common forms. I saw a boy upon one such occasion stand on the railroad track until by the barest margin he escaped death by a passenger engine. One writer gives an account of a boy who sat on the end of a cross-tie and was killed by a passing train. This tendency to show off for love's sake, together with the inability to make any direct declaration, is well illustrated in the love affair of Piggy Pennington, King of Boyville.[10] “Time and time again had Piggy tried to make some sign to let his feelings be known, but every time he had failed. Lying in wait for her at corners, and suddenly breaking upon her with a glory of backward and forward somersaults did not convey the state of his heart. Hanging by his heels from an apple tree limb over the sidewalk in front of her, unexpectedly, did not tell the tender tale for which his lips could find no words. And the nearest that he could come to an expression of the longing in his breast was to cut her initials in the ice beside his own when she came weaving and wobbling past on some other boy's arm. But she would not look at the initials, and the chirography of his skates was so indistinct that it required a key; and, everything put together, poor Piggy was no nearer a declaration at the end of the winter than he had been at the beginning of autumn. So only one heart beat with but a single thought, and the other took motto candy and valentines and red apples and picture cards and other tokens of esteem from other boys, and beat on with any number of thoughts, entirely immaterial to the uses of this narrative.” This “showing-off” in the boy lover is the forerunner of the skillful, purposive and elaborate means of self-exhibition in the adult male and the charming coquetry in the adult female, in their love relations.

Another kind of indirection that is very interesting is that of a boy who ostensibly is talking to one, but everything which he is saying is intended for another. This is sometimes extended into a sort of pleasant teasing and scuffling in which the very one whom he wants to touch is very carefully avoided. A further phase of the same thing is shown by the embrace or caress that is given to one while the emotional discharge goes out to some one else; as for example, a boy under the influence of a meeting with the girl whom he had begun to love but to whom he had made no confession, went home and walked up to his sister, put his arms about her neck and kissed her. The action was so unusual as both to surprise the sister and to arouse her intelligent suspicions. Goethe makes much use of this type of emotional discharge in his “Elective Affinities,” and Tennyson alludes to it in the lines,

Dear as remembered kisses after death,
    And sweet as those by hopeless fancy feigned
On lips that are for others.

Such manifestations are not far removed from those that are shown to pet animals and to persons of the same sex, reference to which has previously been made.

Previous to the age of about nine the girl is more aggressive than the boy in love affairs. At this age her modesty, coyness and native love for being wooed, come to the surface and thereafter characterize her attitude toward the opposite sex.

Typical Cases.

Case 1. A boy of eight confessed through a girl's friends his love for the girl. Then on the playground he did little favors for her as though they were matters of course. If attention was in any way called to his acts of kindness he would lightly dismiss the affair with “Oh, that's nothin',” always showing embarrassment at the fact that his favoritism had been observed. In writing about it the girl says: “I liked him very much and enjoyed being near him on the playground, but was very much embarrassed when he spoke to me; so about all the pleasure that I got out of this little romance was in watching him as he would try to gain my attention and good-will while we were all at play.”

Case 2. In a case that continued from seven to thirteen the writer says: “I wanted to stand by him in the game, but would never make the effort to get the situation—although it always came about. He sent me very pretty valentines, but was very careful that I should not find out who sent them. When we met on the street we would both blush, and a strange feeling would possess me that I did not have on any other occasion. My bliss was complete when I was walking down the street and he overtook me—although we could say nothing to each other.”

Case 3. B. 9, g. 11. Boy very much annoyed by the fact that the girl was two years older. He thought that the husband ought always to be older, and “looked forward to the time when I should make her my wife. It was in secret, however, and I was always fearful lest some one should find it out. The girl probably never bestowed a thought upon me. I was very shy in her presence, and if she spoke to me or addressed me in any manner my tongue clove to the roof of my mouth, making it almost impossible for me to answer. I dreamed about her night after night, and upon hearing her name mentioned I would become confused and nervous.” This continued from nine to fifteen, and developed into a genuine case of adolescent love.

Case 4. B. 11, g. 9. Boy would come to take the girl to their little parties—but would never walk on the same side of the street with her. The girl writes: “We were very much afraid of each other, and yet we weren't. When we were together we never would speak to each other if we could help it, but when we were apart we wrote notes constantly.”

Case 5. “I was very much in love with a boy when I was between seven and nine years of age. I always felt hurt if he chose any one else in the games. I was very much embarrassed if this boy's name was mentioned in the presence of my mother or brothers. I didn't mind their teasing me about any other boy. I felt none of this embarrassment in the presence of my sympathetic playmates.”

Case 6. An eight-year-old boy contemplated suicide because his sweetheart moved into another neighborhood. He would not tell her that he loved her. Wanted to give her a present, but feared she would divine the truth.

Case 7. From a woman's confessions, referring to her love at nine years of age: We never used the word love, it was always like. I think we felt afraid of love. I think we had no definite idea of marriage, we lived completely in the present. However, I felt in a dim way that we were always to be together.

Case 8. From a man's confessions: “I never told any one that I loved the girl, and did not even want the girl to know it. I was satisfied to be in sight of the girl. I was nine and she was ten.”

Case 9. B. 9, g. 8. A blue-eyed girl and a handsome dark-eyed boy. One day he told Bessie he had something to tell her, but that she must tell no one. He said that he had wanted to tell her before but could not; now he would tell her if he choked to death in the effort. Braving all difficulties, he led Bessie to an oak tree and while pretending to be gathering acorns, told her of his love. She forgot that she should “tell no one,” and at the first opportunity told me the whole story, and how she had loved him, but had never imagined he cared anything for her. I had understood Bessie's feelings before she told me this, and now rejoiced with her. She wanted to be with him almost constantly, but he was shy and always wished to conceal his affection from every one except from Bessie. She thought the mutual love something to be very proud of, and could not understand why he could not tell every one