invention,
and he hastens to possess it, fully conscious of his power of
combining the new elements.

Introduction of the Ring.

We must first discuss the new form with the children so as to be
certain that they fully understand its relation to the other gifts.
Perhaps in a previous exercise with the eighth gift we have allowed
the children to experiment with a stick, and to break it partially in
a number of places so as to produce a measurably correct curved line,
afterwards promising them that they should soon have perfect curves to
play with. This exercise has its value because it illustrates
practically that a curved line is one which changes its direction at
every point.

Let us see when to-day's play begins if the children can think of any
way to make such curves, save by the stick already used. Some
quick-witted little one will remember at once the surface of the ball
and his repeated experiments in dividing it, and will suggest in
sufficiently plain words that a curved line might be made from a clay
sphere. His neighbor thinks a clay cylinder would make one more
easily, and both experiments are tried by all the children with a
resultant of quite perfect clay rings. Then some one wants to make
paper rings, and some one else cloth rings, and the wise kindergartner
encourages all this experimenting, knowing that "the power of memory
increases in the same ratio as delight, animation, and joy are
connected with free mental activity."

Material of the Rings.

When the wire rings are at last given, some conversation about their
material will be pleasant and timely, as it is of a kind we have not
had before in the gifts, and shall not have again. The children will
see that it is akin to the substance of which their sewing and weaving
needles and their scissors are made, and possibly some one may know
that both are products of iron. At this juncture it may be well to
show a piece of iron, to let the children handle it and note its
various properties, and while this is being done, to tell them of the
many parts of the world in which it is found, of its great strength
and usefulness, and that its value is greater than that of the shining
yellow gold. A description of iron mines will easily follow, and the
children will delight to hear of the great shafts sunk deep in the
earth, of the baskets in which the miners travel up and down, of the
darkness underground where they toil all day with pick and shovel, of
th