Spring Day in the Children's Greenhouse 



Nellie Storie Salton* 



By unconscious signs we realised that spring was approaching 

 as we came to the children's greenhouse, early that spring morning. 

 There was no first robin or bluebird, no first spring flower any- 

 where in sight, for these things never come to Bedford avenue and 

 Logan street in Pittsburgh. Not even the swing doors on the 

 saloons had appeared yet, that sign by which city boys can tell the 

 approach of spring, yet we felt it in the air. The greenhouse 

 impressed it more deeply on us, for the freshly cleaned walls and 

 roof aided the starting plants in radiating the feeling that it was 

 time to put aside winter gloom and come forth fresh and ready to 

 grow. Already the bulb plants from the cellar had opened their 

 bright blossoms to see the sunshine. 



And the little children feeling the warmth of the sunshine 

 through the dingy tenement windows were coaxed out of doors. 

 It seemed a long, long time since cold weather had driven them 

 inside from their street play. The small children, too small to go 

 to school yet somehow remembered the house where they planted 

 btdbs and seeds, and where their flowers grew. The greenhouse 

 doors too, had been closed during the cold weather but now it was 

 spring and surely time to plant seeds again. Before the flower 

 teacher had flnished her part in caring for the greenhouse plants, 

 the most anxious of the little ones were knocking for admission. 



One could not do otherwise than hope to aid this spring longing 

 in these smallest children by letting them smell the pretty flowers 

 and feel their bright petals. The bright petals of the pink hya- 

 cinths seemed to draw the happy group towards them and like 

 busy bees the little tots went back and forth from one flower to 

 another. Our own flowers, even if we can not grow them in our 

 homes, are a precious possession when we can have a place some- 

 where else to grow them. The shrill city whistles break the spell 

 and children must go home and greenhouse doors close until 

 playgrounds open for the afternoon. 



Two o'clock, the hour when regular greenhouse lessons begin, 

 has arrived and with it the group of youngest playroom children 



*Miss Salton has been for some time in charge of the greenhouses that are 

 connected with the playgrounds in Pittsburg. 



