might learn something that they will grow up to and prize as long as they live.

There are beautiful things that they can understand, if something is wanted for to-day, which have at the same time a life that will never be outgrown.

There are poems with two aspects, one of which is acceptable to a child and the other to the grown-up mind; these, one is glad to find in anthologies for children.

But there are many poems about children of which the interest is so subtle as to be quite unsuitable for their collection.

Such a poem is "We are seven." Children can be taught to say it, even with feeling, but their own genuine impression of it seems to be that the little girl was rather weak in intellect for eight years old, or a little perverse.