Boy of fourteen: "Fitzzimmon. Because there is money in it."
At seven years of age, three per cent of the children appreciate intellectual ability, which they commonly find among their acquaintances. As they grow older their favorite authors or artists are prized, though quite as often for their goodness as for their accomplishments, as expressed in some of the following papers:
Girl of seven: "Annie Dervine because she kin spell some words."
Girl of eight: "Olga, Becas she is a good reder."
Boy of nine: "H. W. Longfellow. Because he knows how to write poems, and knows many poems and he is called a poet and I would like to be called a poet."
Girl of nine: "Kate Douglas Wiggins, because she is so famouse and every body likes to read her books and she think of so many lovely things, because she was the first one that ever thought of having a kindergarden."
Boy of ten: "I would like to be William Shakespere because he is the famous poet in the United States."
Girl of eleven: "I would like to be like Kate D. Wiggins, because she was so kind to the poor little children in San Franceis. I have read about her that she was so kind to everone."
Boy of eleven: "I would like to resemble Lousia Alcott, she was one of the first to go to the war to help the wounded and dicing, then she wrote to some of her friends and told them to come."
Boy of fourteen: "The person whom I would like to resemble is John Greenleaf Whittier. The reason why is because he was a smart man and could write poetry."
Girl of sixteen: "I would like to resemble Shakespere, because he was such a famous poet."
The most significant increase is in those qualities which are accompaniments of an active life. To be brave, to be free, to have adventures, to go to war—these become ideal characteristics to nearly one fifth of the children of twelve. A mistaken youth of ten writes: "I would like to be like my father. Because he can do what he wants"; and a carefully reared boy of eleven finds his ideal in the neglected son of a Scandinavian washerwoman: "I would like to be like John hansen because he can play all day and doesen hafter saw wood." The pioneers of history and the heroes of frontier life and romance usually furnish this type of inspiration, as in the papers quoted below:
Boy of nine: "I would like to be like Bufullow Bill because he lived in the wild West where he went shooting buffulows and Indians, I would like to be like him because he was such straight shot in shooting."
