Our Children and 

 Their Flowers 



One of the Princes 

 among the White Wil- 

 low Herb and Giant 

 Balsam by the Brook. 



great educational value. First and 

 foremost because they learn to 

 love the bit of their native land 

 where they have been pottering 

 about. They learn to love the 

 fields where, from their infancy, 

 they have watched father and 

 mother work, in order to reclaim 

 and beautify ground, where they 

 have been digging and planting 

 all together. Then, also, they learn 

 the wonderful growth of plants, and 

 their very manner of adapting themselves to fresh soil. 



And thus they learn to love flowers instead of carelessly 

 trampling them under foot, or picking them only to throw 

 them away the next moment. 



Moreover, they become quite deft and handy in trans- 

 planting, weeding, and many other things. As for watering 

 their gardens, there is never any need to remind them of that. 

 It is too delicious to splash about and get just a bit soiled and 

 muddy — there is no joy like that of watering in the garden. 

 I have tried to teach our children to love flowers as 

 much as I do. Hence they have each their own little plot at 

 Sofiero, as I have already mentioned elsewhere. When the 

 eldest boy was seven, we gave the children a tiny cottage for 

 their own tools and their toys, etc. And round the cottage a 

 plot was dug out for them and partially prepared. A paling 

 was put up in order to keep the rabbits away. Incidentally, 



the rabbits in Sofiero 

 seem to prefer the 

 choicest of plants 

 and the most cher- 

 ished of one's flowers. 



What our Children 

 Chose for their 

 Gardens. 



Then the plot 

 was divided into 



The Children's Garden 

 Playhouse. 



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