A charming example of prejudice, demonstrating its capacity to target just about anything, and with bewildering precision and disregard for logic: pigtails must be OK because sailors used to wear them (and we like sailors), but on the other hand, sailors only wore one, not two, so two must be bad. 

How many of our own prejudices, examined close up, would sound as daft? 

This is from one of Ransome’s wonderful children’s books which I recommend to any children you know who still read books.  Here’s a taster of three of them I read for fun.

‘She wears pigtails,’ said Peggy.

‘There’s nothing absolutely wrong with pigtails,’ said Nancy.

‘Sailors used to wear them once,’ said Titty.

‘But not one at each side,’ said Roger.

Source: Arthur Ransome, Winter Holiday (London: Vintage, 2012), pp. 61-62

Photo credit: Klimkin at pixabay