ittle
Children," and at Christmas time stories of the birth of Christ.
Benevolence in their relations to one another is sedulously
cultivated. The four-or-five-year-olds make little wooden spades and
rakes for the two-or-three-year-olds, saying gravely, "We do it for
the little ones."

Meetings are held by the Directress with the mothers, and in several
parts of the city three or four mothers have united in supporting
little Kindergartens for their own families. The teaching of the
Directress is also put in practice by mothers in their own homes,
where much more time is devoted to the children than formerly.

As applications are constantly on hand for more than can be received
to this institution, I asked if the revenue from fees and gifts were
devoted to the enlargement of the accommodations. "No; for
_perfecting_ the system and its methods," was the reply. And this
seemed to me to be the key to this most interesting undertaking. A
perfect development of child-nature is sought; and a Kindergarten
means here, "not several hours a day spent in much folding of papers
and braiding of pretty things," said the Directress, but a many-sided
and all-embracing culture of the whole being.

Having given this full account of the methods of the Kindergarten, the
description of the department for the training of teachers may be
omitted. Not so with the department devoted to the preparation of
girls who have left school for the duties of wives, mothers, nurses,
housekeepers, and servants. In this important department of the
Pestalozzi-Froebel-Haues, over forty young women from the various ranks
of life were gathered. It was under the special patronage of the Crown
Princess, whose own daughters were its first pupils.

The lady who directed the teaching of washing and ironing kept a close
eye to the perfection of the work, which is all classified. At one
time table-linen is washed and ironed properly; at another, the best
methods of treating dish-towels are taught; at another, the washing of
flannels and the doing up of prints and ginghams; at another,
clear-starching, the cleansing of laces and fine materials; and so on,
until the whole round of a family laundry has been scientifically
taught and enforced by practice.

In one room a girl of fourteen or fifteen, formerly a pupil in the
Kindergarten, was washing windows and paint. Well dressed, she was
poised on a step-ladder, polishing a large pane of glass with a
chamois skin. H