es, there are mushrooms under the cool
trees. Once, in the days when the plants and flowers and trees all
talked--they talk now, but we have ceased to hear them, a little
mushroom bowed in the winds, and said to the grass:

"'See how I grow! I came up in a single night. I am smart.'

"'Yes,' said the grass, waving gently.

"'But you,' said the smart little mushroom, 'it takes you a whole year
to grow.'

"The grass was sorry that it took so long for it to grow, and hung its
head, and thought, and thought.

"'But,' said the grass, 'you spring up in the night, and in a day or two
you are gone. It takes me a year to grow, but I outlive a hundred crops
of mushrooms. I will have patience and be content. Worth is of slow
growth.'

"In a week the boastful little mushroom was gone, but the grass bloomed
and bore seed, and left a lovely memory behind it. Hark! hear the breeze
in the trees! Nature is teaching now. Listen!

"Now I will tell you another little story, such as I used to hear
Pestalozzi relate. I am going to tell this story to myself, but you may
listen. I have told a story to you, but now I will talk to myself.

"There once was a king, who had been riding in the sun, and he saw afar
a lime-tree, full of cool, green leaves. Oh, how refreshing it looked to
him! So he rode up to the lime-tree, and rested in the shadow.

"The leaves all clung to the branches, and the winds whispered among
them, but did not blow them away.

"Then the king loved the tree, and he said:

"'O tree, would that my people clung to me as thy leaves do to thy
branches!'

"The tree was pleased, and spoke:

"'Would you learn from me wisdom to govern thy people?'

"'Yes, O lime-tree! Speak on.'

"'Would you know, then, what makes my leaves so cling to my branches?'

"'Yes, O Lime Tree! Speak on.'

"'I carry to them the sap that nourishes them. 'Tis he that gives
himself to others that lives in others, and is safe and happy himself.
Do that, and thy kingdom shall be a lime-tree.'"

A child brought into the room a bunch of harebells and laid them upon
the teacher's desk.

"Look!" said Jasper, "Nature is teaching. Let us be quiet a little and
hear what she has to say. The harebells bring us good-will from the sun
and skies. There is goodness everywhere, and for all. Let us be
grateful.

"Now I will give you another little Pestalozzian story, told in my own
way, and you may tell it to your fathers and mothers and neighbors when