raging homes. I thought, of course, that they were going to be
little villains. They ought to be, if there is anything either in
heredity or environment, but just look at them at this moment--a
favorable moment, I grant you--but just look at them! Forty
pretty-near-angels, that's what they are!"

"It is marvellous! I could adopt twenty of them! I cannot account for
it," said another of the Trustees.

"I can," I answered. "Any tolerably healthy child under six who is
clean, busy, happy and in good company looks as these do. Why should
they not be attractive? They live for four hours a day in this sunny,
airy room; they do charming work suited to their baby capacities--work,
too, which is not all pure routine, but in a simple way creative, so
that they are not only occupied, but they are expressing themselves as
creative beings should. They have music, stories and games, and although
they are obliged to behave themselves (which is sometimes a trifle
irksome) they never hear an unkind word. They grow in grace, partly
because they return as many of these favors as is possible at their age.
They water the plants, clean the bird's cage and fill the seed cups and
bath; they keep the room as tidy as possible to make the janitor's work
easier; they brush up the floor after their own muddy feet; the older
ones help the younger and the strong look after the weak. The conditions
are almost ideal; why should they not respond to them?"

California children are apt to be good specimens. They suffer no
extremes of heat or cold; food is varied and fruit plentiful and cheap;
they are out of doors every month in the year and they are more than
ordinarily clever and lively. Still I refuse to believe that any other
company of children in California, or in the universe, was ever so
unusual or so piquantly interesting as those of the Silver Street
Kindergarten, particularly the never-to-be-forgotten "first forty."

As I look back across the lapse of time I cannot understand how any
creature, however young, strong or ardent, could have supported the
fatigue and strain of that first year! No one was to blame, for the
experiment met with appreciation almost immediately, but I was
attempting the impossible, and trying to perform the labor of three
women. I soon learned to work more skillfully, but I habitually
squandered my powers and lavished on trivial details strength that
should have been spent more thriftily. The difficulties of each day