The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1904-01-10

bA1 The bright-haired girl who is in
fETph charge of one of the city's free
ss--S-s--~ kindergartens looked around at
the numerous little red chairs in the circle
placed in the center of the big, bright room.
You see, it's the first day after the Christ
may vacation and so many of the children
forget what day was set for them to return.
You miss so much by not coming when the
classes are fuller"
Perhaps it is pity to miss so many of the
quaint tots that go to make up the personnel
OF the free kindergarten. But in spite of the
twenty or thirty lacking there is a whole
morning full of interest in the workings of
the kindergarten.
For to begin at the beginning there is
John-and having John one feels the lack of
nothing. For John is absorbing. fascnat-
ing. wholly engrossing. John is a tiny Hun
garian lad who has been in the kindergarten
only a few weeks. When he came he had
no more knowledge of English than he had
of Greek. Now he has a sufficient vocabu-
larry for a speech and much more ex-
tensive one for understanding. He is an abb
sorbing study to the kindergarten teachers.
and the visitors who happen in are apt to
forget everybody but John.
In appearance John is picturesque almost
to the point of unbeiief. His soft hair is
black as midnght-or, still blacker, those
darkest hours just before the dawn: his
eyes are big and black and melting. and his
lashes are more midnight And his clothes.
over shirt-not shirtwaist-of black
and white, the latter nearly the same tone
as the black, he wears a pair of monde
ot ha
extreme almost to the tops of the shoes.
One sock is gay striped affair of red and
blue and the other is a cotton rag. His
trousers are fastened by a miniature pair
of suspenders, which it is his delight to
pull. Over all he wears heavy blue blouse
quantity foreign. But his shoes are the
piece de resistance of his toilet. They are
good shoes and there is a great deal of
them. They were built for a boy of twelve
or fourteen and they curl up their stout
leather toes inches beyond Johns baby
feet When John skips or dances the shoes
an embarrassment of riches. but never
theless there is no more assiduous skipper
or dancer in the whole kindergarten than
John. He enters with spirit into all the
games and when the song is about skippy
land then John is the heartest of shippers;
when it is skating land there is no better
skater than John of the long shoes
On this particular day, the day after the
Christmas vacation, there is no John when
the kindergarten opens. 1t is late when
John finally appears on the scene and then
he is brought up by the kindly woman.
is the good angel of the kindergarten, who
looks after the waits and gathers in the
strays
Its himself that fell on the corner OF
the hot stove and burned his blessed eye, "
explains the good woman as she enters
with John, treading on his own toes,
clasped by the hand. The black head is
uncovered and the light beating full on the
little unbandaged face shows that one eye
is swollen shut, the lid red and angry, and
that there is a dreadful cut from the hot
stove across the little black eyebrow. 1t is
a pitiful tale the woman tells; how this
baby has fallen on the stove and nothing
has been done to relieve the dreadful pain
which he must feel. In the midst of the
Hungarian colony, of which John is the
youngest member, there is but one man
who can speak or understand English, and
as he is away 1t is left for wee John him.
self to show her how it happened. Nobody
has done anything for the angry burn sc
she rescues him and brings him to the
kindergarten where, after the classes are
over, his eye will be dressed and looked
after
But all this while never a whimper fol
sympathy from John. Now and then, un-
consciously, the little hand goes up to the
scarlet eyelid. but the next minute Johr
has forgotten the pain and is grooming over
his work or dancing about the circle, the
gayest of kindergarten children. The spoiled
darling of some fond parents might think