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STOR Y-TELLING IN THE KINDERGARTEN. 351 
contact with the family, seeks peace, pleasure, and happiness in the heart 
of the home, and here gathers new forces that he may fulfill the arduous 
labors and struggles of his professional life. Infinite is the power held in 
the hand of mother and child to provide him the joy and comfort of life, 
and send him out to carry into the great world of that precious store 
which has been garnered in the small family circle. 
The mother leads the children to appreciate the father’s faithful labor 
for them, and to sympathize, in their own way, with the larger scope of 
his life. She directs them to contribute to his comfort in the home cir- 
sle ; even the smallest child that can do no definite work with its hands 
may still do great things for father. It may exert its full strength to 
‘ashion a basket which mother fills with fresh flowers for his delight. No 
man can do more than pour his whole strength into a loving deed. There- 
fore this child has accomplished the greatest. Froebel made his starting- 
point this exquisite sentiment : that childish doing for others must first 
and foremost be connected with the child’s inner and natural impetus or 
‘nclination, so that in time the affection which prompts his deeds for 
others may become habit. 
10 
STORY-TELLING IN THE KINDERGARTEN. 
BY MARY T. HOTCHKISS, OF MILWAUKEE, WIS. 
Thesis : What should be the character of the stories told in the kindergarten, and to 
vhat extent should stories be told ? 
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NATURE is the universal teacher of mankind. Her instruction has been 
at all ages, in every clime, at every period of the world’s history. Her 
topic is the universe—the subject-matter, therefore, inexhaustible. Her 
books are found everywhere, her pages are always open, her instruction 
aver close at hand. Much of her teaching is given silently, though she 
speaks in the songs of birds, the sound of waters, and the roll of thun- 
der. As nearly every educational theory has its symbolic representation 
in nature, this one of story-telling is especially seen. In every aspect of 
nature, whoever is in harmony with her and ‘“ holds communion with her 
risible forms,” to him ‘she speaks a various language.” The dainty 
lower growing by the wayside tells its story of beauty and love, and is 
fragrant with the secret of its growth and brightness. The trees swaying 
in the breeze tell their story with a hundred tongues; a tale of joy in liv- 
ing, a tale of sunshine and shadow, like our lives. The river smiling in 
the sunlight tells to listening ears, as it passes singing on its way, a tale of 
sun-kissed waves, of turbulence and peace, of ebb and flow. The stars, 
she < forget-me-nots of the angels,” shine forth their story of wonder and 
mystery, of light and beauty, of divine power and love. The sunbeams