om that sweeps the
streets of its parentless or worse than parentless children, to the
increased comfort of the children, and to the prodigious advantage of
the street.

We are very much interested in the cleaning of city streets, and well
we may be; but up to this day a larger number of men and women have
concerned themselves actively about sweeping them of dust and dirt
than of sweeping them free of these children. If dirt is misplaced
matter, then what do you call a child who sits eternally on the
curbstones and in the gutters of our tenement-house districts?

I believe that since the great Teacher of humanity spoke those simple
words of eternal tenderness that voiced the mother side of the divine
nature,--"Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them
not,"--I believe that nothing more heartfelt, more effectual, has come
ringing down to us through the centuries than Froebel's inspired and
inspiring call, "Come! let us live with the children!"

This work _pays_, in the best and the highest sense as well as the
most practical.

It is true, the kindergartner has the child in her care but three
or four hours a day; it is true, in most instances, that the home
influences are all against her; it is true that the very people for
whom she is working do not always appreciate her efforts; it is true
that in many cases the child has been "born wrong," and to accomplish
any radical reform she ought to have begun with his grandfather; it is
true she makes failures now and then, and has to leave the sorry task
seemingly unperformed, giving into the mighty hand of One who bringeth
order out of chaos that which her finite strength has failed to
compass. She hears discouraging words sometimes, but they do not make
a profound impression, when she sees the weary yet beautiful days go
by, bringing with them hourly rewards greater than speech can testify!

She sees homes changing slowly but surely under her quiet influence,
and that of those home missionaries, the children themselves; she gets
love in full measure where she least expected so radiant a flower to
bloom; she receives gratitude from some parents far beyond what she
is conscious of deserving; she sees the ancient and respectable
dirt-devil being driven from many of the homes where he has reigned
supreme for years; she sees brutal punishments giving place to sweeter
methods and kinder treatment; and she is too happy and too grateful,
for these and more encoura