ebel's sticks," as has been very well said,
"the child is provided with an excellent calculating machine." The use
of this machine in the primary school in word making as well as in
number work is practically unlimited; but in the kindergarten it may
very well give a clear, practical understanding of the first four
rules of arithmetic,--an understanding which will be based on personal
activity and experience.[69]

[69] "Thus the child's sphere of knowledge, the world of his
life, is again extended by the observation and recognition,
by the development and cultivation, of the capacity of
number; and an essential need of his inner nature, a certain
yearning of his spirit, are thereby satisfied.... The
knowledge of the relations of quantity extraordinarily
heightens the life of the child."--Friedrich Froebel,
_Education of Man_, page 45.

Evolution of the Kindergarten Stick.

It is well by way of prelude to the first few lessons to draw from the
children the origin and history of the tiny bit of wood given them for
their play, and they will henceforth regard it in a new light and
treat it with greater respect and care.

Let us trace it carefully from its baby beginnings in the seed, its
germination and growth, the influences which surround and foster it
from day to day, its steady increase in size and strength, its
downward grasp and its upward reach, the hardening of the tender stem
and slender cylindrical trunk into the massive oak or pine, the growth
of its tough, strong garment of bark, its winter times of rest and
spring times of renewal, until from the tender green twig so frail and
pliant it has become too large to clasp with the arms, and high enough
to swing its dry leaves into the church tower.

Then let us follow out its usefulness; for instance, we might first
paint a glowing word-picture of the logging-camp, the chopping and
hewing and felling, the life of the busy woodcutter in the leafy woods
in autumn, or in the dense forests in winter time, when the snow, cold
and white and dazzling, covers the ground with its fleecy carpet.
Again, let us depict the road and the busy teamsters driving their
yokes of strong oxen with their heavy loads of logs to the towns and
cities where they are to be sold. A scene, a perfect word-picture,
should be painted of everything concerning the trip,--the crunching of
the oxen's hoofs on the pressed snow, the creaking of the heavy truck
as