New Britain herald., 1915-02-02
Doris E.. IIleischman in New York
 Tribune.)

(DOrlS k. ElhlSchman in New Ork Tribune.)
 Please, dear Miss Rhena, don't make me go home.' Miss Rhena looked down at the little chap who was squirning' his eager fist into hers and wondered. She wondered at the sadness of a home which would cause a six-year- invalid to prefer to it d public hospital ward.
 But I wondered by what art Miss Phena Anita Pugsley made hom esiclI timid and pain-raCked child forget everything but the fun he was going to miss if he had to go home for the holiday.
 A glance around the room long se- we're, filled with beds, was a partial eN- planation of the phenomenon. For on the walls were long freiZes of red cloth on which were pasted paper animals, flowers and other cheery and interest ing objects. And on the low, white covered table, with eight tiny chairs around, were books pasted with bright ly colored flowers that the children had made. And most striking of all was the manner in which the children who were able to be up gathered about Miss Rhena and clamOred for a game.
 
 down her load of ,variously hued and shaped cardboards, and they all played "Mulberry Bush." Round and round they hopped, laughing in squeaky lit tie voices. And most joyous was the stiff youngster who was probably never to leave the ward. The tots in the beds sang along in monotonous voices, or lay back watching happily.
 A Bit of Sunshine.
 She is not a visiting angel-Miss Rhena-but she is an institution, or hopes to become one quite as much as the nurses and doctors of the ward, who call her their "bit of sunshne,' wish for it. And the reason for it is the inquisitive and sympathetic eye of Miss Anniebelle Curtis chairman of the New York board of Kindergart- ners. She visited the childrens wards again and again. Zach time she was filled with a greater regret and with a stronger resolve to remedy matters as he had found them. And the result is the installation of Miss Pugsley in the children's wards at bellevue hos Eital.
 Miss Pugsley conducts in these wards a kindergarten, both for the
 
 who are up and convalescing. She has been a public school kindergart- ner, and Miss Curtis had infinite faith in her capacity to fill an entirely new position and blaze the way in a new occupation. There have been kinder gartens for healthy children and for cripples and defectives But what has happened to sick children in hos pitals?
 They have never rehelled-that is. to the outside world-so the world just thought their lot was a natural one. They felt that the child was sick. And of course it hated the hos pital. Sick children are fretful, and hospitals are uncomfortable, and that was all there was to it. But Miss Curtis saw great deal more to it.
 She saw that the children were un- utterably lonely. They had no inner life to solace their ina ctivity And they were so homesick. Their parents came to see them perhaps. twice a week
 And after they went the wards were bedlam. The children threw themselves about and walled and yelled for their mothers. The nurses regretted, but what was there to do? The children made themselves fever ish and i'll after the brief moments of happiness, but nothing could be done about 1t. And after the excite ment had worn off they just sat around, or lay around and waited. too listless and miserable to move. They had nothing to do. They had nothing to thing about. They had mo- body to think with them and make them forget the bleak walls, and mo- body to pet them.
 The normal occupation for a sick child. and also for the grown up, it