LB 
 1179 
 
 W<bSg 
 
 Wiggin 
 The Girl and the Kingdom
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES 
 
 GIFT OF 
 
 Richard Petrie
 
 THE GIRL 
 
 and 
 
 HE KINGDOM 
 
 rt D0UGUO wean:
 
 The Girl and 
 the Kingdom 
 
 LEARNING TO TEACH 
 
 ■ _ \WRITTEN BY, = 
 
 KATE DOUGLAS WIGGIN 
 
 Presented to the 
 
 Los Angeles City Teachers Club 
 
 to Create an Educational Fund 
 
 to Be Used in Part for the 
 
 Literacy Campaign of 
 
 The California Federation of 
 Women's Clubs 
 
 Cover Designed by Miss INeleta Hain 
 
 I
 
 THE BULLETIN 
 
 Published monthly as a convenient means of communica- 
 tion between the Executive Board and the Members. 
 
 Fifty Cents per Year Three Years for One Dollar 
 
 CLUB HEADQUARTERS: TRINITY BUILDING. TELEPHONES, 60771, MAIN 5032 
 
 MISS BLANCH L. VANCE, Pres. . . West 5856; 75184 
 
 MISS LOUISE CURTAIN, Corres. SectV 53062 
 
 MISS MAUD E. SNAY, Chm. Bulletin Committee . 556960 
 
 ^PIT has been said that Kate Douglas 
 gsg Wiggin's human and humorous ap- 
 peal never fails to inspire some one in the 
 cause of humanity. It is quite within the 
 power of the army of 16.000 teachers in 
 California to present the nation with a 
 state that has wholly eradicated illiteracy. 
 The masses of unassimilated foreigners in 
 this country are a menace to its govern- 
 ment. They can never fully understand 
 our institutions until they can read our 
 language. It is our peculiar responsibility 
 as teachers to give of our talent to this 
 cause as generously as Kate Douglas 
 Wiggin has given of hers. 
 
 9065*65?
 
 </g£ /Ucr^yZ*^ fl/<y<^<s
 
 The Girl and the Kingdom 
 
 LEARNING TO TEACH 
 
 LONG, busy street in San Fran- 
 cisco. Innumerable small shops 
 lined it from north to south ; horse 
 cars, always crowded with passengers, hur- 
 ried to and fro ; narrow streets intersected 
 the broader one, these built up with small 
 dwellings, most of them rather neglected 
 by their owners. In the middle distance 
 other narrow streets and alleys where taller 
 houses stood, and the windows, fire escapes, 
 and balconies of these, added great variety 
 to the landscape, as the families housed 
 there kept most of their effects on the out- 
 side during the long dry season. 
 
 Still farther away were the roofs, chim- 
 neys and smoke stacks of mammoth build- 
 ings — railway sheds, freight depots, power 
 houses and the like — with finally a glimpse 
 of docks and wharves and shipping. This, 
 or at least a considerable section of it, 
 was the kingdom. To the ordinary be- 
 holder it might have looked ugly, crowded, 
 sordid, undesirable, but it appeared none of
 
 these things to the lucky person who had 
 been invested with some sort of modest 
 authority in its affairs. 
 
 The throne from which the luck)- per- 
 son viewed the empire was humble enough. 
 It was the highest of the tin shop steps 
 at the corner of Silver and Third streets. 
 odd place for a throne, but one command- 
 ing- a fine view of the inhabitants, their 
 dwellings, and their activities. The activ- 
 ities in plain sight were somewhat limited in 
 variety, but the signs sported the names of 
 nearly every nation upon the earth. The 
 Shubeners, Levis, Ezekiels and Appels 
 were generally in tailoring or secondhand 
 furniture and clothing, while the Raffertys, 
 O'Flanagans and McDougalls dispensed 
 liquor. All the most desirable sites were 
 occupied by saloons, for it was practically 
 impossible to quench the thirst of the neigh- 
 borhood, though many were engaged in a 
 valiant effort to do so. There were also 
 in evidence, barbers, joiners, plumbers, gro- 
 cers, fruit-sellers, bakers and venders of 
 small wares, and there was the largest and 
 most splendidly recruited army of do-noth- 
 ings that the sun ever shone upon. These 
 forever-out-of- workers, leaning against 
 every lamp post, fence picket, corner house, 
 and barber pole in the vicinity, were all 
 male, but they were mostly mated to women 
 fully worthy of them, their wives doing 
 nothing with equal assiduity in the back 
 
 C
 
 streets hard by. — Stay, they did one thing, 
 they added copiously to the world's popula- 
 tion ; and indeed it seemed as if the families 
 in the community that ought to have had 
 few children, or none at all, (for their 
 country's good) had the strongest prejudice 
 to race suicide. Well, there was the king- 
 dom and there were the dwellers therein, 
 and the lucky person on the steps was a 
 girl. She did not know at first that it was 
 a kingdom, and the kingdom never at any 
 time would have recognized itself under 
 that name, for it was anything but a senti- 
 mental neighborhood. The girl was some- 
 what too young for the work she was going 
 to do, and considerably too inexperienced, 
 but she had a kindergarten diploma in her 
 pocket, and being an ardent follower of 
 Froebel she thought a good many roses 
 might blossom in the desert of Tar Flat, 
 the rather uneuphonious name of the king- 
 dom. 
 
 Here the discreet anonymity of the third 
 person must be cast aside and the regret- 
 table egotism of the first person allowed to 
 enter, for I was a girl, and the modest 
 chronicle of my early educational and phil- 
 anthropic adventures must be told after the 
 manner of other chronicles. 
 
 The building in Silver Street which was 
 to be the scene of such beautiful and in- 
 spiring doings (I hoped) as had been sel- 
 dom observed on this planet, was pleasant 
 7
 
 and commodious. It had been occupied by 
 two classes of an overcrowded primary 
 school, which had now been removed to a 
 fine modern building. The two rooms 
 rented for this pioneer free kindergarten of 
 the Pacific Coast were (Alas!) in the sec- 
 ond story but were large and sunny. A 
 broad Might of twenty wooden steps led 
 from street to first floor and a long stair- 
 way connected that floor with the one above. 
 If anyone had realized what those fifty or 
 sixty stairs meant to the new enterprise, in 
 labor and weariness, in wasted time and 
 strength of teachers and children — but it 
 was difficult to find ideal conditions in a 
 crowded neighborhood. 
 
 The first few days after my arrival in 
 San Francisco were spent in the installing 
 of stove, piano, tables, benches and work- 
 ing materials, and then the beautifying be- 
 gan, the creation of a room so attractive 
 and homelike, so friendly in its atmosphere, 
 that its charm would be felt by every child 
 who entered it. I was a stranger in a 
 strange city, my only acquaintances being 
 the trustees of the newly formed Associa- 
 tion. These naturally had no technical 
 knowledge, (I am speaking of the Dark 
 Ages, when there were but two or three 
 trained kindergartners west of the Rocky 
 Mountains) and the practical organization 
 of things — a kindergarten of fifty children 
 in active operation — this was my depart-
 
 rnent. When I had anything' to show them 
 they were eager and willing to help, mean- 
 time they could and did furnish the sinews 
 of war, standing sponsors to the commun- 
 ity for the ideals in education we were en- 
 deavoring to represent. Here is where the 
 tin shop steps came in. I sat there very 
 often in those sunny days of late July, 1878. 
 dreaming dreams and seeing visions ; plot- 
 ting, planning, helping, believing, forecast- 
 ing the future. "Hills peeped o'er hills and 
 Alps on Alps." 
 
 I take some credit to myself that when 
 there were yet no such things as Settlements 
 and Neighborhood Guilds I had an instinct 
 that this was the right way to work. 
 
 "This school," I thought, "must not be 
 an exotic, a parasite, an alien growth, not 
 a flower of beauty transplanted from a con- 
 servatory and shown under glass ; it must 
 have its roots deep in the neighborhood life, 
 and there my roots must be also. No teacher, 
 be she ever so gifted, ever so consecrated, 
 can sufficiently influence the children under 
 her care for only a few hours a day, unless 
 she can gradually persuade the parents to 
 be her allies. I must find then the desired 
 fifty children under school age (six years 
 in California) and I must somehow keep 
 in close relation to the homes from which 
 they come." 
 
 How should I get in intimate touch with 
 this strange, puzzling, foreign community, 
 9
 
 this big clump of poverty-stricken, intem- 
 perate, overworked, lazy, extravagant, ill 
 assorted humanity leavened here and there 
 bv a God-fearing - , thrifty, respectable fam- 
 ily? There were from time to time chil- 
 dren of widows who were living- frugally 
 and doing their best for their families who 
 proved to be the leaven in my rather sorry 
 lump. 
 
 Buying and borrowing were my first two 
 aids to fellowship. I bought my luncheon 
 at a different bakery every day and my glass 
 of milk at a different dairy. At each visit 
 I talked, always casually, of the new kinder- 
 garten, and gave its date of opening, but 
 never "solicited" pupils. I bought pencils, 
 crayons, and mucilage of the local stationers ; 
 brown paper and soap of the grocers ; ham- 
 mers and tacks of the hardware man. I 
 borrowed many things, returned them soon, 
 and thus gave my neighbors the satisfac- 
 tion of being helpful. When I tried to bor- 
 row the local carpenter's saw he answered 
 that he would rather come and do the job 
 himself than lend his saw to a lady. The 
 combination of a lady and edged tools was 
 something in his mind so humorous that I 
 nervously changed the subject. (If he is 
 still alive I am sure he is an Anti-Suffra- 
 gist!) I was glad to display my school 
 room to an intelligent workman, and a half 
 hour's explanation of the kindergarten oc- 
 cupations made the carpenter an enthus- 
 10
 
 iastic convert. This gave me a new idea, 
 and to each craftsman, in the vicinity, I 
 showed the particular branch of kindergar- 
 ten handiwork that might appeal to him. 
 whether laying of patterns, in separate sticks 
 and tablets, weaving, drawing, rudimentary 
 efforts at designing, folding and cutting of 
 paper, or clay modelling. 
 
 I had the great advantage of making all 
 of my calls in shops, and thus I had not 
 the unpleasant duty of visiting people's 
 houses uninvited, nor the embarrassment of 
 being treated as peddlers of patronage and 
 good advice are apt to be treated. Besides, 
 in many cases, the shops and homes (Hea- 
 ven save the mark!) were under one roof, 
 and children scuttled in and out, behind and 
 under the counters and over the thresholds 
 into the street. They were all agog with 
 curiosity and so were the women. A mother 
 does not have to be highly cultured to per- 
 ceive the advantage of a place near by 
 where she can send her four or five year 
 olds free of charge and know that they 
 are busy and happy for several hours a 
 day. 
 
 I know, by long experience with younger 
 kindergartners and social workers in after 
 years, that this kind of "visiting" presents 
 many perplexities to persons of a certain 
 temperament, but I never entered any house 
 where I felt the least sensation of being 
 out of place. I don't think this flexibility 
 11
 
 is a gift of especially high order, nor that 
 it would be equally valuable in all walks of 
 life, but it is of great service in this sort 
 of work. Whether I sat in a stuffed chair 
 or on a nailkeg or an inverted wasbtub it 
 was always equally agreeable to me. The 
 "getting into relation," perfectly, and with- 
 out the loss of a moment, gave me a sense 
 of mental and spiritual exhilaration. 1 never 
 had to adapt myself elaborately to a strange- 
 situation in order to be in sympathy. I 
 never said to myself: "But for God's grace 
 I might be the woman on that cot ; unloved, 
 uncared for, with a new-born child at my 
 side and a dozen men drinking in the saloon 
 just on the other side of the wall * * * or 
 that mother of five — convivial, dishonest, 
 unfaithful * * * or that timid, frail, 
 little creature struggling to support a para- 
 lvtic husband." T never had to give myself 
 logical reasons for being where T was, nor 
 wonder what 1 should say : my one idea 
 was to keep the situation simple and free 
 from embarrassment to any one ; to be as 
 completely a part of it as if T had been 
 born there: to be helpful without being in- 
 trusive : to show no surprise whatever hap- 
 pened : above all to be cheerful, strong and 
 bracing, not weakly sentimental. 
 
 As the day of opening approached an 
 unexpected and valuable aide-de-camp ap- 
 peared on the scene. An American girl of 
 twelve or thirteen slipped in the front door 
 12
 
 one clay when I was practicing' children's 
 song's, whereupon the following' colloquy 
 ensued. 
 
 "What's this place goin' to be?" 
 
 "A kindergarten." 
 
 "What's that?" 
 
 Explanation suited to the questioner, fol- 
 lowed. 
 
 "Can I come in afternoons, on my way 
 home from school and see what you do?" 
 
 "Certainly." 
 
 "Can I stay now and help round?" 
 
 "Yes indeed, I should be delighted." 
 
 "What's the bird for?" 
 
 "What are all birds for?" I answered, 
 just to puzzle her. 
 
 "I dunno. What's the plants and flowers 
 for?" 
 
 "What are all flowers for?" I demanded 
 again. 
 
 "But I thought 'twas a school." 
 
 "It is, but it's a new kind." 
 
 "Where's the books?" 
 
 "The children are going to be under six ; 
 we shan't have reading and writing." 
 
 We sat down to work together, marking 
 out and cutting brown paper envelopes for 
 the children's sewing or weaving, binding 
 colored prints with gold paper and putting 
 them on the wall with thumb tacks, and ar- 
 ranging all the kindergarten materials tidily 
 on the shelves of the closets. Next day was 
 a holiday and she begged to come again. I 
 13
 
 consented and told her that she might bring 
 a friend if she liked and we would lunch to- 
 gether. 
 
 "I guess not," she said, with just a hint of 
 jealousy in her tone. "You and I get on so 
 well that mebbe we'd be bothered with an- 
 other girl messin' around, and she'd be one 
 more to wash up for after lunch." 
 
 From that moment, the Corporal, as I 
 called her, was a stanch ally and there was 
 seldom a day in the coming - years when she 
 did nut faithfully perform all sorts of unoffi- 
 cial duties, attaching- herself passionately 
 to my service with the devotion of a mother 
 or an elder sister. She proved at the begin- 
 ning a kind of travelling agent for the 
 school haranguing mothers on the street 
 corners and addressing the groups of cur- 
 ious children who gathered at the foot of 
 the school steps. 
 
 "You'd ought to go upstairs and see the 
 inside of it!" she would exclaim. "It's 
 just like going around the world. There's 
 a canary bird, there's fishes swimmin' in a 
 gla^s bowl, there's plants bloomin' on the 
 winder sills, there's a pianncr, and more'n a 
 million pictures! There's closets stuffed 
 full o' things to play and work with, and 
 whatever the scholars make they're goin' 
 to take home if it's good. There's a play- 
 room with red rings painted on the floor and 
 they're going to march and play games on 
 'em. She can play the planner standin' up 
 14
 
 or settin' down, without lookirT at her hands 
 to see where they're goin'. She's goin' to 
 wear white, two a week, and I got Miss Lan- 
 nigan to wash 'em for her for fifteen cents 
 apiece. I tell her the children 'round here's 
 awful dirty and she says the cleaner she is 
 the cleaner they'll be. . . No 'tain't goin' 
 to be no Sunday School," said the voluble 
 Corporal. "No, 'tain't goin' to be no Mis- 
 sion ; no, 'tain't goin' to be no Lodge ! She 
 says it's a new kind of a school, that's all I 
 know, and next Monday'll see it goin' full 
 blast!" 
 
 It was somewhat in this fashion, that I 
 walked joyously into the heart of a San 
 Francisco slum, and began experimenting 
 with my newly-learned panaceas. 
 
 These were early days. The kindergar- 
 ten theory of education was on trial for its 
 very life ; the fame of Pestalozzi and Froe- 
 bel seemed to my youthful vision to be in 
 my keeping, and I had all the ardor of a 
 neophyte. I simply stepped into a cockle- 
 shell and put out into an unknown ocean, 
 where all manner of derelicts needed help 
 and succor. The ocean was a life of which 
 I had heretofore known nothing ; miserable, 
 overburdened, and sometimes criminal. 
 
 My cockleshell managed to escape ship- 
 wreck, and took its frail place among the 
 other craft that sailed in its company. I 
 hardly saw or felt the safety of the harbor 
 <»r the shore for three years, the three years 
 15
 
 out iii" my whole life the most wearying, the 
 most heart-searching", the most discourag 
 ing, the most inspiring ; also, T dare say. the 
 best worth living. 
 
 "Full blast," the Corporal's own expres- 
 sion, exactly described the setting out of 
 the cockle-shell; that is, the eventful Mon- 
 day morning when the door-, of the first 
 free kindergarten west of the Rookies threw 
 open its doors. 
 
 The neighborhood was enthusiastic in pre- 
 senting its offspring at the altar of educa- 
 tional experiment, and we might have en- 
 rolled a hundred children had there been 
 room. T was to have no assistant and we 
 had provided seats only for forty-five, which 
 prohibited a list of more than fifty at the 
 outside. A convert to any inspiring idea 
 being anxious to immolate herself on the 
 first altar which comes in the path of duty, 
 I carefully selected the children best calcu- 
 lated to show to the amazed public the re- 
 generating effects of the kindergarten 
 method, and as a whole they were unsur- 
 passed specimens of the class we hoped to 
 benefit. 
 
 Of the forty who were accepted the first 
 morning, thirty appeared to be either indif- 
 ferent or willing victims, while ten were 
 quite the reverse. These screamed if the ma- 
 ternal hand were withdrawn, bawled if their 
 hats were taken away, and bellowed if they 
 were asked to sit down. This rebellion led 
 16
 
 to their being removed to the hall by their 
 mothers, who spanked them vigorously ev- 
 ery few minutes and returned them to me 
 each time in a more unconquered state, with 
 their lung power quite unimpaired and their 
 views of the New Education still vague and 
 distorted. As the mothers were uniformly 
 ladies with ruffled hair, snapping eyes, high 
 color and short temper, I could not under- 
 stand the childrens' fear of me, a mild young 
 thing "in white" — as the Corporal would 
 say — but they evidently preferred the ills 
 they knew. When the last mother led in 
 the last freshly spanked child and said as 
 she prepared to leave : "Well, I suppose 
 they might as well get used to you one time 
 as another, so good-day, Miss, and God help 
 you!" I felt that my woes were greater than 
 I could bear, for, as the door closed, several 
 infants who had been quite calm began to 
 howl in sympathy with their suffering 
 brethren. Then the door opened again and 
 the Corporal's bright face appeared in the 
 crack. 
 
 "Goodness!" she ejaculated, "this ain't 
 the new kind of a school I thought 'twas 
 goin' to be ! — Stop your cryin', Jimmy Max- 
 well, a great big boy like you ; and Levi 
 Isaacs and Goldine Gump, I wonder you 
 ain't ashamed ! Do you 'spose Miss Kate 
 can do anything with such a racket? Now 
 don't let me hear any more o' your non- 
 sense ! — Miss Kate," she whispered, turn- 
 17
 
 ing to me: "I've got the whole day off for 
 my uncle's funeral, and as he ain't buried 
 till three o'clock I thought I'd hetter run 
 in and see how you was gettin' on !" 
 
 "You are an angel, Corporal !" 1 said. 
 "Take all the howlers down into the yard 
 and let them play in the sand tahles till I 
 call you." 
 
 When the queue of weeping babes had 
 been sternly led out by the Corporal some- 
 thing like peace descended upon the room 
 but there could be no work for the mo- 
 ment because the hands were too dirt)-. 
 Cooperation was strictly Froebelian so I 
 selected with an eagle eye several assistants 
 from the group — the brightest-eyed, best- 
 tempered, and cleanest. With their help I 
 arranged the seats, the older children at 
 the back tables and the babies in the front. 
 Classification was difficult as many of them 
 did not know their names, their ages, their 
 sexes, nor their addresses, but I had suc- 
 ceeded in getting a little order out of chaos 
 by the time the Corporal appeared again. 
 
 "They've all stopped cryin' but Hazel 
 Golly, and she ran when I wa'n't lookin' 
 and got so far I couldn't ketch her ; any- 
 way she ain't no loss for I live next door 
 to her. — What'll we do next?" 
 
 "Scrub !" I said firmly. "I want to give 
 them some of the easiest work, two kinds, 
 but we can't touch the colored cards until 
 all the hands are clean. — Shall we take soap
 
 and towels and all go down into the yard 
 where the sink is, children, and turn up our 
 sleeves and have a nice wash?" (Some of 
 the infants had doubtless started from home 
 in a tolerable state of cleanliness but all 
 signs had disappeared en route). 
 
 The proposition was greeted amiably. 
 "Anything rather than sit still!" is the men- 
 tal attitude of a child under six ! 
 
 "I told you just how dirty they'd be," 
 murmured the Corporal. "I know 'em ; but 
 I never expected to get this good chance 
 to scrub any of 'em." 
 
 "It's only the first day ;— wait till next 
 Monday," I urged. 
 
 "I shan't be here to see it next Monday 
 morning," my young friend replied. "We 
 can't bury Uncle every week!" (This with 
 a sigh of profound regret!) 
 
 Many days were spent in learning the 
 unpronounceable names of my flock and 
 in keeping them from murdering one an- 
 other until Froebel's justly celebrated "law 
 of love" could be made a working proposi- 
 tion. It was some time before the babies 
 could go down stairs in a line without pre- 
 cipitating one another head foremost by 
 furtive kicks and punches. I placed an 
 especially dependable boy at the head and 
 tail of the line but accidentally overheard 
 the tail boy tell the head that he'd lay him 
 out flat if he got into the yard first, a 
 threat that embarrassed a free and expedi- 
 10
 
 lions exit: — and all their relations to one 
 another seemed at this time to be arranged 
 on a broad basis of belligerence. But bet- 
 ter days were coming, were indeed near at 
 hand, and the children themselves brought 
 them ; they only needed to be shown how, 
 but you may well guess that in the early 
 days of what was afterwards to be known 
 as "The Kindergarten Movement on the 
 Pacific Coast," when the Girl and her King- 
 dom first came into active communication 
 with each other, the question of discipline 
 loomed rather large ! Putting aside alto- 
 gether the question of the efficiency, or the 
 propriety, of corporal punishment in the 
 public schools, it seems pretty clear that 
 babies of four or five years should be 
 spanked by their parents if by anyone ; and 
 that a teacher who cannot induce good be- 
 havior in children of that age, without 
 spanking, has mistaken her vocation. How- 
 ever, it is against their principles for kin-- 
 dergartner's to spank, slap, flog, shake or 
 otherwise wrestle with their youthful 
 charges, no matter how much they seem 
 to need these instantaneous and sometimes 
 very effectual methods of dissuasion at the 
 moment. 
 
 There are undoubtedly times when the 
 old Adam (I don't know why it shouldn't 
 be the Old Eve!) rises in one's still unre- 
 generate heart, and one longs to take the 
 "low road" in discipline; but the "high 
 20
 
 road" commonly leads one to the desired 
 point without great delay and there is gen- 
 uine satisfaction in finding that taking away 
 his work from a child, or depriving him 
 of the pleasure of helping his neighbors, is 
 as great a punishment as a blow. 
 
 You may say such ideal methods would 
 not prevail with older boys and girls, and 
 that may be true, for wrong development 
 may have gone too far ; but it is difficult 
 to find a small child who is lazy or in- 
 different, or one who would welcome the 
 loss of work ; difficult also to find one who 
 is not unhappy when deprived of the chance 
 of service, seeing, as he does, his neighbors 
 happily working together and joyfully help- 
 ing others. 
 
 I had many Waterloos in my term of 
 generalship and many a time was I a feeble 
 enough officer of "The Kid's Guards" as 
 the kindergarten was translated in Tar Flat 
 by those unfamiliar with the German word. 
 
 The flock was at the foot of the stairs 
 one morning at eleven o'clock when there 
 was a loud and long fire alarm in the im- 
 mediate vicinity. No doubt existed in the 
 mind of any child as to the propriety or 
 advisability of remaining at the seat of 
 learning. They started down the steps for 
 the fire in a solid body, with such unan- 
 imity and rapidity that I could do nothing 
 but save the lives of the younger ones and 
 keep them from being trampled upon while 
 21
 
 I watched the flight of their elders. I \roas 
 left with two lame boys and four babies 
 so fat and bow-legged that they probably 
 never had reached, nor ever would reach, 
 a fire while it was still burning. 
 
 Pat Higgins, aged five and a half, the 
 leader of the line, had a sudden pang of 
 conscience at the corner and ran back to 
 ask me artlessly if he might "go to the 
 fire." 
 
 "'Certainly not," I answered firmly. On 
 the contrary please stay here with the lame 
 and the fat, while / go to the fire and bring 
 back the other children." 
 
 I then pursued the errant flock and re- 
 covering most of them, marched them back 
 to the school-room, meeting Judge Solomon 
 Heydenfelt, President of the new Kinder- 
 garten Association, on the steps. He had 
 been awaiting me for ten minutes and it 
 was his first visit! He had never seen a 
 kindergarten before, either returning from 
 a fire or otherwise, and there was a moment 
 of embarrassment, but I had a sense of 
 humor and fortunately he enjoyed the same 
 blessing. ' Only very young teachers who 
 await the visits of supervisors in shudder- 
 ing expectancy can appreciate this episode. 
 
 The days grew brighter and more hopeful 
 as winter approached. I got into closer 
 relation with some homes than others, and 
 I soon had half a dozen five-year-olds who 
 came to the kindergarten clean, and if not 
 22
 
 whole, Well darned and patched. One of 
 these could superintend a row of babies 
 at their outline sewing', thread their needles, 
 untangle their everlasting knots, and cor- 
 rect the mistakes in the design by the jab- 
 bing of wrong holes in the card. Another 
 was very skillful at weaving and proved 
 a good assistant in that occupation. 
 
 I developed also a little body guard which 
 was efficient in making a serener and more 
 harmonious atmosphere. It is neither wise 
 nor kind to burden a child with respons- 
 ibilities too heavy or irksome for his years, 
 but surely it is never too early to allow 
 him to be helpful to his fellows and con- 
 siderate of his elders. I can't believe that 
 any of the tiny creatures on whom I leaned 
 in those weary days were the worse for my 
 leaning. The more I depended on them the 
 greater was their dependableness, and the 
 little girls grew more tender, the boys more 
 chivalrous. I had my subtle means of com- 
 munication, spirit to spirit ! If Pat Higgins, 
 pausing on the verge of some regrettable 
 audacity or hilarious piece of mischief, 
 chanced to catch my eye, he desisted. He 
 knew that I was saying to him silently : 
 "You are not so very naughty. I could 
 almost let you go on if it were not for 
 those others who are always making trouble. 
 Somebody must be good! I cannot bear 
 it if you desert me !" 
 
 Whenever I said "Pat" or "Aaron" or 
 23
 
 "Billy" in a pleading tone it meant "Help! 
 or I perish !" and it was so construed. No, 
 1 was never left without succor when I 
 was in need of it! I remember so well 
 an afternoon in late October when the 
 world had gone very wrong! There had 
 been a disagreeable argument with Mrs. 
 Gump, who had sent Goldine to mingle with 
 the children when she knew she had chicken 
 pox ; Stanislas Strazinski had fallen down 
 stairs and bruised his knee ; Mercedes 
 Pulaski had upset a vase of flowers on the 
 piano keys and finally Petronius Nelson had 
 stolen a red woolen ball. I had seen it 
 in his hand and taken it from him sadly 
 and quietly as he was going down the stairs. 
 I suggested a few minutes for repentance 
 in the play-room and when he came out he 
 sat at my knee and sobbed out his grief 
 in pitiful fashion. His tears moved my very 
 heart. "Only four years old," I thought, 
 "and no playthings at home half as attract- 
 ive as the bright ones we have here, so I 
 must be very gentle with him. I put my 
 arm around him to draw him to me and 
 the gesture brought me in contact with his 
 curiously knobby, little chest. What were 
 my feelings when I extracted from his 
 sailor blouse one orange, one blue, and two 
 green balls ! And this after ten minutes of 
 repentant tears ! I pointed the moral as 
 quickly as possible so that I might be alone, 
 and then realizing the apparent hopeless- 
 24
 
 ness of some of the tasks that confronted 
 me I gave way to a moment of hysterical 
 laughter, followed by such a flood of tears 
 as I had not shed since I was a child. It 
 was then and there the Corporal found me, 
 on her way home from school. She flung 
 her books on the floor and took my head 
 on her kind, scrawny, young shoulder. 
 
 "What have they been doin' to you ?" she 
 stormed. "You just tell me which one of 
 'em 'tis and I'll see't he remembers this 
 day as long as he lives. Your hair's all 
 mussed up and you look sick abed ! 
 
 She led me to the sofa where we put 
 tired babies to sleep, and covered me with 
 my coat. Then she stole out and came back 
 with a pitcher of hot, zvell-boilcd tea, after 
 which she tidied the room and made every- 
 thing right for next day. Dear Old Cor- 
 poral ! 
 
 The improvement in these "little teach- 
 ers" in capacity as well as in manner, voice, 
 speech and behavior, was almost supernat- 
 ural, and it was only less obvious in the rank 
 and file. There was little "scrubbing" done 
 on the premises now, for nearly all the moth- 
 ers who were not invalids, intemperate, or in- 
 curable slatterns, were heartily in sympathy 
 with our ideals. At the end of six weeks 
 when various members of the Board of 
 Trustees began to drop in for their second 
 visit they were almost frightened by our 
 attractive appearance. 
 25
 
 "The subscribers will think the children 
 come from Nob Hill," one of them ex- 
 claimed in humorous alarm. "Are you sure 
 you took the most needy in every way ?" 
 
 "Quite sure. Sit down in my chair, 
 please, and look at my private book. Do 
 you see in the first place that thirteen arc 
 the children of small liquor sellers and live 
 back of the saloons? Then note that ten 
 are the children of widows who support 
 large families by washing, cleaning", ma- 
 chine sewing or shop-keeping. You will 
 see that one mother and three fathers on 
 our list are temporarily in jail serving short 
 terms. We may never have quite such a 
 picturesque class again, and perhaps it would 
 not be advisable ; I wish sometimes that I 
 had taken humanity as it ran, good, bad and 
 indifferent, instead of choosing children 
 from the most discouraging homes. I 
 thought, of course, that they were going to 
 be little villains. They ought to be. if there 
 is anything either in heredity or environ- 
 ment, but just look at them at this moment 
 — a favorable moment, I grant you — but just 
 look at them ! Forty pretty-near-angels, 
 that's what they are!" 
 
 "It is marvellous! 1 could adopt twenty 
 of them! I cannot account for it. said an- 
 other of the Trustees. 
 
 "T can," 1 answered. "Any tolerably 
 healthy child under six who is clean, busy, 
 happy and in good company looks as these 
 26
 
 do. Why should they not be attractive? 
 They live for four hours a day in this sunny, 
 airy room ; they do charming- work suited to 
 their baby capacities — work, too, which is 
 not all pure routine, but in a simple way 
 creative, so that they are not only occupied, 
 but they are expressing themselves as cre- 
 ative beings should. They have music, stor- 
 ies and games, and although they are obliged 
 to behave themselves (which is sometimes 
 a trifle irksome) they never hear an unkind 
 word. They grow in grace, partly because 
 they return as many of these favors as is 
 possible at their age. They water the plants, 
 clean the bird's cage and fill the seed cups 
 and bath ; they keep the room as tidy as 
 possible to make the janitor's work easier; 
 they brush up the floor after their own 
 muddy feet ; the older ones help the young- 
 er and the strong look after the weak. The 
 conditions are almost ideal ; why should 
 they not respond to them?" 
 
 California children are apt to be good 
 specimens. They suffer no extremes of heat 
 or cold ; food is varied and fruit plentiful 
 and cheap ; they are out of doors every 
 month in the year and they are more than 
 ordinarily clever and lively. Still I refuse 
 to believe that any other company of chil- 
 dren in California, or in the universe, was 
 ever so unusual or so piquantly interesting 
 as those of the Silver Street Kindergarten, 
 particularly the never-to-be-forgotten "first 
 forty." 
 
 27
 
 As I look back across the lapse of time 
 I cannot understand how any creature, 
 however young, strong or ardent, could 
 have supported the fatigue and strain of 
 that first year ! No one was to blame, for 
 the experiment met with appreciation almost 
 immediately, but I was attempting the im- 
 possible, and trying to perform the labor 
 of three women. I soon learned to work- 
 more skillfully, but I habitually squandered 
 my powers and lavished on trivial details 
 strength that should have been spent more 
 thriftily. The difficulties of each day could 
 be surmounted only by quick wit, ingenuity, 
 versatility : by the sternest exercise of self- 
 control and by a continual outpour of mag- 
 netism. My enthusiasm made me reckless, 
 but though I regret that I worked in entire 
 disregard of all laws of health, I do not 
 regret a single hour of exhaustion, dis- 
 couragement or despair. All my pains were 
 just so many birth-pangs, leaving behind 
 them a little more knowledge of human 
 nature, a little wider vision, a little clearer 
 insight, a little deeper sympathy. 
 
 There were more than a thousand visitors 
 during the first year, a circumstance that 
 greatly increased the nervous strain of 
 teaching : for I had to train myself, as well 
 as the children to as absolute a state of 
 unconsciousness as possible. I always jaunt- 
 ily described the visitors as "fathers and 
 mothers." and told the children that there 
 28
 
 would soon be other schools like ours, and 
 people just wanted to see how we sang", 
 and played circle games, and modelled in 
 day, and learned arithmetic with building 
 blocks and all the rest of it. 1 paid prac- 
 tically no attention to the visitors myself 
 and they ordinarily were clever enough to 
 understand the difficulties of the situation. 
 Among the earliest in the late autumn of 
 1878 were Prof. John Swett and Mrs. 
 Kincaid of the San Francisco Normal 
 School who thereafter sent down their stu- 
 dents, two at a time, for observation and 
 practical aid. The next important visitor 
 in the spring of 1879 was Mrs. Sarah B. 
 Cooper. She possessed the "understanding- 
 heart" and also great executive ability, so 
 that with the help of her large Bible class 
 she was able to open a second free Kinder- 
 garten on Jackson Street in October, 1879. 
 Soon after this date the desert began to 
 blossom as die rose. T went to the Eastern 
 cities during my summer vacation an 1 
 learned by observation and instruction all 
 that I could from my older and wiser con- 
 temporaries Miss Susan Blow of St. Louis, 
 Dr. Hailman of LaPorte, Mrs. Putnam of 
 Chicago and Miss Elizabeth Peabody and 
 Miss Garland of Boston. Returning I 
 opened my own Kindergarten Training 
 School and my sister Miss Nora Archibald 
 Smith joined me both in the theoretical an 1 
 practical spreading of the gospel. 
 29
 
 Thirty-seven years have passed, but if 
 I were a portrait painter 1 could repro- 
 duce on canvas every nose, eye, smile, 
 hand, curl of hair, in that group. I often 
 close my eyes to call up the picture, and 
 almost every child falls into his old seat 
 and answers to his right name. Here are 
 a few sketches of those in the front row : 
 
 Willy Beer, dubbed Wriggly Beer by the 
 older boys in his street, because of a slight 
 nervous affection that kept him in a state 
 of perpetual motion. He was not uncome- 
 ly ; indeed, when I was telling a story it was 
 a pleasure to watch his face all twitching 
 with interest ; first nose, then eyes, then 
 mouth, till the delight spread to his fat 
 hands, which clasped and unclasped as the 
 tale proceeded. He had a perfect sense 
 of time and tunes and was indefatigable in 
 the marching and games. His mother sent 
 me this unique letter when he had been with 
 me a month : 
 "Yung lady: 
 
 "Willy seems to be onto his foot most of 
 the time. These is all the bates Willy will 
 half to Krissmus. Can you learn him set- 
 tin' down? Respeckfully, 
 
 "Mrs'. Beer." 
 
 Sitting next to Willy, and rhyming with 
 him, was Billy — Billy Prendergast — a large 
 boy for his years with the face and voice of 
 a man of thirty. 
 
 Billy Prendergast taught me a very good 
 30
 
 lesson in pedagogy when I was making be- 
 lieve teach him other things ! 
 
 One of our simple morning songs ended 
 with the verse : 
 
 "All ye little children, hear the truth we tell, 
 God will ne'er forget yon, for he loves you 
 well." 
 
 One day in the gentle lull that succeeded 
 the singing of that song, Billy's growling 
 baritone fell on my ear : 
 
 "Why will he never get yer?" he asked, 
 his strange rough voice bringing complete 
 silence, as it always did. 
 
 "What do you mean, Billy?" 
 
 "That's what it says : 'God will never get 
 yer, for he loves you well.' ' : 
 
 Consternation overcame me. Billy, and 
 goodness knows how many others, had been 
 beginning the day with the puzzling theo- 
 logical statement: "God will never get yer 
 (ne'er forget you) for he loves you well." 
 
 I chose my verses more carefully, after 
 that experience, avoiding all e'ers and ne'ers 
 and other misleading abbreviations. 
 
 Hansanella Dorflinger now claims atten- 
 tion. 
 
 Hansanella sounds like one word but they 
 were twins, and thus introduced to me by 
 a large incoherent boy who brought them 
 to the kindergarten. He was in a hurry 
 and left them at my door with scant cere- 
 mony, save the frequent repetition of the 
 watchw* ird "Hansanella." 
 31
 
 After some difficulty 1 succeeded in de- 
 ciding which was Hans and which was 
 Ella, though there was practically no differ- 
 ence between them excepting - that the ash 
 blonde hair of Hans was cropped still more 
 closely than that of Ella. 
 
 They had light blue glassy eyes, too far 
 apart, thin lips, chalky skins and perennial 
 colds in the head. They breathed together, 
 smiled and wept together, rose and sat 
 down together and wiped their noses to- 
 gether — none too frequently. Never were 
 such 'twinneous' twins as Hansanella, and 
 it was ridiculous to waste two names on 
 them, for there was not between them per- 
 sonality enough for one child. 
 
 When I requested Ella to be a pony it 
 immediately became a span, for she never 
 moved without Hans. If the children chose 
 Hans for the father-bird, Ella intrusively 
 and suffragistically fluttered into the nest, 
 too, sadly complicating the family arrange- 
 ments. They seldom spoke, but sat stolidly 
 beside each other, laying the same patterns 
 with dogged pertinacity. 
 
 One morning a new little boy joined our 
 company. As was often the case he was 
 shy about sitting down. It would seem 
 as if the spectacle of forty children work- 
 ing tranquilly together, would convince new- 
 applicants that the benches contained no 
 dynamite, but they always parted with their 
 dilapidated hats as if they never, in the 
 32
 
 nature of things, could hope to see them 
 again, and the very contact of their persons 
 with the benches evoked an uncontrollable 
 wail, which seemed to say : "It is all up 
 with us now ! Let the portcullis fall !" 
 
 The new boy's eye fell on Hansanella 
 and he suddenly smiled broadly. 
 
 "Sit mit Owgoost!" he said. 
 
 "We haven't any 'August'," I responded, 
 "that is Hans Dorflinger." 
 
 "Sit mit Owgoost." he repeated thickly 
 and firmly. 
 
 "Is this boy a friend of yours, Hans?" 
 I inquired, and the twins nodded blandly. 
 
 "Is your other name August, Hans?" 
 
 This apparently was too complicated a 
 question for the combined mental activities 
 of the pair, and they lapsed comfortably 
 into their ordinary state of coma. 
 
 The Corporal finally found the boy who 
 originally foisted upon our Paradise these 
 two dullest human beings that ever drew 
 breath. He explained that I had entirely 
 misunderstood his remarks. He said that 
 he heard I had accepted Hansanella Dor- 
 flinger. but they had moved with their par- 
 ents to Oakland ; and as they could not 
 come, he thought it well to give the coveted 
 places to August and Anna Olsen, whose 
 mother worked in a box-factory and would 
 be q-lad to have the children looked after. 
 
 "Y\ nat's the matter mit 'em ?" he asked 
 anxiously. "Ain't dey goot?" 
 33
 
 "Oh, yes they arc good," I replied, add- 
 ing mysteriously. "It two children named 
 August and Anna allow you to call them 
 Hansanella for five weeks without com- 
 ment, it isn't likely that they wotdd be ver\ 
 fertile in evil doing"!" 
 
 I had a full year's experience with the 
 false Hansanella and in that time they 
 blighted our supremest joys. There was 
 always a gap in the circle where they stood 
 and they stopped the electric current when- 
 ever it reached them. I am more anxious 
 that the Eugenic Societies should eliminate 
 this kind of child from the future than al- 
 most any other type. It has chalk and 
 water instead of blood in its veins. It is as 
 cold as if it had been made by machinery 
 and then refrigerated, instead of being 
 brought into being by a mother's love ; and 
 it never has an impulse, but just passes 
 through the world mechanically, taking up 
 space that could be better occupied by some 
 warm, struggling', erring, aspiring human 
 creature. 
 
 How can I describe Jacob Lavrowsky ? 
 There chanced to he a row of little Biblical 
 characters, mostly prophets sitting beside 
 one another about half way back in the 
 room; — Moses, Jeremiah, Ezekial, Elijah 
 and Elisha, but the greatest of these was 
 Jacob. He was one of ten children, the 
 offspring of a couple who kept a second- 
 hand clothing establishment in the vicinity. 
 34
 
 Mr. and Airs. Lavrowsky collected, mended, 
 patched, sold and exchanged cast-off wear- 
 ing apparel, and the little Lavrowsky's 
 played about in the rags, slept under the 
 counters and ate Heaven knows where, dur- 
 ing the term of my acquaintance with them. 
 Jacob differed from all the other of my 
 flock by possessing a premature, thoroughly 
 unchildlike sense of humor. He regarded 
 me as one of the most unaccountable human 
 beings he had ever met, but he had such 
 respect for what he believed to be my good 
 bottom qualities that he constantly tried to 
 conceal from me his feeling that I was 
 probably a little insane. He had large ex- 
 pressive eyes, a flat nose, wide mouth, thin 
 hair, long neck and sallow skin, while his 
 body was so thin and scrawny that his 
 clothes always hung upon him in shape- 
 less folds. His age was five and his point 
 of view that of fifty. As to his toilettes, 
 there must have been a large clothes-bin in 
 the room back of the shop and Jacob must 
 have daily dressed himself from this, lean- 
 ing over the side and plucking from the 
 varied assortment such articles as pleased 
 his errant fancy. He had no prejudices 
 against bits of feminine attire, often sport- 
 ing a dark green cashmere basque trimmed 
 with black velvet ribbon and gilt buttons. 
 It was double breasted and when it sur- 
 mounted a pair of trousers cut to the right 
 length but not altered in width, the effect 
 35
 
 would have startled any more exacting com- 
 munity than ours. Jacoh was always tired 
 and went through his tasks rather languidly, 
 greatly preferring work to play. All diver- 
 sions such as marching and circle games 
 struck him as pleasant enough, but childish, 
 and if participated in at all, to be gone 
 through with in an absent-minded and 
 supercillious manner. There were moments 
 when his exotic little personality, stand- 
 ing out from all the rest like an infant 
 Artful Dodger or a caricature of Beau 
 Brummel, seemed to make him wholly alien 
 to the group, yet he was docile and obed- 
 ient, his only fault being a tendency to 
 strong and highly colored language. To 
 make the marching more effective and de- 
 velope a better sense of time, I instituted 
 a very simple and rudimentary form of 
 orchestra with a triangle, a tambourine, and 
 finally a drum. When the latter instru- 
 ment made its first appearance Jacob sought 
 a secluded spot by the piano and gave him- 
 self up to a fit of fairly courteous but 
 excessive mirth. "A drum!" he exclaimed, 
 between his fits of laughter. "What'll yer 
 have next This is a h / of a school!" 
 
 Just behind Jacob sat two little pink- 
 cheeked girls five and four years old, Violet 
 and Rose Featherstone. Violet brought the 
 younger Rose every day and was a miracle 
 of sisterly devotion. I did not see the 
 mother for some months after the little pair 
 36
 
 entered, as she had work that kept her from 
 home during the hours when it was possible 
 for me to call upon her, and she lived at 
 a long" distance from the kindergarten in a 
 neighborhood from which none of our other 
 children came. 
 
 I had no anxiety about them however, as 
 the looks, behavior, and clothing of all my 
 children was always an absolute test of the 
 conditions prevailing in the home. What 
 was my surprise then, one day to receive 
 a note from a certain Mrs. Hannah Googins, 
 a name not in my register. 
 
 She said her Emma Abby had been bring- 
 ing home pieces of sewing and weaving of 
 late, marked "Violet Featherstone." She 
 would like to see some of Emma Abby's 
 own work and find out whether she had 
 taken that of any other child by mistake. 
 A long and puzzling investigation followed 
 the receipt of this letter and I found that 
 the romantic little Emma Abby Googins, 
 not caring for the name given her by her 
 maternal parent, had assumed that of Violet 
 Featherstone. Also, being an only child 
 and greatly desiring a sister, she had 
 plucked a certain little Nellie Taylor from 
 a family near by, named her "Rose Feather- 
 stone" and taken her to and from the kinder- 
 garten daily, a distance of at least half a 
 mile of crowded streets. The affair was 
 purely one of innocent romance. Emma Abby 
 Gooerins never told a fib or committed the
 
 slightest fault or folly save that of burying 
 her name, assuming a mure distinguished 
 
 one, and introducing- a sister to me who had 
 no claim to the ( loogins blood. I ler mother 
 was thoroughly mystified by the occurrence 
 and I no less so, but Emma Abby simply 
 opened her blue eyes wider and protested 
 that she "liked to be Violet" and Rose liked 
 to he Rose, and that was the only excuse 
 for her conduct, which she seemed to think 
 needed neither apology nor explanation. 
 
 Now comes the darling of the group. 
 the heart's ease, the nonesuch, the Rose of 
 Erin, the lovely, the indescribable Rosaleen 
 Clancy. 
 
 We were all working busily and happily 
 one morning when a young woman tapped 
 at the door and led in that flower and pearl 
 of babyhood, the aforesaid Rosaleen. 
 
 The young woman said she knew that the 
 kindergarten was full, and indeed had a 
 long waiting list, hut the Clancy family ha 1 
 just arrived from Ireland; that there were 
 two little boys; a new baby twenty-four 
 hours old: Air. Clancy had not yet found 
 work, and could we take care of Rosaleen 
 even for a week or two? 
 
 As I looked at the child the remark that 
 we had not a single vacant seat perished. 
 unborn, on my lips. She was about three 
 and a hall" years old, and was clad in a 
 straight, loose slip of dark- blue wool thai 
 showed her neck and arms. A little flat,
 
 sort of "pork pie" hat of blue velveteen 
 sat on the back of her adorable head, show- 
 ing the satiny rings of yellow hair that 
 curled round her ears and hung- close to her 
 neck. ( Xo wonder ! ) She had gray-blue 
 eyes with long upper and under lashes and 
 a perfect mouth that disclosed the pearly 
 teeth usually confined to the heroines of 
 novels. As to her skin yon would say that 
 Jersey cream was the principal ingredient 
 in its composition. 
 
 The children had stopped their weaving 
 needles and were gazing open-mouthed at 
 this vision of beauty, though Rosaleen had 
 by no means unmasked all her batteries. She 
 came nearer my chair, and without being- 
 invited, slipped her hand in mine in a blar- 
 neyish and deludthering way not unknown 
 in her native isle. The same Jersey cream 
 had gone into its skin, there were dimples 
 in the knuckles, and baby hand though it 
 was, its satin touch had a thrill in it, and 
 responded instantly to my pressure. 
 
 "Do you think we can make room for her, 
 children ?" I asked. 
 
 Every small boy cried rapturously: "Look 
 Miss Kate! Here's room! T kin scrooge 
 up!" and hoped the Lord would send Rosa- 
 leen his way ! 
 
 "We can't have two children in one scat ;" 
 I explained to Rosaleen's sponsor, "because 
 the_\- can't have proper building exercises 
 ^0
 
 nor work to good advantage when they're 
 en >wded." 
 
 "I kin set on the pianner stool!" gallantl) 
 offered Billy Prendergast. 
 
 "Perhaps I can borrow a little chair some- 
 where," I said. "Would you like to stay 
 with us Rosaleen ?" 
 
 Her only answer (she was richer in beau- 
 tiful looks than in speech) was to remove 
 her blue velveteen hat and tranquilly placed 
 it on m} table. If she was lovely with her 
 hair covered she was still lovelier now ; 
 while her smile of assent disclosing as it 
 did, an irresistible dimple, completed our 
 conquest; so that no one in the room (save 
 Hansanella, who went on doggedly with 
 their weaving) would have been parted 
 from the new comer save by fire and the 
 sword. 
 
 At one o'clock Bobby Green came back 
 from the noon recess dragging a high chair. 
 It was his own outgrown property and he 
 had asked our Janitor to abbreviate its legs 
 and bring it up stairs. 
 
 When Rosaleen sat in it and smiled, a 
 thrill of rapture swept through the small 
 community. The girls thrilled as well a-- 
 the boys, for Rosaleen's was not a mere 
 sex appeal but practically a universal one. 
 
 There was one flaw in our content. Bobby 
 Green's mother arrived shortly after one 
 o'clock in a high state of wrath, and 1 was 
 in
 
 obliged to go out in the hall and calm her 
 nerves. 
 
 "I really think Bobby's impulse was an 
 honest one," I said. "He did not know I 
 intended to buy a chair for the new child 
 out of my own salary this afternoon. He 
 probably thought that the high chair was 
 his very own, reasoning as children do, and 
 it was a gallant, generous act. I don't like 
 to have him punished for it, Mrs. Green, 
 and if we both tell him he ought to have 
 asked your permission before giving the 
 chair away, and if I buy you a new one. 
 won't you agree to drop the matter? — 
 Think how manly Bobby was and how gen- 
 erous and thoughtful ! If he were mine I 
 couldn't help being proud of him. Just 
 peep in and look at the baby who is sit- 
 ting in his chair, a little stranger, just come 
 from Ireland to San Francisco." 
 
 Mrs. Green peeped in and saw the sun 
 shining on Rosaleen's primrose head. She 
 was stringing beads, while Bobby, Pat and 
 Aaron knelt beside her, palpitating for a 
 chance to serve. 
 
 "She's real cute!" whispered Mrs. Green. 
 "Does Bobby act very often like he's doin' 
 now ?" 
 
 "He's one of the greatest comforts of 
 my life!" I said truly. 
 
 "I wish I could say the same !" she re- 
 torted. "Well, I came round intendin' to 
 give him a good settlin' but he'd had two 
 41
 
 already this week and I guess I'll let it go! 
 We ain't so poverty-struck as some <>' the 
 folks in this neighborhood and I guess we 
 can make out to spare a chair, it's little 
 enough to pay for gettin' rid of Bobby." 
 
 Two years that miracle of beauty and 
 sweetness. Rosaleen Clancy stayed with us, 
 just as potent an influence as the birds or 
 the flowers, the stories 1 told, or the music 
 1 coaxed from the little upright piano. Her 
 face was not her only fortune for she had 
 a heart of gold. Ireland did indeed have 
 a grievance when Rosaleen left it for 
 America ! 
 
 This is just a corner of my portrait gal- 
 lery, which has dozens of other types hang- 
 ing on the walls clamoring to be described. 
 Some were lovely and some interestingly 
 ugly; some were like lilies growing out of 
 the mud, others had not been quite as able 
 to energize themselves out of their environ- 
 ment and bore the sad traces of it ever 
 with them ; — still, they were all absorbingly 
 interesting beyond my power to paint. 
 Month after month they sat together, work- 
 ing, playing, helping, growing — in a word 
 learning how to live, and there in the midst 
 of the group was I, learning my life lesson 
 with them. 
 
 The study and the practice of the kinder- 
 garten theory of education and of life gave 
 me, while 1 was still very young, a cer- 
 tain ideal by which to live and work, and 
 42
 
 it has never faded. — Never, whether richer 
 or poorer, whether better or worse, in sick- 
 ness or in health, in prosperity or adversity, 
 never wholly to lose my glimpse of that 
 "celestial light" that childhood-apparalled 
 "Meadow, grove and stream, the earth and 
 every common sight :" and to hold that at- 
 titude of mind and heart which gives to 
 life even when it is difficult something of 
 "the glory and the freshness of a dream !" 
 
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