1902.] THE EDUCATION OF BOOKS AND OF NATURE. 285 



all their lives, and they said they did, and so I gave them my 

 three rules. I told them how to be happy. I did not preach 

 them any sermon, but I told them how to be happy and good. 

 I just told them to learn something splendid and good every 

 day, and to look at some beautiful thing every day. I did 

 not have to argue with those school children in that crowded 

 tenement district of Boston to tell them where they could find 

 books in which to find noble thoughts. They knew the 

 public library doors were open to them ; they knew. We all 

 understood ourselves on that subject. I said to them, " You 

 children all understand what sort of a thing it is you are to 

 learn. Something you like to remember." And one little 

 miss looked up at me, and she said : " I know lady, what it is. 

 You mean the things w^e like to look at, and can see if we go 

 blind." I thought she was quite a little philosopher. " Yes," 

 I said, " that is the thing to learn, — that you like to know." 

 I explained to them my three rules. I went back to the cool, 

 sweet, farm in the country, and two weeks later I came again, 

 and I met one of these children to whom I had been talking. 

 I was passing through the street when a little voice greeted 

 me, and as the little figure tried to reach me she cried: " I 

 done it; I done it, lady." I looked back to see who it was, 

 and I looked in astonishment at this child. The child was 

 fairly staggering along under the load of a large, fat baby. 

 She was carrying the baby fast asleep as she was struggling 

 along through the heated street. I stopped and said, "what?" 

 And the little face looked at me somewhat surprised, but she 

 said eagerly: " I done it, you know." I said: " What did you 

 do?" " Why," she said, " don't you know what you told us 

 to do? I done it every day." I said, "put that baby down. 

 What are you talking about? " It really was too cruel to try 

 to have her explain with that baby in her arms, and so she laid 

 the baby down, and she said, " don't you remember? I 

 tried to find something pretty to look at every day," and her 

 eyes shone as I never thought they could before. She says, 

 " I looked, and I couldn't find it, but I found it this morning; 

 isn't it pretty? " I said to her, " where do you live? " and she 

 said, " oh, just around the corner," and she pointed to a street 

 near w'here she had run against me. I looked around that 

 corner. I thought I had trained my eyes to find something 

 beautiful, but I had to confess that I could not see it there. It 



