place, and when they had laid the bulb babies gently down the kinder-
garten teacher said, "While they sleep we will try and make clay bulbs
just like our babies, ro show to mother, when we go home."

And soon every child was as busy as busy could be, rolling and
patting and smoothing the clay, singing softly as he worked, and by
and by every child had made a quaint bulb baby — Charlotte Anne and
Joe-Boy and all the rest. And before it was time to go home they had
drawn those bulb babies with brown pencils, almost as well as you could
do! So they went home with something in each hand, and Joe-Boy
gave the clay bulb to Mother Gipsy and the picture bulb to Father
Gipsy, and I think they have them yet.

Baby Lily

Tuesday

WHEN the children came back to kindergarten next morning,
what do you guess was sleeping in a basket right in the
center of the kindergarten circle? Why, the bulb babies,
to be sure — and just as fast asleep as they had been the day before.
But every one of those bulb babies had a little round paper dot pasted
on his cradle, some red, some pink, some yellow, some white. Joe-Boy
said it looked just as if the bulb babies had eyes. But the kindergarten
teacher said, "No, they are not eyes, because I pasted them there myself,
to help you remember the name of each bulb baby. You needn't think
that all bulb babies are just alike when they wake up, because they all
sleep in brown cloaks. No, indeed, they not only wear different kinds
of dresses, but they have different names, just as we do, who belong
to the big family of people. Those bulb babies with red and yellow
dots pasted on them are going to grow into tulips, the bulb babies with
pink dots are going to grow into fressias, the bulb babies with white
dots will be hyacinths or lilies."

Then they played a little game with the sleeping bulbs until they
learned their names quite well, and knew the kind of dress the bulb baby
was to wear when it had grown into a plant.

"This little bulb baby that T hold in my hand is going to be a
beautiful white lily some day," said the kindergarten teacher, patting
it gently.



186 LITTLE FOLKS' LAND

"Once-upon-a-time her mother, a tall white lily, grew in an old
garden among tulips and freesias and hyacinths and jonquils and other
bulb plants. Her dress was snowy white and tucked away beneath her
petals was a golden heart, which the dear God had given her because
she had tried her best to grow. The tall lily was very thankful and
happy because mother earth and the sunbeams and the waterdrops had
helped her to grow beautiful, but best of all she was thankful for the
dear baby lily tucked away in the bulb at her feet. As she grew day by
day in the old garden, she thought and dreamed of her baby lily. She
knew that a time was coming when tulips and hyacinths and jonquils
and other plants would take their winter sleep, and she said, "I must
be sure that my dear baby lily is well cared for during those cold winter
months. She will not have me then to send out my rootlets and find her
something to eat. So I must tuck her away in her brown winter cloak,
and pack around her just the food she likes best to eat, and then she
will grow into a fine strong lily plant, and by and by, when the sweet
spring time comes, she will be ready to push out of the brown bulb
cradle and perhaps at Easter time her white blossom with the golden
heart will greet the happy world."

Then she told her story to the freesias and the jonquils and the
tulips and other bulb plants near by, and they said too, "Let us pack
food in the cradles with our bulb babies, so that they will be ready to
grow and bloom at the happy Easter time."

So for many days they worked for their babies packed away in
the bulbs, and one morning the gardener found them all fast asleep be-
neath the ground, and he said, "I will take these bulb babies into the
house with me, and keep them snug and warm from the frost and snow,
and when it is time for them to grow, I will give them to some one
who knows how to wake them up."

And so he did, and the other day when I was there, he told me I
might bring them to the children in the kindergarten, and we are to
play fairies with the sunbeams and the waterdrops and wake all of these
bulb babies up, for unless somebody helps them they would sleep for-
ever, and never be ready to bloom at Easter time, as the lily mother
wished. Who would like to help today?"

Then Joe-Boy and Charlotte Anne and every one of the children
raised their hands and waved them high. That meant, "I'll help, I'll'
help, I'll help," and the kindergarten teacher said, "I'll help, too. Shall



LITTLE FOLKS' LAND 187

we plant them in a water bed or shall we plant them in a bed of rich
and sandy dirt? If we plant them in a water bed, we can see their tiny
rootlet feet, when they first step out of the cradle, but if we plant them
in the dirt I believe they will be stronger, and we can watch for their
tiny hands, stretching up to us."

And then, because some of the children wanted to plant them in
the water and some of the children wanted to plant them in the dirt,
the kindergarten teacher said, "We shall have to plant them both ways,
and find out which is better for them."

So first, they found a pretty glass bowl in the closet, and every
child put a small white stone in the bottom of the bowl, and then they set
the white hyacinth bulbs on the rocks, and almost covered them with
water — and then they put the dish on the darkest shelf in the closet,
until the bulbs began to put out those tiny feet rootlets — then, of course,
everybody would know that the bulb babies were waking up and needed
the sunbeam fairies to help.

"Now," said the kindergarten teacher, "the next thing to be done
is to make a soft dirt bed, in the big window box, and put these other
bulbs to bed."

So the children went into the yard and filled their tin buckets right
full of fine brown dirt, and emptied it into the window box in the
kindergarten room, and when the bed was finished, every child took his
own bulb baby and dug a little hole in the box and planted the sleeping
bulb baby, and covered them all softly over, and then, because the big
box was too heavy to put in the closet, they found some dark gldss that
the sunbeams could not get through very well, and left the bulb babies
to get strong feet before they grew upward.

Why don't you plant some bulb babies, too — just as those chil-
dren did?

The Little Worm That Helped

Wednesday

I AM so glad that the kindergarten children planted so many of the
bulb babies all in the same big box, because then, as they grew, they
could talk together, you see. Joe-Boy's bulb was a tulip, and he had
planted it in the corner on the front row, and Charlotte Anne's was a
jonquil, and she had planted her's on the front row in the other corner,
and the kindergarten teacher's was a lily, and she had planted hers on



188 LITTLE FOLKS' LAND

the front row, right between Joe-Boy's and Charlotte Anne's. And all
the other children knew just where theirs were planted, too, and they
were so anxious to see therri begin to grow. Why, Joe-Boy looked at his,
just a little while after it was planted, to see if it was growing, and
Charlotte Anne almost pulled hers up to see if it was growing, and
the kindergarten teacher said, "My, my, my, plants can not grow in
such a very short time as that! — any more than children can! The
first thing they try to do is to get strong feet to hold them down in
the ground, and little rootlets with tiny mouths in them to suck up their
food from the earth. We must wait on these babies until they are
strong enough to stand up, then they will grow fast enough for us."

So after that the children only peeped under the glass at the morn-
ing circle every day. They were very glad they had planted some of
the bulb babies in the glass bowl, because they could see every little
rootlet, as soon as it began to grow, and it wasn't very long before they
were ready to be brought into the sunlight, and grew faster than ever.
But down in the box, it was so dark that the bulb babies thought it was
night time. And when they first began to wake up, Joe-Boy's tulip said,
"Oh, oh, it is so very dark down here, and I am so very sleepy, I
believe I will take another nap."

And Charlotte Anne's jonquil said, "I'm not, I am going to poke
my little foot right out of this cradle and see what I can find — I am so
very tired lying here in the dark."

And then the baby lily stretched herself and said, "I feel as if I
must go somewhere up, up, up, and I am so very hungry I must hunt
something to eat — then I will most surely go up to see what the world
is like."

And then the very next day Charlotte Anne's jonquil said, "Oh, I
think I heard a bluebird singing, I am going right up to see," and she
stretched and stretched her tiny hands, up, up, up, until she stretched
right through the brown earth, and then she laughed and laughed, be-
cause she was so very glad! And the next morning when the children
saw her growing up, why, they laughed too, because they were so very
glad, and the kindergarten teacher said, "What a brave plant baby she
is ! We will have to move the top from the box now, and give her room
to grow. Maybe the sunbeam fairies will help the others up — surely
they will have fine roots by this time."

And sure enough the next morning and the next and the next, the



LITTLE FOLKS' LAND 189

children found new bulb babies that had pushed up through the brown
earth to see the sunbeams, until all were wide awake and growing, all
except two — the one on the front row in the corner, and the one in
the middle, on the same row, right next to it. You know whose they
were. What could be the matter? It made Joe-Boy feel very unhappy,
because he was so afraid his bulb baby would never wake up. But do
you know, every time that baby tulip stretched up his tiny hand to
push through the earth, he would touch something hard and rough, that
he could not push away, though he had tried and tried every day.

"Never mind, little brother," said the lily bulb near by, "I will
wait for you. Perhaps you will be strong enough tomorrow. Let your
rootlets creep here near mine, where it is damp and cool. I shall not
leave you here alone in the dark, however much I long to creep up
to the light."

So they nestled close together in the box — these two little bulbs.
And the next day the lily said, "Now, try again, little plant brother;
stretch your very best — maybe you can push through the earth, while
I wait."

So again the tulip tried — tried his verj^ best, but his delicate hand
touched the same hard thing, which he could not push away. And
then the dear little tulip baby could not help but cry, he was so very
anxious to see the light.

"Never mind, I shall wait for you, little brother," said the sweet
lily bulb, "do not cry."

And then, only think, a little w^orm heard, and came creeping, creep-
ing, through the dirt — right straight to the side of the baby tulip — and
said, "What can be the matter, little one? Maybe I can help you."

And when he heard about the hard, rough thing that was keeping
the tulip baby from growing up to the bright, bright outside world, he
said, "Ho, ho, baby tulip, I can help you; dry your eyes while I crawl
above you and see what the trouble is. Maybe it is a rock, and I can
push it away."

Then the tulip baby dried his eyes and the little worm crawled and
crawled until he found the hard, rough thing, and sure enough it was
a stone, but the little worm pushed and pushed against it with all his
might, and bored around it and underneath it, and by and by he pushed
the rough rock right out of the way, and plowed the ground so soft and
fine, that it wasn't any trouble at all for the baby tulip to grow. Now



1



190 LITTLE FOLKS' LAND

wasn't that a kind little worm? And then he said, "Come on, baby
tulip, stretch your hands up high, stretch right through the earth; 'tis
a beautiful world outside!"

Then the tulip baby and the dear little lily baby stretched and
stretched right through the earth — and oh, they were so happy, and the
children were so happy, and the kind little worm was so happy, and I
can't tell which was the happiest. Could you guess?

The Merry, Merry Blossoms

Thursday

// 1 T LOOKS as if these bulbs in the window box are running a race
to see which can grow the fastest," said the kindergarten teacher,
"and I do believe my lily and Joe-Boy's tulip are ahead of all
the others. That must be because they staid under the ground such
a long time and got such strong roots. The first thing we know, our
window will be full of beautiful blossoms."

And sure enough, it was only a few days later that Joe-Boy found
a wee, wee bud on his tulip — all wrapped up in a dainty green cloak,
and very soon there were buds on the hyacinths in the glass bowl, and
then one came on Charlotte Anne's jonquil, and another on the tall
lily next to Joe-Boy's tulip, and the children were kept busy trying to
count them, and could hardly wait long enough to see their blossoms open
wide, and fill the room with sweetest perfume. At last the happy
morning really came, and the children sang to them and talked about all
the fairies that had helped the bulbs to bloom. They named the water-
drops and the sunbeams and the rocks and the brown earth, and them-
selves — but they did not tell about the little worm. You and I know,
though, how he helped, don't we ? And the tulip and the tall white lily
knew, too — they had not forgotten.

"Oh, oh," said Joe-Boy's tulip, "isn't it fun to grow! See my
pretty red dress the sunbeams brought me, and my brother has a pretty
yellow one."

"Yes, yes," said Charlotte Anne's jonquil, "and I have a yellow
dress, too, and only see the other bulbs, the sunbeams brought them
pretty dresses too — pink and blue."

"And see my dress," said the tall Easter lily, "it is pure white, just
like my mother's. And the freesias and the hyacinths have white dresses,
too."



LITTLE FOLKS' LAND 191

So they nodded their pretty heads in the window, and those who
passed in the streets and saw them and smiled as they went on their way.
It was only a few mornings later that the children marched through
the doorway and sat in their chairs in the circle. When they had sung
the songs and played many of the pretty games about the flowers, the
kindergarten teacher said, ''These flowers have made us so very happy
I can not help but wish they could make somebody else happy — some-
body who hasn't any, you know."

"Billy Sanders hasn't any," said Joe-Boy; "and Dandy."

"That is true," said the kindergarten teacher, "and Billy has been
sick a long, long time."

"There's a heap of sick people in the hospital," said Charlotte Anne.
"I went there with Grandmother Ray and saw them."

"Yes, indeed," said the kindergarten teacher, "and I believe the
pretty flowers would make them feel better. If we really want to give
our flowers away to make somebody else happy, we could send the
hyacinths in the glass bowl to Billy and Dandy, and if we could find
a horse to help us, we might send the big window box, just as it is, to
the sick people at the hospital — wouldn't that be a nice plan?"

"Yes, yes," said all the children, "let us send them today!"

Now I just wonder if you could really guess what horse it was
that pulled those flowers to the hospital? To be sure, Prince Charming
was the very horse! Father Gipsy hitched him up to the light spring
wagon, and I think Prince Charming must have known that he was
helping to do something very kind, because he stepped so very p-oud
and high, and what is more, he pulled the kindergarten teacher and all
those twenty children, too, and he didn't seem to be one bit tired. And
when all those sick people saw that big box of flowers growing right
there in the window of the room where they were sick, why, they said it
really did them more good than the doctor's pills, and I believe it did !

What do you think about it?

The Little Worm's Visit

Friday

THERE was something else besides the bulbs that went in the
box to the hospital. We know what it was, but the kindergarten
teacher and the children did not ; because they did not know
about the little worm that pushed away the stone from baby tulip's head



193 LITTLE FOLKS' LAND

and plowed the earth soft so he could grow. The little worm still lived
in the box, and was as busy as busy could be every day plowing around
the creeping rootlets of the bulbs. The Easter lily and the baby tulip
knew that he was there — they could feel him as he worked about their
feet.

"How very kind of our little friend," they said, "to help us so!
Our blossoms could not be half so lovely, if the little earth worm did not
help to keep the dirt soft and rich. I wonder why he does not crawl up.
here to see us some day?"

But, dear me, they forgot that little earth worms do not have
eyes — ^what would you want with eyes if you always lived in the dark,
dark earth? The little worm could feel the way to go very well, and
he was so busy with his plowing that he did not have much time to go
up on the earth visiting. Anyway, the little worm did not like to go up
on the earth very much, because that was where the people walked, and
he was so very little, he was afraid some of the children might step on
him — oh, no, not you; of course I knew you would not, but somebody
might. But one day the little worm said, "I believe I will crawl up to
the earth today, and take a walk in the fresh air and sunshine. I can
feel the light, though I can not see the light, and it must be very beau-
tiful. There are some little worms that live on top of the earth, and they
have eyes — I like to hear them talk about the things they see. I believe
I will crawl over and ask baby tulip to tell me the best way up."

So the little worm crawled and crawled and crawled through the
damp earth and tapped on baby tulip's roots.

"Who is there?" said baby tulip.

And the little worm said, "It is I — the little worm. Don't you
remember ?"

"To be sure," said baby tulip, nodding and nodding his pretty head,
"you moved the rough stone away that kept me from growing. Why
don't you crawl up here to the light and see my pretty red dress? The
Easter lily has a white one and a golden heart within, and there are
other pretty colors, too — pink and yellow — won't you come?"

"That is just what I have been thinking I should like to do," said
the little worm, "and tapped on your roots to see if you could show me
the best way up."

"Of course I will," said baby tulip; "I have been wishing and wish-



LITTLE FOLKS' LAND 193

ing to see you — ever since you helped me so. Just follow my stalk and
crawl upward — you'll soon be on top of the earth."

"Thank you," said the little worm, "here I come."

And then he crawled up, up, up, up, and the first thing he knew
he could feel the light, and then the little worm knew he was up on the
earth.

"My, me!" said baby tulip, "how you have grown! Why, you are
ever so much fatter than you used to be. Just see our pretty new dresses
the sunbeams brought us. Aren't they pretty?"

"They must be," said the little worm, "though I can only feel them.
How do you like it up here?"

"Oh, we like it much better than down in the ground," said the
beautiful Easter lily.

"We thank you ever so much for helping us climb. This is not the
place we first waked up in. That was at the kindergarten, where the
happy children sang to us each day — they loved us so. But yesterday
they brought us here to make the sick people happy."

"Oh," said the little worm, "I should like to do that, too, but
people say I am very ugly, and then I can not see, you know."

"We don't think you are ugly," said baby tulip and the deai
Easter lily.

"We think you are beautiful, because you are kind, and help us so —
we love you."

"I am very glad," said the little worm, "but I am afraid I am stay-
ing too long. I will just crawl around the edge of the box and then
I must go home again and do my work."

And so the little worm went crawling and crawling and crawling
around the edge of the box, feeling from side to side. And while the
little worm was crawling around the edge of the box, guess who saw
him ? It was not the hospital doctor and it was not the hospital nurse —
but it was something the nurse held in her arms, a little baby that had
been sick a long, long time. You see the nurse had carried her up to
the window to see the bright flowers, and while she sat there, the dear
little baby saw the worm come creeping, creeping so slowly around the
edge of the box, and she stretched out her tiny hands to the little worm
and said, "Pretty, pretty, pretty!"

"Why, yes," said the nurse, smiling, "a little worm has come to
see this sick baby."



194 LITTLE FOLKS' LAND

And then she held out her pencil and the little worm crawled all the
way across the pencil and the little sick baby laughed and laughed until
she laughed out loud, and kept saying, "Pretty, pretty, pretty!" — the
very first time she had laughed since she came to the big hospital. Then
the nurse put the little worm back in the box with the bulbs, where
she knew he liked to stay, and he crept into the dark earth again.

That afternoon when the doctor came — the very same doctor that
knew Joe-Boy so well, he bent over the white bed where the sick baby
slept, and took her tiny hand in his, as he said, "Why, this sick baby is
very much better! She'll soon be well, I think."

"Yes, indeed," said the nurse, "why, she's been laughing out loud
today, and do you know, I believe it was a little worm that has made
her better?"

Now, don't you wish the little worm knew?

Program for Sixteenth Week — Bulbs.

The Brown Bulb Babies

Monday
Circle talk, songs and games: Do you remember what the big oak tree

grew from? Do you know what the morning-glory came from?

Who has seen a lily? I will show you what that comes from.

(Show the bulb and relate story.)
Game: "My lily bulb moves round and round."
Gift: Modeling, suggested in story.
Instrumental music: "Traumerei." Schuman.
Occupation: Brush work, Bulbs.

Baby Lily

Tuesday
Circle talk, songs and games: Reproduce story told yesterday. Relate
story for the day. Plant bulbs as suggested in the story. What
will help them to grow ? How can we help ?
Game and Song:

"In the heart of a bulb planted deep, so deep,
A dear little lily lay fast asleep," etc.
Lullaby, "Narcissus." Nevin.
Gift: Fifth. — Closet and flower stand.
Occupation: Water color — Tulip. Show the real flower.



LITTLE FOLKS' LAND 195

The Little Worm That Helped

Wednesday

Circle talk, songs and games: Do you remember what helped "Baby
Tulip" to grow up? What else helped? What kind of beds do
tulips like?

Song and game: "In the heart of a bulb."

Gift Period: Work in bulb beds out of doors, planting several.

Occupation: Folding, flower pot. Draw flower in bloom.

The Merry, Merry Blossoms

Thursday

Circle talk, songs and games: Were you ever sick? Did any one bring

you anything nice? Do you ever take sick people anything? Did

you ever visit a hospital? Relate story.
Song and game : "In the great brown earth."
Gift: Fifth gift B. (Curvelinear.) Build the hospital and window

where box of bulbs was placed.
Occupation: Cardboard modeling. Basket. — Fill with flowers for

some friend.

The Little Worm's Visit

Friday

Circle talk, songs and games: Reproduce yesterday's story. Did you
ever dig up a little worm? What did you do with it? How do
they help us?

Game: All hands joined — play worm.

Gift: Modelling worms.

Occupation : Folding bed where sick baby lay.

Seventeenth Week — Life History of the Butterfly.

The Princess

Monday

I AM afraid the kindergarten children would have missed their pretty
window garden very much indeed if it had not been for something
they found swinging in the window the very next morning —
something that looked just like a big pecan nut, only there were two



196 LITTLE FOLKS' LAND

brown leaves pressed close around it as it swung fastened tight to a
slender twig.

"What is it? What is it?" asked all the children in a breath.

"A pretty brown cradle," said the kindergarten teacher, "and a
most beautiful princess sleeps inside — we will guess her name. I found
her yesterday, swinging from an elm tree at Billy's house, when I carried
him the pretty flowers, and Billy told me to bring it to you. I will
let it pass all around the circle before we make our guesses, that our
eyes may have a real good look at the snug brown cradle."

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