The younger boy with us--Tom, now seven, does not find it easy to
express himself through writing. He draws well, but that is a talent
which I would not recognise so quickly as the expression through words.
I mean to send him away to an artist for a time. Tom's imagination is
fertile and expansive. He dictates well--wonderful play of colours
through his mind. He talked the following to an amanuensis, a year or
more ago as he conned over a handful of coloured stones:
"There's a wonderful mystery about stones.... One like a mountain that
the fire comes up out of--with white on top ... another like a cap of
honey.... Another: this is like a great big mountain, and this is a
dog full of food, and he's standing on a dragon, one of those devilish
dragons; his tail is curved under him, and a spot on him near his neck.
He looks down and he sees the sky, floating. He wonders if he should
leap down and get some. There's a great big lake under him. He thinks
he has more power than anything in the world--he's looking for more
power. He's wondering where it is. See him thinking.
... Here's a volcano at night--see the force, and then the rain beating
down behind it--even see fairies dashing by there. Here's a man with
his jaw knocked in. Mystery here--a forest at night. This is like a
coloured man that's been in a prize-fight, and he's gritting his teeth
because he didn't win; he's got a mug-nose too. There's a fried-cake.
Another: Here's 'Agra Falls and fairies dashing, and sparkling stones
at night. That's in Japan--that's true, look at all the lanterns up
there. There's some India--water dashing over a cliff, another like a
smooth cliff, nothing to hurt it, just fairies to fly around it--and a
door-knob, and there's a hole where owls live...."
* * * * *
Many interesting things appear in these dictations provided Tom's
helper effaces himself sufficiently to permit the boy to forget
externals. The remaining pages of this chapter is a sketch of Tom's
case written by the Little Girl[13] who furnishes an interesting
surface of understanding for the complications of this lad.
Incidentally her own development is one of the big winnings of
Stonestudy work. The Little Girl is now fourteen and this essay will
show something of her awakening:
[13] Jane Levington Comfort.