The Girl and the Kingdom. Wiggin Kate Douglas Smith
dishonest, unfaithful * * * or that timid, frail, little creature struggling to support a paralytic husband." I never had to give myself logical reasons for being where I was, nor wonder what I should say; my one idea was to keep the situation simple and free from embarrassment to any one; to be as completely a part of it as if I had been born there; to be helpful without being intrusive; to show no surprise whatever happened; above all to be cheerful, strong and bracing, not weakly sentimental.
As the day of opening approached an unexpected and valuable aide-de-camp appeared on the scene. An American girl of twelve or thirteen slipped in the front door one day when I was practicing children's songs, whereupon the following colloquy ensued.
"What's this place goin' to be?"
"A kindergarten."
"What's that?"
Explanation suited to the questioner, followed.
"Can I come in afternoons, on my way home from school and see what you do?"
"Certainly."
"Can I stay now and help round?"
"Yes indeed, I should be delighted."
"What's the bird for?"
"What are all birds for?" I answered, just to puzzle her.
"I dunno. What's the plants and flowers for?"
"What are all flowers for?" I demanded again.
"But I thought 'twas a school."
"It is, but it's a new kind."
"Where's the books?"
"The children are going to be under six; we shan't have reading and writing."
We sat down to work together, marking out and cutting brown paper envelopes for the children's sewing or weaving, binding colored prints with gold paper and putting them on the wall with thumb tacks, and arranging all the kindergarten materials tidily on the shelves of the closets. Next day was a holiday and she begged to come again. I consented and told her that she might bring a friend if she liked and we would lunch together.
"I guess not," she said, with just a hint of jealousy in her tone. "You and I get on so well that mebbe we'd be bothered with another girl messin' around, and she'd be one more to wash up for after lunch."
From that moment, the Corporal, as I called her, was a stanch ally and there was seldom a day in the coming years when she did not faithfully perform all sorts of unofficial duties, attaching herself passionately to my service with the devotion of a mother or an elder sister. She proved at the beginning a kind of travelling agent for the school haranguing mothers on the street corners and addressing the groups of curious children who gathered at the foot of the school steps.
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