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[Illustration: JULLANIE AMONG THE GRASSES.]

"THE fruit of the lotus--a capsule--ripens below the surface of the
water. When the seeds are ripe and leave the berry, a small bubble of
air attached to them brings them to the surface, and the seeds are
carried wherever the wind and waves take them until the bubble bursts;
when the seed, being heavier than water, sinks to the bottom, and then
begins to grow to form a new plant, which may be at some distance from
the parent one. In this simple way the lotus plant is enabled to
spread." So says our botany book; and the thought of the lotus seed in
its little air-boat floating away over the water to be sown, perhaps,
far from the parent plant, is full of suggestion, and leads us straight
to the Bear-garden.

A lotus-pool, a bear-garden--the connection is not obvious. _Alice_ in
her wanderings never wandered into bewilderment more profound than such
a mixture of ideas. But this is the way we get to it: We have called
these little children Lotus-buds--for such they are in their youngness
and innocence; and the underlying thought runs deeper, as those who have
read the first chapter know--but the Lotus-buds must grow into flowers
and must be sown as living seeds, perhaps far away from the happy place
they knew when they were buds. The little air-boat will come for them.
The breath of the Spirit that bloweth where it listeth will carry them
where it will, and we want them to be ready to be sown wherever the
pools of the world are barren of lotus flowers. And this brings us
straight to the newest of our beginnings in Dohnavur--the Kindergarten.

An ideal kindergarten is a place where the teachers train the scholars,
and we hope to have that in time; at present the case is opposite, and
that is why it has its name, the name that conflicts with the
lotus-pool--the Bear-garden.

In this peaceful room Classes B, C, and D have taken their young
teachers in hand--Rukma, Preena, and Sanda. Of these Rukma (Radiance)
has the clearest ideas about discipline; Preena (the Elf) knows best how
to coax; and Sanda, excellent Mouse that she is, has the gift of
patience. These three (who after all are only school-girls, continuing
their own education with their Prema Sittie) are attempting to instruct
the babies on the lines of organised play; but the babies feel they have
much to teach their teachers, and this is how they do it:--

Prema Sittie goes into the room when the kindergarten i