o the narrow, quiet street from the broader, noisy one, the sound
of a bell warns us that we are near the kindergarten building.... A
few belated youngsters are hurrying along,--some ragged, some patched,
some plainly and neatly clothed, some finishing a "portable breakfast"
thrust into their hands five minutes before, but all eager to be
there.... While the Lilliputian armies are wending their way from the
yard to their various rooms, we will enter the front door and look
about a little.

The windows are wide open at one end of the great room. The walls are
tinted with terra cotta, and the woodwork is painted in Indian red.
Above the high wood dado runs a row of illuminated pictures of
animals,--ducks, pigeons, peacocks, calves, lambs, colts, and almost
everything else that goes upon two or four feet; so that the children
can, by simply turning in their seats, stroke the heads of their dumb
friends of the meadow and barnyard.... There are a great quantity of
bright and appropriate pictures on the walls, three windows full of
plants, a canary chirping in a gilded cage, a globe of gold-fish, an
open piano, and an old-fashioned sofa, which is at present adorned
with a small scrap of a boy who clutches a large slate in one hand,
and a mammoth lunch-pail in the other.... It is his first day, and he
looks as if his big brother had told him that he would be "walloped"
if he so much as winked.

A half-dozen charming girls are fluttering about; charming, because,
whether plain or beautiful, they all look happy, earnest, womanly,
full to the brim of life.

"A sweet, heart-lifting cheerfulness,
Like spring-time of the year,
Seems ever on their steps to wait."

... They are tying on white aprons and preparing the day's
occupations, for they are a detachment of students from a kindergarten
training school, and are on duty for the day.

One of them seats herself at the piano and plays a stirring march. The
army enters, each tiny soldier with a "shining morning face." Unhappy
homes are forgotten ... smiles everywhere ... everybody glad to
see everybody else ... happy children, happy teachers ... sunshiny
morning, sunshiny hearts ... delightful work in prospect, merry play
to follow it.... "Oh, it's a beautiful world, and I'm glad I'm in it;"
so the bright faces seem to say.

It is a cosmopolitan regiment that marches into the free kindergartens
of our large cities. Curly yellow hair and rosy cheeks ... sleek
blonde bra