C

Room

for the SchoolVI

KATHERINE BEEBE

The Shoemaker. (Page 14. Part II)

WONTINUING the trade life which the children love so well to reproduce, let us now open a shoe-shop. A bench made of chairs, or anything that is at hand, is placed in the front part of the room ready for customers. A group consisting of a mother and several children retire to the hall or dressing-room to await the dramatic moment of entrance.

The head shoemakers occupy the front seats and are the ones chosen to do the measuring and fitting for the buyers. The workers in the seats back of the front row are the shoemakers' helpers. Choosing an equal number of head shoemakers and customers will simplify matters.

Enter the buyers, who sing

"Good morning, dear cobblers, please make me a shoe, With a sole that is thick and with upper so new."

The shoemakers sing and act out the words of the second

verse.

"We'll stretch on our lasts this good heavy leather;

It will keep your feet warm in the cold wintry weather.
There's the awl to make holes, here's the thread to put in,
Here's the shoemakers' wax, so now let us begin."

The customers again sing to each other,

"Ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, do you hear the good news?
The cobblers are ready to make our new shoes."

As this chorus is sung the cobblers sew vigorously. As the next verse begins the head shoemakers leave their seats and try on the shoes, while the helpers in the seats sew and sing,

"With pegs made of wood I will fasten the heels;

Now the shoe is all done, please to tell how it feels, And here are the buttons, not one must we lose, But sew them all tight on the pretty new shoes." Again the family congratulate each other in the words of the chorus, the closing line changing to the words, "The good busy cobblers have finished the shoes."

A purse full of paper or pasteboard money from which the cobblers are paid is a dramatic finish to this game much appreciated by the children. I have made a few changes in the words of the song but only in order to substitute the plural for the singular number. It is to be hoped that the children will enjoy this game to the point of making the fitting process of the third verse fairly dramatic.

Drilling

As Washington's birthday draws near, and the story of Abraham Lincoln is told, a martial spirit is stirring throughout the school. Now is the time for the teacher to become a captain and drill her recruits. The following are some of the orders which she can give, having prompt and soldierly obedience to command for one of her objective points.

This visiting of other rooms in festal array on high days has been a great success with us. Both groups of children enjoy it and they look forward to it from year to year. On one occasion, after we had been grinding wheat, baking bread and visiting bakeries we had a Bakers' Parade, modeled on the pattern of the annual "Business Men's Picnic" of the town. We wore caps and aprons of newspaper, which we made ourselves. We carried oyster crackers in our pockets and threw them to the delighted spectators all along the line of march.

Again we were knights, and with golden shields, knightly banners and white helmets, we paraded through the rooms where our big brothers and sisters worked and where we expected to work some day.

It is little things of this sort which add to the feeling of unity, brotherhood and community interest in our school life, which after all is life itself.

The Other Way

ALICE ORMES

I

There were eight dirty faces in my room yes, eight. had counted them carefully, twice, hoping for an error. Shall I send them out to the sink, one at a time, and tell them to use soap and water, I asked myself. It was the second day of school and we were not yet very well acquainted. They are so young it surely won't hurt their pride; still, there must be a better, a more delicate way, I argued within myself.

The whole debate was the matter of an instant. Then I said aloud, "Have you ever heard the story of the little prince a true story? No? Then I will tell you. He was a little boy, just about as old as some of you, and because he was small he had a nurse, who helped him dress in the morning, and combed his hair and washed his face, until he should be old enough to do it himself. He and his father, the king, lived in a fine palace; for that is what they call the great house in which kings live. Just outside the gates soldiers always stood to guard the palace. Whenever the king or the little prince passed by the soldiers saluted— like this. As I said, the little prince used to have his face washed each morning, but he disliked it so much that sometimes he made a great fuss about it. One day he said to his father, 'What is the use of being a prince if I cannot do as I please, but must have my face washed, just like other boys?'"

"But needn't." you "said his father. "If you had really rather, you may let it remain dirty." Oh! what a blackfaced prince it was who played about the palace that day. When he passed, the soldiers gave no sign they knew him. Not one of them saluted. Then the prince was very angry. He rushed into his father, "Papa, I want you to send those soldiers away!" he cried. "They didn't salute me when I passed."

"Ah," said the king gravely, "I do not blame a clean soldier for not saluting a dirty prince."

"Children, what do you suppose the prince did after that?"

"Washed his face," was the instant response of a dozen eager voices.

"And I guess he felt pretty 'shamed, too," added one.

That afternoon I counted again. The eight had dwindled to one.

"I have a great many clean little princes, to-day," I said, as I looked into the small, wide-awake faces. The next morning, behold, the last dirty prince had vanished; and then I knew that the other way was best.