You know children can make believe, _know_ that it is make
believe, yet enjoy it all the more for that. So can the Villagers.
Hence, places like--let us say, as an example--"The Pirate's Den."
It is a very real pirate's den, lighted only by candles. A coffin
casts a shadow, and there is a regulation "Jolly Roger," a black flag
ornamented with skull and crossbones. Grim? Surely, but even a
healthy-minded child will play at gruesome and ghoulish games once in
a while.
There is a Dead Man's Chest too,--and if you open it you will find a
ladder leading down into mysterious depths unknown. If you are very
adventurous you will climb down and bump your head against the cellar
ceiling and inspect what is going to be a subterranean grotto as soon
as it can be fitted up. You climb up again and sit in the dim, smoky
little room and look about you. It is the most perfect pirate's den
you can imagine. On the walls hang huge casks and kegs and wine
bottles in their straw covers,--all the signs manual of past and
future orgies.
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