Omaha daily bee., 1902-07-13


allies. with paint and feathers stuck in
the hair, but tince both the British and
Americans houted them, they ran on with
their heads very high and spent the whole
afternoon working on the book Of leaves.
Books OF Leaves
The book OF leaves was going home TO
the %littlest girls papa, who knew every
thing about all the things that grew. All
the children could help with II. under GER
tain restrictions. That is to say, n they
wers sure they wanted to badly enough to
do careful work and keep their hands very
clean. The book was stoutly bound with
roughish blank pages. grayish white and Of
fair size. Leaf prints went upon one side
OF each page. To make them, fresh leaves
well wilted were pressed against paper
which had been evenly blaekened by hold
ing It over the flame Of a lamp. BY rubbing
the leaf delicately II left its image in white
lines upon the black, but that did not count.
From the black paper It was lifted Into it's
place in the book, blackened side down. COW
cred with soft paper, and rubbed all over
with a bit OF cotton, tied in thin silk. It
came away leaving It's picture upon the
book rage. There were few or many on a
page. according to size. The %littlest girls
papa was to name and classify the pictures
"a very good puzzle for him-and then the
book was to go into the library Of a private
school.
The work proved so fascinating several
Of the youngsters made leaf books OF their
own. Another among the older ones was
moved to skeletonlze leaves and I'LL a bigger
book with them. Printing leaves on sensi-
tive paper was also tried, but the little
people did not care for It, as they aid not
know how to fix the pictures after they we're
Tnadn nnN fkar - ~ -
of cheap drawing pads and plentiful celored
crayons.
Instruction from Pictures.
Sometimes the titular mother told or read
them something, making It as short ana
p ain as possible, and letting each heareP
picture his idea Of what he had heard. Some
truly astonishing creatures resulted, but the
story teller found the pictures wonderfully
instructive. They were indeed a fairly
accurate index Of the great temperamental
differences in attention and comprehension,
Some OF the children to whom spoken words
seemed to convey the least were able, after
seeing pictures In a book, to come much
nearer reproducing them than others who,
working by hearsay, had done much
better.
Indeed. 1t is not too much to say that IL
for ten months in the year parents edu-
cate their children, throughout the other
two normal children do a deal toward edu-
eating their parents. This, of course,
when they have real parents so fully grown
up they are glad to be In part children
again. One such mother, who found herself
unable to go out through a whole summer
kept her five children wholesomely happy
and content by playing stories with them.
She got the best and brightest books-none
OF chem Juvenile-and read them to her
flock, q chapter each morning. After the
reading the youngsters were permitted to
choose who In the story they would be.
First choice was the prize Of all-around
behavior and no choice at all the
punishment. whatever was
chosen the chooser had to live I'D to as
nearly as possible until next morning. One
OF those children feels to this day a griev-
ance against fate. In that she was never
lucky enough to be the fat boy in Pick
wick.
A whole season OF story playing Is, of
impraticable outside ones own
Bnt for a day or a special occasion
IL might serve very we'll. Children love
nothing better than acting-witness their
close imitation of those round about them.
In the family. as in the state, the least
are commonly the best governed
and those so indirectly controlled they
seem self-governed, the happiest and most
OF all.