Instead of saying "_zu Mittag gehen_" (go to noon-meal), he
says, logically, "zu Nachmittag gehen" (go to afternoon-meal).
The child does not know what is true, what is actual. I never
can depend on his statements, except, as it appears, when he
tells what he has had to eat. If riding is spoken of, e. g., he
has a vivid picture of riding in his mind. To-day, when I asked
him "Did you see papa ride?" he answered, _Yes, indeed, papa
rode away off into the woods_. Yet his father had not gone to
ride at all.
In the same way he often denies what he has seen and done. He
comes out of his father's room and I ask, "Well, have you said
good-night to papa?" _No._ His father told me afterward that the
child had done it.
In the park we see some crested titmice, and I tell the nurse
that, in the previous autumn, I saw for the first time Finnish
parrots or cross-bills here, but that I have not seen any since.
When the child's father asked later, "Well, Adolph, what did you
see in the park?" _Crested titmice, with golden crests_ (he adds
out of his own invention) _and Finnish parrots_. He mixes up
what he has heard and seen with what he imagines.
Truth has to be taught to a child. The less this is done, the
easier it is to inoculate him with religious notions, i. e., of
miraculous revelation; otherwise one must be prepared for many
questions that are hard to answer.
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