could be surmounted only by quick wit, ingenuity, versatility; by the
sternest exercise of self-control and by a continual outpour of
magnetism. 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, discouragement 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 jauntily described the visitors as
"fathers and mothers," and told the children that there would soon be
other schools like ours, and people just wanted to see how we sang, and
played circle games, and modelled in clay, and learned arithmetic with
building blocks and all the rest of it. I paid practically 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 students, 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
Kindergarten on Jackson Street in October, 1879. Soon after this date
the desert began to blossom as the rose. I went to the Eastern cities
during my summer vacation and learned by observation and instruction all
that I could from my older and wiser contemporaries 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 and practical spreading of the gospel.

Thirty-seven years have passed, but if I were a portrait painter I
could reproduce 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 rig