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Introduction to Statistics
Through Resampling
Methods and R
Introduction to Statistics
Through Resampling
Methods and R
Second Edition

Phillip I. Good

A John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Publication

Copyright © 2013 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.

Published simultaneously in Canada.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:

Good, Phillip I.
Introduction to statistics through resampling methods and R / Phillip I. Good. – Second edition.
pages cm
Includes indexes.
ISBN 978-1-118-42821-4 (pbk.)
1. Resampling (Statistics) I. Title.
QA278.8.G63 2013
519.5'4–dc23
2012031774

Printed in Singapore.

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents

Preface xi

1. Variation 1
1.1 Variation 1
1.2 Collecting Data 2
1.2.1 A Worked-Through Example 3
1.3 Summarizing Your Data 4
1.3.1 Learning to Use R 5
1.4 Reporting Your Results 7
1.4.1 Picturing Data 8
1.4.2 Better Graphics 10
1.5 Types of Data 11
1.5.1 Depicting Categorical Data 12
1.6 Displaying Multiple Variables 12
1.6.1 Entering Multiple Variables 13
1.6.2 From Observations to Questions 14
1.7 Measures of Location 15
1.7.1 Which Measure of Location? 17
1.7.2 The Geometric Mean 18
1.7.3 Estimating Precision 18
1.7.4 Estimating with the Bootstrap 19
1.8 Samples and Populations 20
1.8.1 Drawing a Random Sample 22
1.8.2 Using Data That Are Already in Spreadsheet Form 23
1.8.3 Ensuring the Sample Is Representative 23
1.9 Summary and Review 23

2. Probability 25
2.1 Probability 25
2.1.1 Events and Outcomes 27
2.1.2 Venn Diagrams 27
2.2 Binomial Trials 29
2.2.1 Permutations and Rearrangements 30
2.2.2 Programming Your Own Functions in R 32
2.2.3 Back to the Binomial 33
2.2.4 The Problem Jury 33
2.3 Conditional Probability 34
2.3.1 Market Basket Analysis 36
2.3.2 Negative Results 36
2.4 Independence 38
v
vi Contents

2.5 Applications to Genetics 39

2.6 Summary and Review 40

3. Two Naturally Occurring Probability Distributions 43

3.1 Distribution of Values 43

3.1.1 Cumulative Distribution Function 44
3.1.2 Empirical Distribution Function 45
3.2 Discrete Distributions 46
3.3 The Binomial Distribution 47
3.3.1 Expected Number of Successes in n Binomial Trials 47
3.3.2 Properties of the Binomial 48
3.4 Measuring Population Dispersion and Sample Precision 51
3.5 Poisson: Events Rare in Time and Space 53
3.5.1 Applying the Poisson 53
3.5.2 Comparing Empirical and Theoretical Poisson
Distributions 54
3.5.3 Comparing Two Poisson Processes 55
3.6 Continuous Distributions 55
3.6.1 The Exponential Distribution 56
3.7 Summary and Review 57

4. Estimation and the Normal Distribution 59

4.1 Point Estimates 59

4.2 Properties of the Normal Distribution 61
4.2.1 Student’s t-Distribution 63
4.2.2 Mixtures of Normal Distributions 64
4.3 Using Confidence Intervals to Test Hypotheses 65
4.3.1 Should We Have Used the Bootstrap? 65
4.3.2 The Bias-Corrected and Accelerated Nonparametric
Bootstrap 66
4.3.3 The Parametric Bootstrap 68
4.4 Properties of Independent Observations 69
4.5 Summary and Review 70

5. Testing Hypotheses 71

5.1 Testing a Hypothesis 71

5.1.1 Analyzing the Experiment 72
5.1.2 Two Types of Errors 74
5.2 Estimating Effect Size 76
5.2.1 Effect Size and Correlation 76
5.2.2 Using Confidence Intervals to Test Hypotheses 78
5.3 Applying the t-Test to Measurements 79
5.3.1 Two-Sample Comparison 80
5.3.2 Paired t-Test 80
 Contents vii

5.4 Comparing Two Samples 81

5.4.1 What Should We Measure? 81
5.4.2 Permutation Monte Carlo 82
5.4.3 One- vs. Two-Sided Tests 83
5.4.4 Bias-Corrected Nonparametric Bootstrap 83
5.5 Which Test Should We Use? 84
5.5.1 p-Values and Significance Levels 85
5.5.2 Test Assumptions 85
5.5.3 Robustness 86
5.5.4 Power of a Test Procedure 87
5.6 Summary and Review 89

6. Designing an Experiment or Survey 91

6.1 The Hawthorne Effect 91
6.1.1 Crafting an Experiment 92
6.2 Designing an Experiment or Survey 94
6.2.1 Objectives 94
6.2.2 Sample from the Right Population 95
6.2.3 Coping with Variation 97
6.2.4 Matched Pairs 98
6.2.5 The Experimental Unit 99
6.2.6 Formulate Your Hypotheses 99
6.2.7 What Are You Going to Measure? 100
6.2.8 Random Representative Samples 101
6.2.9 Treatment Allocation 102
6.2.10 Choosing a Random Sample 103
6.2.11 Ensuring Your Observations Are Independent 103
6.3 How Large a Sample? 104
6.3.1 Samples of Fixed Size 106
6.3.1.1 Known Distribution 106
6.3.1.2 Almost Normal Data 108
6.3.1.3 Bootstrap 110
6.3.2 Sequential Sampling 112
6.3.2.1 Stein’s Two-Stage Sampling Procedure 112
6.3.2.2 Wald Sequential Sampling 112
6.3.2.3 Adaptive Sampling 115
6.4 Meta-Analysis 116
6.5 Summary and Review 116

7. Guide to Entering, Editing, Saving, and Retrieving Large

Quantities of Data Using R 119
7.1 Creating and Editing a Data File 120
7.2 Storing and Retrieving Files from within R 120
viii Contents

7.3 Retrieving Data Created by Other Programs 121

7.3.1 The Tabular Format 121
7.3.2 Comma-Separated Values 121
7.3.3 Data from Microsoft Excel 122
7.3.4 Data from Minitab, SAS, SPSS, or Stata Data Files 122
7.4 Using R to Draw a Random Sample 122

8. Analyzing Complex Experiments 125

8.1 Changes Measured in Percentages 125
8.2 Comparing More Than Two Samples 126
8.2.1 Programming the Multi-Sample Comparison in R 127
8.2.2 Reusing Your R Functions 128
8.2.3 What Is the Alternative? 129
8.2.4 Testing for a Dose Response or Other Ordered
Alternative 129
8.3 Equalizing Variability 131
8.4 Categorical Data 132
8.4.1 Making Decisions with R 134
8.4.2 One-Sided Fisher’s Exact Test 135
8.4.3 The Two-Sided Test 136
8.4.4 Testing for Goodness of Fit 137
8.4.5 Multinomial Tables 137
8.5 Multivariate Analysis 139
8.5.1 Manipulating Multivariate Data in R 140
8.5.2 Hotelling’s T 2 141
8.5.3 Pesarin–Fisher Omnibus Statistic 142
8.6 R Programming Guidelines 144
8.7 Summary and Review 148

9. Developing Models 149

9.1 Models 149

9.1.1 Why Build Models? 150
9.1.2 Caveats 152
9.2 Classification and Regression Trees 152
9.2.1 Example: Consumer Survey 153
9.2.2 How Trees Are Grown 156
9.2.3 Incorporating Existing Knowledge 158
9.2.4 Prior Probabilities 158
9.2.5 Misclassification Costs 159
9.3 Regression 160
9.3.1 Linear Regression 161
9.4 Fitting a Regression Equation 162
9.4.1 Ordinary Least Squares 162
9.4.2 Types of Data 165
 Contents ix

9.4.3 Least Absolute Deviation Regression 166

9.4.4 Errors-in-Variables Regression 167
9.4.5 Assumptions 168
9.5 Problems with Regression 169
9.5.1 Goodness of Fit versus Prediction 169
9.5.2 Which Model? 170
9.5.3 Measures of Predictive Success 171
9.5.4 Multivariable Regression 171
9.6 Quantile Regression 174
9.7 Validation 176
9.7.1 Independent Verification 176
9.7.2 Splitting the Sample 177
9.7.3 Cross-Validation with the Bootstrap 178
9.8 Summary and Review 178

10. Reporting Your Findings 181

10.1 What to Report 181
10.1.1 Study Objectives 182
10.1.2 Hypotheses 182
10.1.3 Power and Sample Size Calculations 182
10.1.4 Data Collection Methods 183
10.1.5 Clusters 183
10.1.6 Validation Methods 184
10.2 Text, Table, or Graph? 185
10.3 Summarizing Your Results 186
10.3.1 Center of the Distribution 189
10.3.2 Dispersion 189
10.3.3 Categorical Data 190
10.4 Reporting Analysis Results 191
10.4.1 p-Values? Or Confidence Intervals? 192
10.5 Exceptions Are the Real Story 193
10.5.1 Nonresponders 193
10.5.2 The Missing Holes 194
10.5.3 Missing Data 194
10.5.4 Recognize and Report Biases 194
10.6 Summary and Review 195

11. Problem Solving 197

11.1 The Problems 197
11.2 Solving Practical Problems 201
11.2.1 Provenance of the Data 201
11.2.2 Inspect the Data 202
11.2.3 Validate the Data Collection Methods 202
x Contents

11.2.4 Formulate Hypotheses 203

11.2.5 Choosing a Statistical Methodology 203
11.2.6 Be Aware of What You Don’t Know 204
11.2.7 Qualify Your Conclusions 204

Answers to Selected Exercises 205

Index 207
Preface

Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.

Benjamin Franklin

Intended for class use or self-study, the second edition of this text aspires as the first
to introduce statistical methodology to a wide audience, simply and intuitively,
through resampling from the data at hand.
The methodology proceeds from chapter to chapter from the simple to the
complex. The stress is always on concepts rather than computations. Similarly, the
R code introduced in the opening chapters is simple and straightforward; R’s com-
plexities, necessary only if one is programming one’s own R functions, are deferred
to Chapter 7 and Chapter 8.
The resampling methods—the bootstrap, decision trees, and permutation tests—
are easy to learn and easy to apply. They do not require mathematics beyond intro-
ductory high school algebra, yet are applicable to an exceptionally broad range of
subject areas.
Although introduced in the 1930s, the numerous, albeit straightforward calcula-
tions that resampling methods require were beyond the capabilities of the primitive
calculators then in use. They were soon displaced by less powerful, less accurate
approximations that made use of tables. Today, with a powerful computer on every
desktop, resampling methods have resumed their dominant role and table lookup is
an anachronism.
Physicians and physicians in training, nurses and nursing students, business
persons, business majors, research workers, and students in the biological and social
sciences will find a practical and easily grasped guide to descriptive statistics, esti-
mation, testing hypotheses, and model building.
For advanced students in astronomy, biology, dentistry, medicine, psychology,
sociology, and public health, this text can provide a first course in statistics and
quantitative reasoning.
For mathematics majors, this text will form the first course in statistics to be
followed by a second course devoted to distribution theory and asymptotic results.
Hopefully, all readers will find my objectives are the same as theirs: To use
quantitative methods to characterize, review, report on, test, estimate, and classify
findings.
Warning to the autodidact: You can master the material in this text without the
aid of an instructor. But you may not be able to grasp even the more elementary
concepts without completing the exercises. Whenever and wherever you encounter
an exercise in the text, stop your reading and complete the exercise before going
further. To simplify the task, R code and data sets may be downloaded by entering
ISBN 9781118428214 at booksupport.wiley.com and then cut and pasted into your
programs.
xi
xii Preface

I have similar advice for instructors. You can work out the exercises in class
and show every student how smart you are, but it is doubtful they will learn anything
from your efforts, much less retain the material past exam time. Success in your
teaching can be achieved only via the discovery method, that is, by having the stu-
dents work out the exercises on their own. I let my students know that the final exam
will consist solely of exercises from the book. “I may change the numbers or
combine several exercises in a single question, but if you can answer all the exercises
you will get an A.” I do not require students to submit their homework but merely
indicate that if they wish to do so, I will read and comment on what they have
submitted. When a student indicates he or she has had difficulty with an exercise,
emulating Professor Neyman I invite him or her up to the white board and give hints
until the problem has been worked out by the student.
Thirty or more exercises included in each chapter plus dozens of thought-
provoking questions in Chapter 11 will serve the needs of both classroom and self-
study. The discovery method is utilized as often as possible, and the student and
conscientious reader forced to think his or her way to a solution rather than being
able to copy the answer or apply a formula straight out of the text.
Certain questions lend themselves to in-class discussions in which all students
are encouraged to participate. Examples include Exercises 1.11, 2.7, 2.24, 2.32, 3.18,
4.1, 4.11, 6.1, 6.9, 9.7, 9.17, 9.30, and all the problems in Chapter 11.
R may be downloaded without charge for use under Windows, UNIX, or the
Macintosh from http://cran.r-project.org. For a one-quarter short course, I take stu-
dents through Chapter 1, Chapter 2, and Chapter 3. Sections preceded by an asterisk
(*) concern specialized topics and may be skipped without loss in comprehension.
We complete Chapter 4, Chapter 5, and Chapter 6 in the winter quarter, finishing
the year with Chapter 7, Chapter 8, and Chapter 9. Chapter 10 and Chapter 11 on
“Reports” and “Problem Solving” convert the text into an invaluable professional
resource.
If you find this text an easy read, then your gratitude should go to the late Cliff
Lunneborg for his many corrections and clarifications. I am deeply indebted to Rob
J. Goedman for his help with the R language, and to Brigid McDermott, Michael L.
Richardson, David Warton, Mike Moreau, Lynn Marek, Mikko Mönkkönen, Kim
Colyvas, my students at UCLA, and the students in the Introductory Statistics and
Resampling Methods courses that I offer online each quarter through the auspices
of statcourse.com for their comments and corrections.

Phillip I. Good
Huntington Beach, CA
drgood@statcourse.com
Chapter 1

Variation

If there were no variation, if every observation were predictable, a mere repeti-

tion of what had gone before, there would be no need for statistics.
In this chapter, you’ll learn what statistics is all about, variation and its potential
sources, and how to use R to display the data you’ve collected. You’ll start to acquire
additional vocabulary, including such terms as accuracy and precision, mean and
median, and sample and population.

1.1 VARIATION

We find physics extremely satisfying. In high school, we learned the formula S = VT,
which in symbols relates the distance traveled by an object to its velocity multiplied
by the time spent in traveling. If the speedometer says 60 mph, then in half an hour,
you are certain to travel exactly 30 mi. Except that during our morning commute,
the speed we travel is seldom constant, and the formula not really applicable. Yahoo
Maps told us it would take 45 minutes to get to our teaching assignment at UCLA.
Alas, it rained and it took us two and a half hours.
Politicians always tell us the best that can happen. If a politician had spelled
out the worst-case scenario, would the United States have gone to war in Iraq without
first gathering a great deal more information?
In college, we had Boyle’s law, V = KT/P, with its tidy relationship between the
volume V, temperature T and pressure P of a perfect gas. This is just one example
of the perfection encountered there. The problem was we could never quite duplicate
this (or any other) law in the Freshman Physics’ laboratory. Maybe it was the mea-
suring instruments, our lack of familiarity with the equipment, or simple measure-
ment error, but we kept getting different values for the constant K.
By now, we know that variation is the norm. Instead of getting a fixed, repro-
ducible volume V to correspond to a specific temperature T and pressure P, one ends
up with a distribution of values of V instead as a result of errors in measurement.
But we also know that with a large enough representative sample (defined later in
this chapter), the center and shape of this distribution are reproducible.

Introduction to Statistics Through Resampling Methods and R, Second Edition. Phillip I. Good.
© 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Published 2013 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

1
2 Chapter 1 Variation

Here’s more good and bad news: Make astronomical, physical, or chemical
measurements and the only variation appears to be due to observational error. Pur-
chase a more expensive measuring device and get more precise measurements and
the situation will improve.
But try working with people. Anyone who spends any time in a schoolroom—
whether as a parent or as a child, soon becomes aware of the vast differences among
individuals. Our most distinct memories are of how large the girls were in the third
grade (ever been beat up by a girl?) and the trepidation we felt on the playground
whenever teams were chosen (not right field again!). Much later, in our college days,
we were to discover there were many individuals capable of devouring larger quanti-
ties of alcohol than we could without noticeable effect. And a few, mostly of other
nationalities, whom we could drink under the table.
Whether or not you imbibe, we’re sure you’ve had the opportunity to observe
the effects of alcohol on others. Some individuals take a single drink and their nose
turns red. Others can’t seem to take just one drink.
Despite these obvious differences, scheduling for outpatient radiology at many
hospitals is done by a computer program that allots exactly 15 minutes to each
patient. Well, I’ve news for them and their computer. Occasionally, the technologists
are left twiddling their thumbs. More often the waiting room is overcrowded because
of routine exams that weren’t routine or where the radiologist wanted additional
X-rays. (To say nothing of those patients who show up an hour or so early or a half
hour late.)
The majority of effort in experimental design, the focus of Chapter 6 of this
text, is devoted to finding ways in which this variation from individual to individual
won’t swamp or mask the variation that results from differences in treatment or
approach. It’s probably safe to say that what distinguishes statistics from all other
branches of applied mathematics is that it is devoted to characterizing and then
accounting for variation in the observations.

Consider the Following Experiment

You catch three fish. You heft each one and estimate its weight; you weigh each one on
a pan scale when you get back to the dock, and you take them to a chemistry laboratory
and weigh them there. Your two friends on the boat do exactly the same thing. (All but
Mike; the chemistry professor catches him in the lab after hours and calls campus secu-
rity. This is known as missing data.)
The 26 weights you’ve recorded (3 × 3 × 3–1 when they nabbed Mike) differ as
result of measurement error, observer error, differences among observers, differences
among measuring devices, and differences among fish.

1.2 COLLECTING DATA

The best way to observe variation is for you, the reader, to collect some data. But
before we make some suggestions, a few words of caution are in order: 80% of the
 1.2 Collecting Data 3

effort in any study goes into data collection and preparation for data collection. Any
effort you don’t expend initially goes into cleaning up the resulting mess. Or, as my
carpenter friends put it, “measure twice; cut once.”
We constantly receive letters and emails asking which statistic we would use to
rescue a misdirected study. We know of no magic formula, no secret procedure
known only to statisticians with a PhD. The operative phrase is GIGO: garbage in,
garbage out. So think carefully before you embark on your collection effort. Make
a list of possible sources of variation and see if you can eliminate any that are unre-
lated to the objectives of your study. If midway through, you think of a better
method—don’t use it.* Any inconsistency in your procedure will only add to the
undesired variation.

1.2.1 A Worked-Through Example

Let’s get started. Suppose we were to record the time taken by an individual to run
around the school track. Before turning the page to see a list of some possible sources
of variation, test yourself by writing down a list of all the factors you feel will affect
the individual’s performance. Obviously, the running time will depend upon the
individual’s sex, age, weight (for height and age), and race. It also will depend upon
the weather, as I can testify from personal experience.
Soccer referees are required to take an annual physical examination that includes
a mile and a quarter run. On a cold March day, the last time I took the exam in
Michigan, I wore a down parka. Halfway through the first lap, a light snow began
to fall that melted as soon as it touched my parka. By the third go around the track,
the down was saturated with moisture and I must have been carrying a dozen extra
pounds. Needless to say, my running speed varied considerably over the mile and a
quarter.
As we shall see in the chapter on analyzing experiments, we can’t just add the
effects of the various factors, for they often interact. Consider that Kenyan’s domi-
nate the long-distance races, while Jamaicans and African-Americans do best in
sprints.
The sex of the observer is also important. Guys and stallions run a great deal
faster if they think a maiden is watching. The equipment the observer is using is
also important: A precision stopwatch or an ordinary wrist watch? (See Table 1.1.)
Before continuing with your reading, follow through on at least one of the fol-
lowing data collection tasks or an equivalent idea of your own as we will be using
the data you collect in the very next section:
1. a. Measure the height, circumference, and weight of a dozen humans (or
dogs, or hamsters, or frogs, or crickets).
b. Alternately, date some rocks, some fossils, or some found objects.

* On the other hand, we strongly recommend you do a thorough review after all your data have been
collected and analyzed. You can and should learn from experience.
Another Random Scribd Document
with Unrelated Content
 IX
THE DAWN OF INTELLIGENCE

The sixth month, though it lay between two great development

periods,—that of learning to use the senses, and that of learning to
carry the body,—was not in itself a period of suspended
development. It is true that its progress, being more purely mental,
could not be so continuously traced as that which came before and
after, but rather cropped up to the surface every now and then in a
more or less broken way; still, no doubt, it really went on in the same
gradual method, one thread and another knitting together into the
fabric of new powers.
It was to this month, as I said in closing the last chapter, that the
beginnings of adaptive intelligence belonged; and this alone marks it
a great epoch.
There is a great deal of discussion about the use of the words
“intelligence,” “reason,” “instinct,” “judgment,” “inference,” and the
like: what these faculties and acts really are, how they come about,
where the line is to be drawn between their manifestations (in the
minds of animals and of man, for instance), and many other
problems. But I think that all agree upon recognizing two types of
action that come under the discussion: one, that which shows merely
the ability to adapt means to ends, to use one’s own wit in novel
circumstances; the other, that which rests on the higher, abstract
reasoning power, such as is hardly possible without carrying on a
train of thought in words. Whether these two types are to be called
intelligence and reason, as Professor Lloyd Morgan calls them, or
whether both come under the head of reason, lower and higher, we
need not trouble to decide. If we call them adaptive intelligence and
higher or abstract reason, we are safe enough.
Even if it be true that any glimmer of the higher reason penetrates
back into the grades of life below the attainment of speech, it must
be only into those just below, and is not to be looked for in our baby
for a long time yet. But the mere practical intelligence that I am now
speaking of seems to appear in babies close on the completion of a
fair mastery of their senses, about the middle of the first year, and it
goes pretty far down in the animal kingdom. Darwin thought the
lowest example of it he knew was in the crab, who would remove
shells that were thrown near the mouth of his burrow, apparently
realizing that they might fall in.
Recent psychologists have shown strong reason for thinking that
such acts as this are at bottom only the same old hit and miss trick
that we have seen from the first, of repeating lucky movements; only
in a higher stage, as the associations that guide the movements
become more delicate and complicated, and memory and
imagination enter in. However this may be as a matter of theoretic
analysis, there is in practice a clear test of difference between the
unintelligent earlier type of actions and those that all agree in calling
intelligent: I have indicated it above, in saying that in intelligent action
one’s own wit must be used “in novel circumstances.” The case must
be such that one cannot fall back on race instinct nor on his own
previous habit.
Our baby, for instance, first used her intelligence to steer her toe into
her mouth, and the way she did it, compared with the way she slowly
settled on the proper movements for getting her rattle into her mouth,
shows clearly the practical difference between unintelligent and
intelligent action, even if both are at bottom made of the same
psychological stuff.
It was just before the sixth month began that the baby accomplished
this feat, but it belongs with the developments of that month. She
was already fond of playing with her toes; and sitting unclad that
evening in her mother’s lap, she first tried to pull them straight to her
mouth. This was, of course, the mere repetition of a frequent
movement, learned by simple association. But when it failed—for the
toes would kick away, just as her arms used to do, carrying the
thumb from her lips—the little one put her mind on corralling them.
She took them in one hand, clasped the other hand about her instep,
and so brought the foot safely up. Still it escaped, and at last she
clasped ankle and heel firmly, one with each hand, and after several
attempts brought the elusive toe triumphantly into her mouth. It is
true that by looking up to us for sympathy in her success, and
relaxing attention, she promptly lost it once more; but she recaptured
it, and from this time on, for weeks, had immense satisfaction in it
every time she was undressed.
There may have been a certain element of instinct in this—getting
the toe to the mouth is so persistent a habit with babies that it seems
as if there must be some inheritance about it; but inheritance could
hardly have given the special devices for managing the
insubordinate foot; there was clearly some use of individual
intelligence. All through the process of learning to manage the body,
the baby showed instinct and intelligence most intricately mingled;
and, indeed, we do so ourselves our lives long.
Of all a baby’s doings this toe business is the one that people find it
most impossible to regard with scientific seriousness. But its indirect
usefulness is considerable. The coöperation of different parts of the
body that it teaches is remarkable; and it must have great influence
in extending the sense of self to the legs and feet, where it has
hitherto seemed but weakly developed. This is important in getting
the body ready for standing and walking.
The baby now showed intelligence in her actions in several little
ways, such as tugging with impatient cries at her mother’s dress
when she wanted her dinner, and leaning over to pluck at the
carriage blanket, under which her mother had laid some flowers to
keep them from her. She slipped a long-handled spoon farther down
in her hand to get the end of the handle into her mouth (almost
exactly the same act as the one that Darwin thought first showed “a
sort of practical reflection” in his child at about the same age: the boy
slipped his hand down his father’s finger, in order to get the finger tip
into his mouth). In the second week of the month she began to watch
things as they fell, and then to throw them down purposely, to watch
them falling.
I have already mentioned certain doubtful imitations in the fourth
month, and a clearer one in the fifth. Now the baby began to imitate
unmistakably. Her uncle had a fashion of slapping his hand down on
the table by way of a salutation to her, and one day (when she had
passed a week of her sixth month) she slapped down her little hand
in return. The next day as soon as her uncle came in, she began to
slap her hand down, watching him, delighted to repeat the
movement back and forth, as long as he would keep it up. She would
imitate me also when I did it; and in the course of the month several
other little imitations occurred.
I have already spoken of the great importance psychologists attach
to imitation. Professor Baldwin makes it the great principle of
development in child and race—all evolution one long history of its
workings; but he uses the word in a far wider sense than the ordinary
one, tracing “imitation” from the mechanical repetition of life-
preserving motions by the lowest living things, up to the spiritual
effort of men and women to live up to their own highest ideals. Even
using the word in its ordinary sense, we know what a potent force in
the little one’s education imitation is. The age, however, at which it is
most efficient is considerably later than the sixth month, and it did
not count for much yet with our baby.
Her sounds had been more various and expressive from the first
days of the month. She had taken up a curious puppy-like whine of
desire or complaint, and a funny little ecstatic sniffing and catching
her breath, to express some shades of delight; and she had also
begun to pour out long, varied successions of babbling sounds,
which expressed content, interest, or complaint very clearly. She
would “talk to” any interesting object (a hedge in gorgeous bloom, for
instance) with this expressive babble, sometimes holding out her
arms to it at the same time. But now, in the second week of the
month, the day after the first decisive imitation, a surprising advance
beyond these means of communication took place.
I must explain that the wise grandma, who believed in encouraging
babies to creep, as the best possible preparation for standing and
walking, had begun to set the little one on her hands and knees on
the big dining-table, putting a hand against her feet as a brace in
case she should be moved to struggle forward. The baby had a habit
of pushing with her feet when she felt anything against her soles;
and pushing thus, thrust herself forward; and as the table-cover slid
with her movement, she would half slide with it, half shove herself,
across the table, grunting with exertion, and highly pleased.
On the day in question I was sitting with her by this table, and she
pulled at the table-cover, as she was wont to pull and handle
anything she could reach. Suddenly she threw herself back on my
arm, and looked earnestly in my face; sat up and pulled at the cover
again, then threw herself back and looked at me again.
“What does she want?” I said, surprised, and hardly able to think that
the little thing could really be trying to say something to me. But
grandma interpreted easily, and when I put the baby on the table
accordingly, to make her sliding sprawl across the surface, she was
satisfied.
This remarkable advance in sign language comes well under our
definition of intelligent action: it was not a stereotyped sign, already
fixed in her mind in association with a certain wish, like holding out
her arms to be taken, but a device of her own, to meet the special
occasion.
Her increased power of communication was not the only way in
which her mind showed itself more wide awake to other people. A
rather uncomfortable phase of this development was timidity. In the
first week of the month, she was frightened by some one who came
in suddenly between her and her mother, in a strange house, and
spoke abruptly, in a deep, unfamiliar voice; and after that she often
cried or became uneasy when strange men took her, or came near
her, especially if they were abrupt. She drew distinct lines, according
to some principle of her own, and certain people were affably
accepted at once, while others, no more terrific that we could see,
made the little lip quiver every time they came near. This timidity
toward people was not at all deeply fixed in her temperament, and
though it lasted all this month, it was never very marked afterward.
Some indications of the dawn of affection also appeared now. The
baby’s desire to touch our faces with her mouth and hands seemed
to have a certain element of attachment in it. The touches were often
soft and caressing, and they were bestowed only on her especial
friends, or on one or two strangers that she had taken at once into
notable favor. Once she leaned out of her baby carriage, calling and
reaching to me, as if she wished to be taken; but when I came to her,
she wanted only to get hold of me, to put her hands and mouth softly
on my face.
Up to about the middle of the month, in spite of her daily exercises
with her toe, the baby had not altogether annexed her legs to her
conscious self and brought them under her orders. She still had to
hold the foot forcibly with her hands all the time her toe was in her
mouth, or it would have kicked away from her as if it was none of
hers. It is likely, too, that she had scarcely any idea of those parts of
her body which she could not see and did not often touch. Indeed,
the psychologists tell us that we ourselves have a decidedly inferior
bodily consciousness in such parts—say between the shoulder
blades. Even her own head must have been mainly unknown
territory to the baby still, in spite of the curiosity she had felt about it
the month before. But now she discovered by a chance touch that
she could investigate it with her hands, and proceeded at once to do
so, with a serious face.
In the latter half of the month, she went a good deal farther toward
getting a roughly complete knowledge and control of her body. She
investigated her ear, her cheek, and the back and sides of her head,
from time to time. She became quite expert in using legs and hands,
head and mouth, together, in get getting hold of her toe. She sat
alone longer and longer, and by the end of the month could have
done so by the half hour, if she had not always upset herself in five
minutes or so by turning and reaching about. She had become very
free in bending, squirming, and changing her position when she lay
on the floor, and early in the third week of the month she had turned
clear over, from back to stomach, in reaching after something. She
followed up the lesson at once, and soon was rolling over whenever
she wished—at first having much ado to get her arm disentangled
from under her, but managing it nicely before long.
It is possible she would have begun creep creeping at this time but
for the impediment of her clothes. She did stumble once upon almost
the right movement, in trying to get forward to something she
wanted; but her feet and knees became entangled in her skirts, and
she gave it up. A week later, she was put into short skirts, but by that
time the ability to roll over had diverted her mind from creeping.
Babies must lose a great deal of their normal activity through
clothes. They are retracing a stage of human history in which clothes
had no part, and this new element must hamper the repetition
immensely. Clothes they must wear—they do not live in tropic forests
nor own hair coverings; but we ought to leave the little limbs as free
as we can without risk from cold. A chance to roll about nude in a
room that is safely warm is a great thing for a baby.
She did not again use any sign language as advanced as when she
had asked to be put on the table; that incident was a sort of herald of
a later stage of development. But in the latter part of the month her
regular means of communication were decidedly better developed
than in the first part. She would coax for a frolic by leaning forward
with an urgent “Oo! oo!” and expressive movements of her body; but
if she was asking instead for an object she wished, or to be taken
into her mother’s arms, there were small but quite definite
differences in tone, expression, and movement, so that we usually
knew at once which she meant.
About a week before the end of the month a great step toward
intercommunication by speech took place. We began to suspect that
the baby knew her own name, she turned to look so often just after it
had been spoken. To test it I stood behind her, and in an ordinary
tone accosted her as Bobby, Tom, Kitten, Mary, Jacob, Baby, and all
sorts of other names. Whenever I said Ruth, Toodles, or Toots, she
turned and looked expectantly at me, but not at any other name.
Now, Ruth is our baby’s proper name; so it was evident that she
really did have some inkling of the sound that meant her.
Not that she could rise yet to any such abstract conception as that of
a person or of a name. But she had learned that this sound was
connected with interesting experiences—with frolics, and caresses,
and trips outdoors, with relief from discomforts, with dinners, and all
the other things that happened when people were attending to her. It
was out of such a beginning as this that full understanding of
articulate speech, in all its logical intricacy, was to develop.
One of the most marked traits of the latter weeks of this month was
the surprising rapidity with which things were grouping themselves in
the baby’s mind by association, in a way that came nearer and
nearer to definite memory. She coaxed for a spoon, and when she
got it was still discontented, till we found that she wished it to have
milk in, as she knew befitted a spoon—though for the milk itself she
did not care at all. She understood what particular frolic was to be
expected from each of us. She turned, when she saw reflections, to
look for the real object. She made demonstrations of joy when she
saw her baby carriage, knowing well what it portended.
In two or three cases, there was at last unmistakable evidence of
true memory, for at least a few minutes. For instance, in the last
week of the month, sitting on her mother’s lap, the baby caught sight
of a knot of loops that adorned the centre of an ottoman close by,
and reached her arms for it. By way of a joke on her, her mother set
her on the ottoman. It was quite beyond the baby’s sense of locality
to divine what had become of the knot, and she looked all about her
diligently to find it, leaning this way and that. By and by her mother
took her back into her arms to nurse; but all the time she was
nursing, she would stop now and then, sit up, and lean over to look
for the lost knot.
At another time, when her mother came into the room with a new hat
on, she reached out her hands for it with delight; her mother
retreated at once, and put the hat safely out of sight, but when some
minutes later the baby saw her again, her first look was at the top of
her head, and seeing it now bare of lace and buttercups, she broke
into a disappointed whimper.
All this time practice in her earlier attainments went vigorously on.
She was watching, handling, reaching after things, all day long.
Especially she watched all the movements of people; often, now, as
they went in and out of doors, as they were seen through windows,
came into sight or disappeared around corners. She must have been
getting thus some idea of the way walls acted in shutting out her
view, and of the relation of visible and invisible positions.
She had perhaps more troubles in this month than ever before, what
with some fear of people, and the discomforts connected with her
first pair of teeth, and also with the beginning of the weaning period.
There were a number of days when her health and spirits were
considerably depressed, and there was a good deal of fretting. When
the teeth were fairly through, and the insufficient food supplemented,
her spirits came up with a bound, and she was more joyous than
ever.
She had her first skin pain in this month—a scratched finger from a
clasp on my shoulder—and wailed with vigor; yet it was forgotten in
a few moments, and never thought of again. It was evident that skin
sensitiveness was still low, and that hurts left no after soreness.
It was about ten days before the end of the month that she first
showed a decided emotional dependence on her mother. She had
been separated from her for some time (by a tedious dentist’s
engagement), had become hungry and sleepy, and had been
frightened by an abrupt stranger. At last she settled into a pitiful,
steady crying—stopping at every angle in the corridor where I
walked with her, and watching eagerly till it was turned, then
breaking out anew when her mother did not prove to be around the
corner. This tragic experience left a much deeper mark than the
physical woes, and for some days the baby watched her mother
rather anxiously, as if she feared she might lose her again unless
she kept her eyes constantly upon her.
And so she was come to the end of her first half year. The breathing
automaton had become an eager and joyous little being, seeing and
hearing and feeling much as we do, knowing her own body
somewhat, and controlling it throughout to a certain extent, laughing
and frolicking, enjoying the vision of the world with a delicious zest,
clinging to us not so much for physical protection as for human
companionship, beginning to show a glimmer of intelligence, and to
cross over with sign and sound the abyss between spirit and spirit.
 X
BEGINNINGS OF LOCOMOTION

When a baby has learned to see things clearly, and has known the
joys of handling them, it is natural that he should soon come to feel
the need of getting to them when they chance to lie beyond arm
reach. Apparently the first impulse to move the whole body does
always come from this desire to get at something; but I doubt if this
remains a very important motive throughout the whole process of
learning. There is so much in that process that is instinctive that the
baby seems to be in great part taken up and carried on by a current
of blind impulse. Then, too, the whole structure of bone, and joint,
and muscle is so fitted to certain positions and movements that in
the mere chance exercising of his limbs he is steadily brought nearer
to the great race acts of balance and locomotion.
One might suppose that with babies sprawling, creeping, and
toddling on every hand, we should not lack evidence on the
beginnings of human locomotion; but as a matter of fact, the stage
that precedes walking is involved in a good deal of confusion.
Records are scanty, and children seem to vary a good deal in their
way of going at the thing. Most of them “creep before they gang”; but
there seems to be a stage before creeping, when, if the child is given
full freedom of movement, he will get over the floor in some cruder
way, rolling, hitching, dragging himself by the elbows, humping
forward measure-worm fashion, or wriggling along like a snake.
Perhaps, as I have already suggested, this is because skirts delay
the natural beginning of creeping, and these other movements
require less freedom of the legs; perhaps there is some deeper
reason connected with race history. Sometimes the baby makes
these less efficient movements answer till walking is acquired, and
never creeps at all.
Our baby, as we have seen, had already made her first ineffective
attempts to pull herself forward and reach something; and lying face
down, unable to turn over, had so propped herself with hands and
knees that when she tried to move she almost stumbled on creeping
unawares. But soon after she was six months old, she discovered
the other half of the trick of rolling—reversing herself from front to
rear as well as from rear to front; and this gave her such an enlarged
freedom that it stopped all aspirations in other directions.
She did not deliberately turn over and over to get anywhere. She
simply rolled and kicked about the floor, turning over when she felt
like it or when she wished to reach something, highly content, and
asking odds of nobody. If by chance she turned in the same direction
a number of times in succession, she would drift halfway across the
room, meeting no end of interesting things by the way—mamma’s
slipper tips, chair rockers, table legs, waste basket, petals dropped
from the vases, and so on. It was a great enlargement of life, and
kept her happy for six or seven weeks.
During this time, her balance in sitting grew secure, so that she could
sit on the floor as long as she chose, occupied with playthings; but
she cared more for the rolling.
It was in these weeks, too, that two great new interests came into
our baby’s life. The first was a really passionate one, and it seized
her suddenly, the week after she was half a year old. The door had
just opened to admit a guest, amid a bustle of welcome, when a cry
of such desire as we had never heard from our baby in all her little
life called our attention to her. Utterly indifferent to the arrival of
company (she who had always loved a stir of coming and going, and
taken more interest in people than in anything else!) she was leaning
and looking out of the window at the dog, as if she had never seen
him before—though he had been before her eyes all her life. She
would think of nothing else; the guest, expert in charming babies,
could not get a glance.
Day after day, for weeks, the little thing was filled with excitement at
sight of the shaggy Muzhik, moving her arms and body, and crying
out with what seemed intensest joy and longing. When he came
near, her excitement increased, and she reached out and caught at
him; her face lighted with happiness when he stood close by; she
showed not the least fear when he put his rough head almost in her
face, but gazed earnestly at it; she watched for him at the window, or
from her baby carriage. No person or thing had ever interested her
so much. Muzhik, on his part, soon learned to give the snatching
little hands a wide berth; and his caution may have enhanced his
charm.
Later in the month, she showed somewhat similar excitement at
sight of a cow. About the same time, too, she first noticed the
pigeons as they flew up from the ground.
This was the beginning of a lasting interest in animals, animal
pictures, animal stories. It is not easy to account fully for this interest,
appearing in such intense degree, at so early an age. All children
show it to some extent, though in many it is mingled with a good,
deal of fear. One is tempted to connect both the fear and the interest
with race history—the intimate association of primitive man with
animals; but a six-month baby is traversing a period of development
far earlier than that of the primitive hunter. Professor Sully has some
good suggestions about the sympathy between children and
animals, but these, too, fail of application to a baby so young.
Probably to her the main charm was the movement, the rough
resemblance to people, joined with so many differences, now first
noticed with the interest of novelty—and (as later incidents made me
suspect) the quantity of convenient hair to be pulled.
The other new interest waked late in the seventh month: that joy in
outdoors that was for many months of the little one’s life her best
happiness. Up to this time, she had liked to be taken out in her baby
carriage, but mainly for the motion. Now, one morning, grandma took
her and sat down quietly on the veranda, saying that she wanted her
to learn to love the sunshine, the birds and flowers and trees, without
needing the baby carriage and its motion. The little one sat in her
lap, looking about with murmurs of delight; and after that, her
happiness in rolling about freely was much greater when we spread
a blanket on veranda or lawn, and laid her there. Within two weeks,
she would coax to be taken outdoors, and then coax till she was put
down out of arms, and left to her own happiness. She would roll
about by the hour, the most contented baby in the world, breaking
occasionally into cries and movements of overflowing joy.
I did not think that at this age the novel sights and sounds outdoors
had much to do with her pleasure; she did not yet notice them much.
Nor could it have been the wideness and freedom of outlook, for she
had not yet come to distant seeing—a hundred feet was as far as I
had ever seen her look. Later, all this counted; but now I thought that
the mere physical effect of activity in the fresh air, together with the
bright light, and perhaps the moving and playing of lights in the
leaves, must make up most of the charm.
In the early weeks of the seventh month idle baby’s rollicking spirits
were striking; in fact, she became for a time quite a little rowdy, ho-
ho-ing and laughing in loud, rough tones, snatching this way and
that, clutching at our hair with exultant shouts and clamor. In the
latter part of the month, her manners were better—indeed, it was
fully a year before I saw them as bad again; but she was much given
to seizing at our faces, flinging herself at them with cries and growls
(exactly as if she had been playing bear), and mouthing and lightly
biting them. And indeed it must be confessed that while our baby’s
behavior was often very pretty for weeks together, she had many fits
of rough play and hoydenish spirits, and our faces and hair were
never quite safe from romping attacks before she was two years old.
This boisterousness was not overflowing spirits (real joyousness
showed itself more gently) and I could never trace its psychological
origin.
At intervals during the month, she continued to improve her bodily
knowledge of herself, investigating her head and face and even the
inside of her mouth, with her fingers; she rubbed her forefinger
curiously with her thumb; she ran out her tongue and moved it about,
trying its motions and feeling her lips. And the very first day of the
month there had appeared that curious behavior that we call
“archness” and “coquetting” in a baby (though anything so grown up
as real archness or coquetry is impossible at this age), looking and
smiling at a person who was somewhat strange, but very amusing,
to her, then ducking down her head when he spoke, and hiding her
face on her mother’s shoulder. Whatever the real reason of such
behavior may be, there is plainly self-consciousness in it. So, too,
when, at seven months old, she began to try deliberately to attract
the interest of callers, wrinkling up her nose with a friendly grimace
till they paid attention to her.
Both these forms of self-consciousness were common after this.
Neither is what we could call human or rational self-consciousness.
Any dog or kitten will show them. But they certainly are something
more than mere bodily feeling of self. If we need a name for it, we
might call it a beginning of intelligent self-perception, as
distinguished both from bodily self-feeling, and rational self-
knowledge—in which the mind, years later, will say to itself clearly,
“This is I.”
We now began to suspect (as she ended her seventh month) that
the baby was beginning to connect our names with us; and when we
tried her by asking, “Where is grandpa?” or “mamma” or “aunty,” she
really did look at the right one often enough to raise a presumption
that she knew what she was about. The association of name and
person was still feeble and shaky, but it proved to be real. In a few
days it was firm as to grandpa (who was quite persona grata,
because he built up blocks for her to knock down, and carried her
about from object to object, to let her touch and examine); and in a
week or two as to the rest of us.
Professor Preyer complains of teaching babies mere tricks, which
have no real relation to their development; and certainly it is a sound
rule that self-unfolding, not teaching, is the way in which a baby
should develop in the earliest years. But Preyer’s baby learned to
wave his hand, and play “patacake,” and show “How big is baby?”
and the rest of it, just as other babies do; mammas and nurses
cannot resist it. And as long as the babies like it, I do not see that it
can do any harm, if it is not overdone. Besides, it may be said that
these standard tricks are all closely related to the sign language, and
so fall in well with the natural development at this stage. And again,
the extreme teachability of the human child is his great superiority
over the brute—all our civilization rests on it; and when the time
comes that he is capable of receiving training, it may be as well that
his power of doing so should be used a little, and that these simple
gesture tricks of immemorial nursery tradition are good exercises to
begin with. It is possible to make a fetich of “self-development,”
beyond all common sense.
At all events, as our baby approached seven months old, her
mamma had begun to teach her to wave by-by. For a couple of
weeks, the mother would hold up the little hand and wave it at the
departing guest, and before long the baby would give a feeble
waggle or two after her mother had let go; next, she would need only
to be started; and a week after she was seven months old she
waved a spontaneous farewell as I left the room. There was a long
history of the gesture after that, for it was lost and regained,
confused with other hand tricks and straightened out, and altogether
played a considerable part in the story of sign language and of
memory, which I shall not have time to relate. But at all times it paid
for itself in the delight it gave the baby: it reconciled her to almost
any parting, and even to going to bed.
Her objection to going to bed, which had been evident since the fifth
month, was because she thought sleeping was a waste of good
playtime, not because she had any associations of fear and
repugnance connected with it. She had never been left to cry herself
to sleep alone, but was rocked and sung to in good old fashion. But
she did show signs at this time of timidity and distress in waking from
sleep, clinging piteously to her mother and crying. She had waked
and cried alone a number of times, and, as I have already said, she
seemed to have formed some associations of fear in this way. But I
think there were deeper reasons for the confused distress on
waking, which from now until halfway through the third year
appeared at times.
I have spoken several times of the ease with which even we grown
people lose our sense of personal identity; and changes in brain
circulation make such confusions especially likely at first waking from
sleep. With babies, whose feeling of identity is but insecurely
established, this must be much more common; moreover, a baby’s
conditions of breathing are less regular than ours, and it is probable
that as he comes out of sleep, and the circulation and respiration of
the waking hours slowly reestablish themselves, he has all sorts of
queer, lost feelings. I was pretty sure, from our baby’s behavior I in
the next two years, that she struggled back to the firm shores of
waking consciousness through dark waters of confusion, and
needed a friendly hand to cling to. This, I suspect, is the secret of the
wild crying in the night, which doctors call “night terror”: it is not
terror, I think, but vague distress, increased by the darkness—loss of
self, of direction, of all one’s usual bodily feeling.
In these sensitive states attending sleep it is likely that some of the
emotional conditions for life are formed, and the ties between mother
and child knit firmest. My observation is that the one the baby loves
most is the one that sleeps close by, that bends over him as he
struggles confusedly back to waking, and steers him tenderly
through the valley of the shadow of sleep; and next, the one that
plays most patiently and observantly with him—not the one that
feeds him.
In her absorption in her growing bodily activity, the baby had taken
no marked steps in intellectual development, though in skill of
handling, and in ability to understand what went on about her and
put two and two together, she made steady progress. Early in the
eighth month, some definite instances of this appeared. She showed
a discreet preference at bedtime for anybody rather than her mother,
and clung vigorously round my neck or her grandfather’s when that
messenger of fate came for her. She dropped things to watch them
fall, with a persistent zeal and interest such as she had not shown in
earlier experiments of the sort. She knew what it meant if one of us
put a hat on, and pleaded with outstretched hands and springing
motion to go too. Once she found that in moving a long stick she was
moving some twigs at its farther end, and kept up the experiment
with curiosity.
It was about this time—the first fortnight of the eighth month—that
taste first became a source of pleasure to our baby. She had been
given an experimental taste of several things before, but beyond the
grimace of surprise (it looks like utmost disgust, but there seems no
doubt that it really means surprise only) with which little babies greet
new tastes, she had shown no great interest in them. Now, as
nature’s supply grew scant, she was introduced more seriously to
several supplementary foods, and at least once rejoiced over the
taste a good deal. Still, she was apt soon to tire of them, and on the
whole taste did not at any time in her first year take a large place
among her interests.
As the middle of the eighth month approached, it was evident that an
advance in power of movement was coming. The baby was getting
up on hands and knees again; she made daily a few aimless
creeping movements; and in her bath she would draw herself to her
knees, and partly to her feet, holding by the edge of the tub, and
somewhat supported by the water. A few days later she drew herself
forward a few inches, flat on her stomach, to get something. But she
still did not catch the idea of creeping, and rolling remained her great
pleasure for another fortnight.
In this fortnight, which brought our baby to eight months old, the
rolling grew very rapid and free. She would now roll over and over in
the same direction, not to get anywhere in particular (she never
learned to use rolling for that purpose), but just for fun. She varied
the exercise with the most lively kicking—heels raised in air and
brought down together with astonishing vigor and zest; and with
twisting about and getting on hands and knees, or even on hands
and feet, prattling joyously, and having a beautiful time all by herself,
for as long as the authorities would leave her alone. I have no note
or memory that she ever tired of it, or asked for attention or change;
it was always some one else who interfered, because meal-time or
nap-time or something had come.
In the last week of the month she learned to raise herself to a sitting
position; and as she could now sit up or lie down at will, she tumbled
about the floor with still more variety and enjoyment. In the same
week she began to pull herself daily quite to her feet in the tub. It
was an ordinary wooden wash-tub which was bridging the interval
between her own outgrown one and the grown-up bath-tub; and she
would stand, leaning her weight partly on her hands, on the edge of
the tub, with her feet planted wide apart, quite on the opposite side,
giving her a pretty secure base.
In this fortnight the baby’s understanding of us and feeling of
nearness to us were noticeably greater. Her attachment to her
favorites was striking. She would cling to us with all the strength of
her little arms, sometimes pressing her lips against our faces in a
primitive sort of kiss. Her desire for our attention was intense—little
arms stretched out, face full of desire, while she uttered urgent cries.
Now and then she was entirely unwilling to eat a meal till the person
she had set her heart on at the moment had yielded to her pleading,
and come to sit close beside her, for company.
She understood one or two little directions—“by-by,” and “patacake”;
or, at least, associated them with the acts. She had some idea of
what “No, no!” meant, and she knew perfectly that she must not keep
paper or flower petals in her mouth, and after biting off a bit would
put out her tongue, laughing, to have the forbidden scrap removed.
And one day when I said to her, “Don’t you want to come to aunty?”
without any gesture, she surprised me by leaning forward and
putting out her hands to me, exactly as if I had reached my arms out
for her. She could not have understood the whole question, for she
hardly understood words at all at the time; but she must have made
out “come,” and, putting it with “aunty,” which she had known for
weeks, got at my meaning.
On the day she was eight months old, at last, the baby half sprawled,
half crept, forward to get something. The early, aimless stages of
locomotion were over, and she was about to start in in good earnest
to learn to creep and to stand.
 XI
CREEPING AND STANDING

Now, at eight months old, began a fortnight of rapid development in

movements, all branching out from the position on hands and knees
which the baby often took as she sprawled on the floor.
First she hit on two ways of sitting up, beginning on hands and
knees. One of them, in fact, had appeared in the last days of the
preceding month. She would tilt over sidewise till she was half sitting,
leaning on one hand, then straighten up, raising the hand—and there
you are, sitting. The other way, a few days later, was to begin as
before on hands and knees, separate the knees, and lift herself over
backward till she was sitting, turning the legs out at the knee. No
grown person but a contortionist could do it, for our hips have not
enough play in the socket to carry the movement through the last
inch or two; but babies’ joints are flexible. This became our baby’s
regular method, and the position it left her in—legs spread out before
her, bent directly out at the knee—was her every-day one for many
months. Most babies, I believe, sit monkey fashion—legs straight,
with soles turned in.
Watching carefully, we were sure that the baby did not at first use
either method intelligently; she wanted to sit up, and shifted and
lifted her body, scolding with impatience, and never knowing whether
she would bring up in the desired position or not, till she found
herself by luck where she wanted to be. In a few days, however, the
right movements were sifted out from the useless ones, and she sat
up and lay down at will.
In the same early days of the ninth month, another movement came
of experimenting while on hands and knees—a backward creeping,
pushing with the hands. The baby at once tried to utilize it to get to
people and things, and it was funny to hear her chattering with
displeasure as she found herself borne off the other way—backing
sometimes into the wall, and pushing helplessly against it, like a little
locomotive that had accidentally got reversed. She soon gave up
trying to get anywhere by this “craw-fishing,” however, and then she
enjoyed it, merely as movement.
The only reason I have heard suggested for this curious back-action
creeping (which is not uncommon just before real creeping) is that
the baby’s arms are stronger than the legs, and as a pushing
movement with them is more natural than a stepping one, a
backward impulse is given, which the baby, as a rule, resents with
comical displeasure.
Next, from hands and knees the baby learned to rise to hands and
feet; to kneel, and then to sit back on her heels; and to make sundry
variations on these positions, such as kneeling on one knee and one
foot, or sitting on one heel, with the other foot thrust out sidewise,
propping her.
In spite of two or three chance forward steps, she was eight and a
half months old before she hit at last on real creeping; then one day I
saw her several times creep forward a foot or two, and presently she
was rolling an orange about and creeping after it. I tried in vain to
lure her more than a couple of feet, to come to me or to get a
plaything; she would creep a step or two, then sit back on her heels
and call me to take her. Until almost the end of this month, indeed,
she would creep for but very short distances, and always to reach
something, not for pleasure in the movement.
But while she fumbled in such chance fashion towards creeping, she
was carried on towards standing by strong and evident instinct. She
pulled herself up daily, not to reach anything, but from an
overwhelming desire to get to her feet; and when she found herself
on them she rejoiced and triumphed. At this stage she almost
invariably used a low object to pull up by, so that she could lean over
it, propping her weight with her hands—or with one hand, as she
grew more confident. It was after the middle of the month that she
first drew herself up, her knees shaking, by a chair, to reach a