82 . THE SCHOOL GARDEN. 



in the flower-pots of the kindergarden the turnip can be 

 planted or brought to seed, and the children can be 

 shown, by planting rice or other seeds upon damp cotton 

 in a glass tumbler or other dish, the very process of 

 daily growth ; also that plants can be grown not only 

 from seeds but by slips and that these must be kept 

 out of the sun, and always moist, until they are rooted. 

 The first new leaf that proves success gives an exquis- 

 ite pleasure to a child (and not only to a child but to a 

 veteran). The thought, too, that man can help God 

 beautify the earth by preparing the ground properly at 

 a certain place, and keeping all the requisite conditions, 

 may be implanted early in the young soul, which can be 

 shown so many analogies between itself and nature's 

 processes, in the visible world. The very word kinder- 

 garden is a mine of thought. 



" What are the flowers of the kindergarden ? These 

 plants that you see are the flowers of the sun," said a 

 kindergarden teacher one day. " The children," was 

 the immediate answer all round. Upon this text what 

 cannot be said ? The whole process of growth in good- 

 ness, with the ' we of God for its sunshine, can be 

 shown in the daily life of the little kindergarden family ; 

 and those who really know children by observation and 

 study, know that they can take ideas and reproduce 

 them in their own words. 



SOME FURTHER HINTS. 



The expense of putting a border six feet wide around 

 a school yard ninety-six feet square, is about fifty dol- 

 lars. This involves digging out the sand and putting 

 in the mould. The rest of the adornment can be done 

 by the children of the school. A grass-plot opposite 



