chapmanJ SCHOOL-GARDENS IN SAN FRANCISCO 229 



were busy carrying water in small tin cans. The sandy soil drank deep 

 of the precious water arid the efforts of the eager children to give their 

 young plants all the help they could seemed almost pathetic. Every- 

 one was at work. No one npeded to stand over these children to 

 keep them at their tasks. They needed help, encouragement and direc- 

 tion; and Mr. Armstrong was everywhere with a word of praise for a 

 o-ood straight row of beels or turnips, a particularly fine potato plant 

 or a well made frame for the vigorous bean to climb upon. He it was 

 who took the hoe to show the best way to use it; and it was his cheery 

 word, as he laughed at the grotesque scare-crow keeping guard over 

 a trim little patch, that made the children glad to be preparing a great 

 feast for the many tiny visitors that kept up a merry chatter in the 

 trees overhead as if already on the watch for the first green lettuce 

 leaves. 



No serious agricultural problems are here being struggled with, no 

 profound experiments tried; only the attempt to show these children of 

 the city streets how many good things to eat and how many attractive 

 flowers can be raised on a tiny patch of ground they can care for 

 themselves and with all how much fun there leally is in digging and 

 planting in the soil. All this goes back to the homes. Parents at first 

 looked askance at this work but later as their children began to get the 

 land in shape and took real interest in doing these commonplace things 

 they were amused and gradually they came out to help. They broke 

 up the particularly rebellious clods for some wee thing or watched to see 

 that some careless dweller in the tent city did not walk upon the gar- 

 dens. Here and there small isolated garden patches made their 

 appearance, some bearing signs that told us that the grown-up chil- 

 dren were not willing to be deprived of the joy of seeing the ever mar- 

 velous awakening of the seed germ. Here and there through the camp 

 tiny patches of garden appeared beside the tents made by children 

 and parents, showing how far reaching was the interest taken by old 

 and young alike. 



Good pure air and vigorous exercise under influences that make for 

 cleanliness is doing much to help these people to learn how to live. 

 After seeing these happy children learning out in the open air by 

 doing things for themselves with their own hands and heads, we must 

 wonder if perhaps for many of them the earthquake and fire may not in 

 after years prove a blessing rather than a calamity. 



