"And wasn't it nice about the wings, mother?" he said.
"Couldn't you show me the very spot on my back where my skin
will pop open and my wings come out?"
Then Mother Gipsy laughed merrily and said : "Why, you're not
a little caterpillar; you are a little boy; and besides, catterpillars take a
long, long sleep before their wings grow out. Would you be willing to
take a long, long sleep, if, when you waked up, you would have a pair
of beautiful wings?"
"Y-e-s!" said Joe-Boy, and his eyes grew very bright; but Mother
Gipsy said: "Oh, please don't take that long sleep now; I'm sure I
couldn't spare you."
Then she tucked him away with another "good-night" kiss, and
opened the shutters for the stars and moon to peep through as she said:
"Go to sleep, little caterpillar, but be sure to waken when the sunbeams
come."
And that is just what Joe-Boy did, and when he went to kinder-
garten and looked at the Princess, she was still sleeping in her pretty
cocoon cradle.
"I do hope she will not wake just yet," said the kindergarten
teacher, "because we haven't planted our garden beds, and there would
be no flowers and leaves and grasses for her ā why, there would be noth-
ing for her to eat!"
LITTLE FOLKS' LAND 209
"Let us plant the garden beds today," said Joe-Boy, "because the
Princess might wake up soon."
"Well," said the kindergarten teacher, "we might start on them
today, anyway. The first thing to be done is to plan just how we want
to make them. We could go to the sand table and do that, and maybe
by tomorrow it will be warm enough to work out of doors. Let me
see; there are twenty-one children, counting me, so there must be
twenty-one garden beds, because every child will want one for his very
own, to dig and plant and care for. We will go to the sand table right
now, and see what will be the best way to lay ofif those twenty-one
little garden beds, with walks between them, that no one need ever
step on the growing plants."
That was a happy band of children around the big sand-table, I
can tell you, and to help them remember how many twenty-one was,
the kindergarten teacher gave every child one little oblong block, and
she said: "We will play that these are the size of the garden beds;
now, let us lay them in the sand, and find the best way, being sure to
leave the little walks between."
So, after everybody had tried and tried they found it was best to
put three of the little beds in a row, and to have seven rows ā that made
twenty-one little even beds, you see, and no one forgot about the walks.
Then to see just how the pretty garden would look all finished, the
children smoothed the sand over the beds, and planted tiny colored
sticks and played that they were flowers growing. Some of them had
vegetables growing, too ā peas and potatoes and onions and lettuce and
corn ā and the kindergarten teacher said: "There now! Each child
will have only one bed in the yard, and which will you plant, vegeta-
bles or flowers?"
And everybody wanted to plant flowers and everybody wanted to
plant vegetables, so she laughed and said, "Well, everybody can plant
both. We will cut the little beds right in two, and plant vegetables in
one square and flowers for the Princess on the other square. And when
the vegetables get ripe, we will have a vegetable party and invite Mother
Gipsy ā because she gave us a surprise party one day. Don't you remem-
ber?"
Of course the children hadn't forgotten about that party of milk
and oatmeal and little dollar biscuits and thumb pones of cornbread.
Have you forgotten?
210 LITTLE FOLKS' LAND
"But," said the kindergarten teacher, "we must keep that for a
secret, and not tell anybody yet, so it will be a surprise to Mother
Gipsy."
And Charlotte Anne said: "I know Joe-Boy is going to tell!"
But Joe-Boy only jumped up and down and said: "No, I won't,
no I won't, no I won't!"
And the kindergarten teacher said: "Of course, Joe-Boy won't
tell ā he knows how to keep a secret; I am sure he does. Anyway, we
will wait and see."
How Prince Charming Helped
Tuesday
IF you could have peeped over the kindergarten fence the very next
morning after the children had made their gardens in the sand,
you would have seen them all out in the yard, and every child had
a spade or a rake or a hoe ā ^at least that is what Father Gipsy saw,
when he peeped over the fence on his way to town. The children were
digging and digging, and digging, too busy to stop and talk because
everybody was trying to get the ground soft and fine for the garden
beds. Father Gipsy watched them dig, with a queer smile on his face,
and then he said: "That ground looks pretty hard for little people
to dig. I know somebody not very far from here that can plow well,
and he likes to help, too ā somebody with four white legs and a wavy,
white mane and a long white tail."
"Prince Charming! Prince Charming! We know it is Prince
Charming!"
"That's just who it is," said Father Gipsy, "and Prince Charming
belongs to Joe-Boy, so if he is willing to lend him out, I'll just go bring
him right away, and we'll have this garden plowed up in a little while."
You know Joe-Boy was glad for Prince Charming to help ā he
even went home with Father Gipsy to bring him ā and soon they came
back with the plow and the long plow lines and dear old Prince Charm-
ing, with his waving mane, stepping high, as he always did, whether
he plowed or carried the painted lady tip-toe on his back. And then, the
merry, merry time everybody had plowing! Father Gipsy was very
kind and let each one have a turn. He told them when to say "gee,"
and he told them when to say "haw," and Prince Charming understood
LITTLE FOLKS' LAND 211
every word and plowed his very best ; so very soon the ground was deep
and soft.
"I can't tell what we would do without Prince Charming," said
the kindergarten teacher; "he is always ready to help us out of our
troubles. How can we say 'thank you' before he goes?"
"I'll run get him a piece of my apple," said Charlotte Anne. Then
the other children thought about their lunch and ran for their baskets,
and when they came back Prince Charming had the nicest lunch! He
ate a red apple and a yellow apple and a cake and a sandwich and a
lump of sugar ā and he ate right out of the children's hands, too, and he
didn't bite, and they smoothed and petted and rubbed him until Prince
Charming was very glad indeed that he had come to help.
"Now what is the next thing to be done to these garden beds?"
said Father Gipsy. "I believe I would like to help some more." Then
they told him all about the twenty-one beds, with three beds in a row,
and seven rows ā and the little walks between. And then Father Gipsy
said : "Well, that doesn't seem so very hard to fix, if we will all work
together. You children can rake and hoe the ground over, while the
kindergarten teacher and I lay off the walks and the twenty-one garden
beds."
Then Father Gipsy found a long cord and tied a stick at each end,
and stretched the line across the ground, to help him dig even straight
rows, and by and by every one of those twenty-one garden beds were
fixed just right. And Joe-Boy said, "Oh, oh, it looks just like our
garden on the sand-table ā only it is a grown-up mother garden."
"And so it is," said the kindergarten tecaher, "and we have had so
much help today, I believe our gardens will be ready to plant tomor-
row ā won't that be fine?"
You should have heard those children clap their hands. Then
Father Gipsy said: "Well, I know of one more thing that will help to
make these garden beds good ones, so when I go up town I am going
to stop at the carpenter's shop and send him down here with some long
boards and some short boards, and he will fix them tightly around every
little bed to keep the dirt from washing into the walks ā don't you
think that would be a good plan?"
"And we will scatter white sand over the walks, too," said the
kindergarten teacher, "and when you pass each day you will see how
clean and neat we shall keep them."
212 LITTLE FOLKS' LAND
Then Father Gipsy told them "good-bye," and sure enough the
beds were fixed just as he promised ā now, don't you think that was a
very kind Father Gipsy? The children thought so, and they said they
were surely going to have him in their secret, too, and ask him to the
vegetable party ā but of course Joe-Boy promised not to tell.
The Vegetable Beds
Wednesday
ALL the children were in such a big hurry to get back to kinder-
garten the next morning that they did not even want to take
time to eat breakfast. You see, they were thinking about those
garden beds, and wondering when they could plant the seeds.
"You have come so very early," said the kindergarten teacher, "I
think we will have time before nine to go down to the sand bank and
get the white sand for our walks ā then, when Father Gipsy passes, he
will see 'that we have fixed our garden walks almost as quickly as he
had the beds fixed for us yesterday."
I know you would have wanted to go, too, if you could have seen
those children skipping down the path to the branch in the woods, and
everybody had a bucket or a bag or a basket to bring the sand in ā
even the hired man went along, too, and he carried a great huge bag
in his wheelbarrow ā so, all together, they brought enough to the kinder-
garten to sprinkle in all the walks.
"There now," said the kindergarten teacher, "I believe things arc
ready for seed planting ā I feel as if I would almost like to be a seed
myself, to grow in those fine garden beds ! Which shall we plant first ā
flower seeds or vegetable seeds?"
"Vegetable seeds," said the children, "because 'they must hurry
and grow for the party."
"That's true," she said, laughing, "we must remember about that
party! Won't Mother and Father Gipsy be surprised when they come
to our garden party, and find nice things to eat that we planted our-
selves? Now, let us put on our 'thinking caps' and name every vegeta-
ble that we know, so we can choose the ones we wish to plant."
So they thought and thought, and everj'^body named some ā first,
they named vegetables that ripened in. the ground, and looked like
bulbs ā Irish potatoes, sweet potatoes, turnips, beets, radishes and onions.
LITTLE FOLKS' LAND 213
Then they named vegetables that grew in pods ā snap beans, butter-
beans, green peas and olcra. Then they named vegetables whose leaves
were good to eat ā cabbage, salad and lettuce. And then they named
tomatoes and corn and squashes and cucumbers and egg plant, and, oh!
I don't know how many others ā anyway, they couldn't think of planting
everything they named, because the garden beds were not large enough
for them, you know. "Why," said the kindergarten teacher, "we would
need garden beds as large as Farmer Green's if we planted all of those
vegetables! I think we shall have to choose only those which will be
sure to ripen in time for the party."
Now, I wonder if you can guess which those were? You can't?
Well, from the vegetables that looked like bulbs, they chose radishes,
and from the vegetables that grew in pods, they chose green peas, and
from vegetables whose leaves were good to eat, they chose curly lettuce.
And I think that would make a very nice garden party, indeed, don't
you? Because they could make soup out of the peas to eat first, and
then there would be radishes to eat next, and last of all, would be the
lettuce ā that would be for the dessert, you know. So the kindergarten
teacher took three little packages out of her apron pocket, and gave
ever)one some little, wee, wee radish seeds, and some little wee, wee, wee
lettuce seeds, and some fine fat pea seeds, and she said as she placed
them in their careful hands, "To think that every little seed, even the
wee, wee, wee ones, has a little plant baby, sleeping within ā waiting,
waiting to grow! Isn't it good that we can help to waken them?"
So they went joyfully to the little garden beds, and when they had
made the little rows, every child planted his seeds in his own little
garden bed, and covered them gently over. And when they had finished,
Joe-Boy was so very happy, that he kept jumping up and down and all
around ā thinking about that garden party. And Charlotte Anne said :
"Don't you tell, Joe-Boy! If you feel as if you are when j'ou see
Mother Gipsy, just put your hand over your mouth so, and run to the
buttercup meadow as fast as you can go!"
Maybe you think it isn't very hard to keep a secret, but it is ā most
especially when it is about a party. I believe that is the hardest kind of
a secret to keep. Why, that very day, when Joe-Boy got home, he
almost told! Mother Gipsy said, "Come, tell me what you did at
kindergarten today ā something nice, I know, because your eyes tell
me so."
214 LITTLE FOLKS' LAND
And Joe-Boy jumped up and down and said, "Oh, oh, oh, mother,
we are going to give you a ā a ā a ā !"
And then all at once he remembered about the secret, and put his
hands over his lips ā and the next think you knew, why, he was down
in the buttercup meadow! Now, aren't you glad he did not tell that
secret ?
The Flower Beds
Thursday
I NEED not tell you what the children did the next morning ^t
kindergarten, because you know as well as I do, that they planted
the other half of their garden beds. They had a merry time in the
morning circle, talking about the seeds they wished to plant. They
began with the rainbow colors, and first named all the red flowers they
could think of, then they named all the orange flowers, and all the
yellow flowers, and all the green flowers, and all the blue flowerSj and
then all of the violet flowers. The kindergarten teacher was the only
one who could name a green flower, but the children thought of names
for all of the other colors. Of course they could not plant all that they
named, though, so the kindergarten teacher said: "We shall have to
do about the flower seeds as we did about the vegetable seeds, and only
plant those that will grow fast, and bloom in time for the garden party."
In the fall, when the children had first started to kindergarten,
they had gathered all kinds of seeds, put each kind in little envelopes,
and put them in seed boxes, which they had folded themselves, and the
kindergarten teacher had put them away in the cabinet to stay until the
springtime, when it was best to plant them. So the children remem-
bered about the boxes, and the kindergarten teacher went and found
them just as they had put them away.
"We will open the boxes and see what kind of seeds we have," she
said, "and then we will go out to our gardens and plant the ones we
choose."
Then the children opened the little envelopes and found morning-
glory seeds, and nasturtium seeds, and petunia seeds, and phlox seeds,
and pansy seeds, and sunflower seeds, and, do you know, when the
kindergarten teacher asked them which ones they wanted to plant, why,
those children said they wanted to plant all they had! And then she
said : "It is a pity to leave any of them unplanted ā they would all like
LITTLE FOLKS' LAND 215
to grow, I am sure, so we shall have to give them a chance. We can
plant the phlox and petunias and nasturtiums in the garden beds, and
we can plant the sunflowers by the side fence, and the morning-glory
seeds near the porch where they will have room to climb, and the pansy
seeds near the violets by the steps ā then all will have a place, whether
they bloom in time for the garden party or not."
"I'm so glad," said Joe-Boy, "because I just must plant all of my
seeds ā I couldn't tell which ones not to plant."
So, you may know they were all very happy children when they
tripped out to plant their seeds, and when they had finished, the twenty-
one brown garden beds looked smooth and soft in the spring sunshine,
with the sleeping seeds tucked snugly beneath.
"And only think," said the kindergarten teacher, "from each tiny
seed a dear baby plant will soon awake ā how glad we are to help them
grow."
Then they played the pretty game that you have played ā some of
the children were the sleeping seeds, some were the sunbeams and some
were the rain drops that God had sent to waken the seed babies and help
them to grow. Which would you rather be, a seed or a sunbeam or a
raindrop?
Peggy Rose's Garden
Friday
NOW the very hardest thing you have to do about a garden is to
wait for the seeds to come up. But, dear me, real babies can't
walk until they have strong feet, you know, so how could you
expect plant babies to grow up until they had strong feet, too? At
least, that is what Mother Gipsy asked Joe-Boy one night when they
were playing seeds and she had tucked him away in his bed for the
night.
"If you are in such a hurry to see a garden grow, and can't wait
for the one you have at kindergarten, why, you'll just have to make
you a garden like what Peggy Rose made, and then you will be so busy
watching the little feet grow that you will forget everything else."
"Well, tell me what kind of a garden Peggy Rose made?" said
Joe-Boy.
"And that means a story," laughed Mother Gipsy, as she gave him
a little love pinch on his ear. "Well, anyway," she said, "once-upon-a-
816 LITTLE FOLKS' LAND
time, Peggy Rose was cleaning out her mother's button box, and right
at the bottom she found three seeds ā one was a bean seed and one was
a grain of corn and one was a squash seed; though Peggy Rose had
never seen a squash seed, and she didn't know what kind it was. Any-
way, Peggy Rose said, 'When my beautiful mother comes home from the
factory tonight, I shall ask her to give me these seeds, and then I will
plant me a garden bed.' Now, Peggy Rose lived in a little room at the
very top of a high brick house, and there were steps and steps and steps
and steps that you had to go down before you got out into the street.
And there wasn't any yard for her to run and play in, such as you
have^-there was only the brick sidewalk, and beyond, the busy street,
where Peggy Rose never dared to go, because the horses and drays
might run over her. So how do you think Peggy Rose was going to
have any garden bed?
" 'To be sure, little daughter,' said Peggy Rose's beautiful mother,
when she came home from the factory that night, 'you may have the
seeds that you found in the button box, but we shall have to think about
the garden bed, for where have we any place to plant a garden? Only
this little square room inside and the busy, busy streets outside. But
surely there must be a way,' she said, as she stooped low and saw the
little seeds in Peggy Roses' pink palm. 'Poor little seeds, I'm sure they
would like to grow ā they make me think of the sweet, fresh country, of
the green fields and the running water and the blue, blue sky,' and
then a happy smile came to the face of Peggy Rose's beautiful mother
and she said, 'Oh, I know now, the very way ! We will make the little
garden bed right this very minute.'
"And then Peggy Rose laughed with joy and the dimples came and
went in her cheeks, while her beautiful mother went to the closet and
took out a clear glass tumbler, and filled it nearly full of water, and
then she cut a circle of pure white cotton, just the size of the glass,
and she let Peggy Rose fix the cotton on the water with her own soft
hands, and then she said gayly: 'Your little garden bed is ready, Peggy
Rose; come and plant your seeds.'
"Then Peggy Rose laughed and laughed, and she dropped the
grain of corn on the little white garden bed, and then she dropped the
bean seed and then she dropped the squash seed, and then her garden
bed was planted; so they placed the tumbler in their one little window
and laughed and laughed again. The moonbeam fairies found it there
LITTLE FOLKS' LAND 217
that vety night, and the starlight fairies, too, and they said, 'Such a
funny, funny garden bed has little Peggy Rose.'
"And the sunbeam fairies found it, too ā the very next morning ā
and they said, 'Oh, Peggy Rose, Peggy Rose, such a funny, funny gar-
den bed ! We'll waken those seeds for you, little Peggy Rose, and how
you will smile to see them grow!' So, for two days they shone their
very brightest on Peggy Rose's garden bed, and warmed the little plant
babies so they just had to wake up. The little bean was the fattest seed
of all ; his mother had packed his little jacket right full of something
good to eat, and when he sucked the water through his soft cotton
bed, he grew fatter and fatter, and one, day, why, he popped right out
of his jacket, and reached one little foot downward and one little hand
upward, and he held two tiny little leaves for Peggy Rose. And Peggy
Rose smiled and said, 'Oh, you little bean baby, you're getting your
feet right wet!'
"And then the little corn baby heard her talking, and he popped
right out of his jacket ā and the little squash baby, too ā and Peggy
Rose said, 'Oh, 3'ou little corn baby and you little squash baby, you are
getting 3'our feet wet, too!'
"And then she laughed and laughed, just as the sunbeam fairies
said she would, and that night, when her beautiful mother came home
from her work at the factor}-, why, she laughed, too, at the little bean
baby and the little squash baby and the little corn baby, getting their
feet so wet ā and at Peggy Rose, because she was so happy and proud of
her little garden bed."
Why don't you make a garden bed, like Peggy Rose's?
Program for Eighteenth Week ā Vegetable and Flower Study
The Children's Garden
Monday
Circle talk, songs and games: Which would you rather have, a vegeta-
ble garden or a flower garden? Why? Which do you suppose the
"Princess" would prefer? Why? What helpers will the Princess
need to waken her? What helpers will the vegetables and flowers
need?
Song and game : "Gardening." Stress preparation of ground.
Gift: Reproduce the lesson at the sand table, as given in the story for
the day.
218 LITTLE FOLKS' LAND
Occupation: Water-color, broad effect. One oblong bed. Other
shapes, according to each child's idea of beauty.
How Prince Charming Helped
Tuesday
Circle talk, songs and games: Did you ever watch the gardener getting
the ground ready to plant his seeds? What did he do? Why?
Did you ever try to dig up the hard ground j^ourself? James has
such a large garden at his home, it would take a long, long time
to spade it all ā what could help him to work more quickly? Yes,
the horse and plow. How many of you have seen a plow? How
does the horse pull it, and how does the man hold it? Can you
show us? Can you plough very straight rows?
Play: Ploughing field.
Gift Period: Make garden beds out of doors. (Let each child do
some of the work.)
Occupation: Miniature rake to carry home ā the child's own idea.
The Vegetable Beds
Wednesday
Circle talk J songs and ga?nes: What vegetables do you like best? Does
it grow under ground or up in the sunshine? What vegetables
grow in pods? What vegetables give us leaves to eat? What
holds the plant in the ground? Which will be the best vegetables
for us to plant in our gardens?
Play: Plant garden. Children representing seeds ā garden. (Em-
phasis placed upon choice of seeds.)
Gift Period: Sort vegetable seed.
Song: "In my little Garden-bed."
Occupation Period: Plant seed.
The Flower Beds
Thursday
Circle talk, songs and games: Do you think all kinds of plants like to
grow in the same garden? Shall we plant our morning-glory seeds
out in our garden beds? Where then? Why? Can you name
LITTLE FOLKS' LAND 219
some red flowers? Orange? Yellow? Green? Blue? Violet?
(Guessing game.)
Songs: "Little Brown Brother." "In the Heart of a Seed."
Game: Planting flower garden. Emphasize arrangement of flowers
according to color.
Gift period: Plant flower seeds in the yard.
Occupation: Construct frame for a vine.
Peggy Rose's Garden
Friday
Circle talks, songs and games: Relate the storj'.
Experiments: Plant seeds in glass, also in egg shells (soil). Watch
for root formation and "seed leaves."
Songs and games: Selected by children.
Gift: Building. Peggy Rose's house, long stairway, window. (Use
a cylinder for the glass where the flower garden grew.)
Occupation: Folding, "Peggy Rose's Work Box."
220. LITTLE FOLKS' LAND
Nineteenth Week ā Flower Life
Jack's Beanstalkt
Monday
JOE-BOY went to sleep thinking about Peggy Rose's garden bed.
He even dreamed about Peggy Rose ā dreamed she had taken
him by the hand and led him up, up, up the long flights of steps
to the little square room at the top of the high building and