The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1899-08-05

| ~ q us vi lIt II rec Il Close sec
phu' Well-knoWn hymns alternateC
win songs about Little Kittie, or CAV,
place to some of Stevensons child DO
ems repeated with an enthusiasm which
lea one to envy the Master this phase OF
MS popularity. Scraps of conversation
flew about us.
Is that green? Where's thu
seats? was the scornful comment al
East Haven
AT Cedar Hill, vestibuled express
swept above us. and the excitement was
intense.
"O-o-oh! De cars! See de cars! I.
dat de way people goes travelin?"
Patches of wild carrot, rows OF
sunfloWers We're hailed with apprecia.
tlon; the day was just right, and-ther
the refrain broke out again:
"Fla-a-ag of the Free,
Fairest to see'
Hereafter our Lohengrin will be asso-
clated with eighty eager, happy little
voices chanting in shrill accord and with
an enthusiasm that atoned for occasion
al false notes. The most blase citizen of
| New Haven could not have taken that
| ride to Cosey Beach without feeling his
| pulses quicken and his throat grow ex-
ceedingly lumpy.
Never did chickens scatter from the
| door OF poultry yard faster than the
children left the car at the beach, They
raced, they fairly galloped across the
lawn and they swept down the strip of
sahd opposite the Momauguin like a
charge of Rough Riders. Shoes and
stockings We're off in trice, few best
gowns followed their example, and the
children We're in the cool, salt water,
while their temporary guardians sour
rled away to the cottages to beg pins to-
fasten up the skirts that would escape
from the eager little fingers. Then
such glorious half hour of padding,
Happy the boy who picked up stone
covered with starfsh! Happy the girl
who found a crab or a handful of pale
green seaWeed!
AN will we get lots to eat?" one
hungry child demanded.
Not lots, perhaps; but the children
were marshalled back to the tent across
the road for a simple feast; the banan-
as and biscuits so generously contribu-
ted by local dealers, the vast sack of
peanuts, whose measure was SO good
that share remained to treat 1.-The lit
tie pigs that stayed at home"-in the
playground.
I've ated a whole nelephant," one
urchin proclaimed.
Il ct tiger, an pig, an a horse"
said his neighbor vaingloriously.
And then the half-hour of running
about the fields, picking flower and
T., III,
to snatch at the yellow snapdragon.
sticking the hat-bands full of green
things and racing up to teacher to
show how fine they looked! 1t lasted
too short time, perhaps, yet it was
long enough, and eighty healthy, tired
children piled on the car again at five
o'clock, for the ride back to the city,
The songs all had to be repeated;
there were divers cows to be mooed at;
there were hens galore at which it was
needful to cackle; and there was the
oft-repeated cry, invented for the oc-
casion:
Who are we?
We are they
We are the children
OF the w. S. A.''
The delight was just as intense as at
the start but there were more frequent
lapses into thoughtful silence, as we
rode along through The pleasant fields.
Then, as we neared the city again, the
enthusiasm burst out once more and
swelled and rose to a climax until we
went whirling down State street and
around under the decorous elms to the
green, leaving behind us a train of
laughter and shouting and song.
The picnic was ended, and it had been
a success. We all acknowledged it from
the tiniest child up to the kindly starter,
who had us in his care.
There are always few practical souls
who will ask:
whats the good of all this?"
Little good, perhaps, if we count only
things But is it nothing to
give one healthy, happy afternoon to
children of the tenements? Is it moth
ing to see them more clean in body and
mind, even than when the Vacation
School was opened? Is it nothing to
have quiet little Eva say to us: eve
are so happy in the school, and the la
dies are so good to us 1t is the incest
we ever had and we like it SOP
is III nOlflng 10 nave lne Cnlluren come |
back to school in the fall free from the
Generalization of ten idle |
weeks?
At the corner of the green the children
scattered to their homes. We shook |
ourselves, adjusted our hairpins and |
our collars and boarded our own SUI
burban car, vainly hoping we looked as
as our fellow suburbanites. |
Down in Temple street the car was |
blocked for a moment and we became |
aware of half-dozen excited little fig |
ures on the pavement
'"There she is! oh, dere she is! |
Thank you for the picnic!"
The car moved on but behind us we |
heard a cry, faint echo of the former |
chorus: |
"Who are we?
We are they.
We are the children