its runners slip along the smooth surface, the breath of the men
and animals rising like steam into the clear, cold air. All these
things rise in image before the child's eye and are not soon
forgotten, you may be sure. The work and life of the river-drivers
might also be described, and their manner of floating the logs down
river in springtime when the water is high and the current strong.
Then perhaps the children will help to tell us about the mill of which
they doubtless know something,--where the sawmills are built, how the
water helps in turning the great wheel, the buzzing and hissing of the
big saws, and the way in which they quickly make boards of the long,
strong logs. This and much more may be said, and if it is well said,
no child can ever look at the tiny stick afterwards and entirely
forget the charm which once surrounded it.[70]

[70] "These terse graphic descriptions of objects will be
found very serviceable in sharpening and intensifying the
powers of observation, as well as securing clearness,
distinctness, accuracy, and life in verbal description. Here
the pupil learns practically to give due prominence to
essentials, and to appreciate the full value of accessories;
to look for and discover the fundamental ideas of which
things are the modified, adorned, garbled, or stunted
expression; to seek and find the very soul of things."--W. N.
Hailmann, _Primary Helps_, page 17.

Group Work with Sticks.

The sticks are especially serviceable for group work of various kinds,
either at the long or square tables. As the children have now an
abundance of material they can make all the objects, perhaps, which
may be mentioned in a story the kindergartner tells. If it is about
the origin of Thanksgiving Day, for instance, Abby, who sits at one
end of the line, may make a picture of the Mayflower, and John, her
neighbor, make the Speedwell. The next child may construct a cradle
for Oceanus, the little Pilgrim baby born on shipboard; the next use
his material for the Indian huts the settlers saw after landing; and
so on, each child making a different object, which remains upon his
table until the close of the story. When this is completed, it will
have been fully illustrated by the children with their sticks, and
they will be delighted to inspect the different pictures which they
will plainly see are much more varied and beautiful than any one of
them could have made alone