you go home.

"There was once a man who had two little ponies. They were pretty
creatures, and just alike. He sold one of them to a hard-hearted man,
who kicked him and beat him; and the pony said:

"'The man is my enemy. I will be his, and become a cunning and vicious
horse.'

"So the pony became cunning and vicious, and threw his rider and
crippled him, and grew spavined and old, and every one was glad when he
was dead.

"The man sold the other pony to a noble-hearted man, who treated him
kindly and well. Then the pony said:

"'I am proud of my master. I will become a good horse, and my master's
will shall be my own.'

"Like the master became the horse. He became strong and beautiful. They
chose him for the battle, and he went through the wars, and the master
slept by his side. He bore his master at last in a triumphal procession,
and all the people were sorry when he came to die. Our minds here are
one of the little colts.

"So we will all work together. The lesson is ended. You have all the
impressions that you can bear for one day. Now we will go out and play."

But the play-ground was made a field of teaching.

"There are plays that form right ideas," said Jasper, "and plays that
lead to an evil character. I teach no plays that lead to cruelty or
deception. I would no sooner withhold amusements from my little ones
than water, but my amusements, like the water, must be healthy and
good."

There was one odd play that greatly delighted all the children of the
Prairie Island school. The idea of it was evolved in the form of a
popular song many years afterward. In it the children are supposed to
ask an old German musician how many instruments of music he could play,
and he acts out in pantomime all of the instruments he could blow or
handle. We think it was this merriment that became known in America as
the song of Johnnie Schmoker in the minstrel days.

Not the children only, but the parents also all delighted to see Jasper
pretend to play all the instruments of the German band. Often at
sunset, when the settlers came in from the corn-fields and rested under
the great trees, Jasper would delight the islanders, as they called
themselves, with this odd play.

"The purpose of education," Jasper used to repeat over and over to his
friends in this sunny island of the prairie sea, "is not to teach the
young how to make money or get wealth by a cunning brain, but how to
live for the soul. The soul's best inte