Her Birth Is the Dawn of Spring!

They may call her an enchantress, come from a lovelier and more splendid world; but the face of this little girl, bent over her reading, appears deep and calm, like a placid lake on whose surface the charm and clarity of the sky are mirrored, crossed too by banked clouds and singing birds, while the sun's rays wink at it from above; and the clamorous world stands afar, gazing its fill of her. Why, then, do we find among grown-ups no story to equal in enchantment the tale of the reading girl?

The depths of a little girl's feeling cannot be sounded, and there is no sorrow deeper than hers: if she weeps she sheds all her tears, until her strength for sorrow gives out, and she comes back merry — and no one is merry to the measure that an artless little girl feels. How lovely of you, my little one, to shed your tears and clear them from the path of the sun that shines for you!

With gaiety and quick wit she can converse with this duck, or with her doll, just as we sometimes see a girl talking to a tiny insect. How the little one comes to an understanding with these creatures has not yet become clear to the specialists and the psychologists.

There is no limit to her faith in God, for she knows that He is bountiful and does not call small mistakes to account; and she cannot work out why the world should not be beautiful for a merry girl like her. She knows neither sin nor evil, and she expects the world to be the same. She is beautiful in her artlessness, and everything awaits her, turning at her touch into verdant gardens!...

Without warning or preparation, you will see her put on the apron and bind up her head, then go out to perform some household duties; she knows how to wash the plates and spoons and put them back in their place, and then to dust — without anyone showing her how.

Little girls busy themselves with a doll, or with petting another child. The doll sometimes torments her little mother and will not do as she is told: she will not eat the food she must, or she dirties her dress, or asks her to tell her a story at bedtime, and prattles on without a pause; and here the little girl stops to stare in silence and bewilderment: where did her doll learn all this?