A LITTLE "HOODLUM'S" VIRTUE KINDLES AT THE TOUCH OF JOY.
"If you make children happy now, you will make them happy twenty
years hence by the memory of it."
The next morning when I reached the little tin shop on the corner,--a
blessed trysting-place, forever sacred, where the children waited for me
in sunshine, rain, wind, and storm, unless forbidden,--there on the step
sat faithful Patsy, with a clean and shining morning face, all glowing
with anticipation. How well I remember my poor lad's first day! Where
should I seat him? There was an empty space beside little Mike Higgins,
but Mike's character, obtained from a fond and candid parent, had been
to the effect "that he was in heaven any time if he could jest lay a boy
out flat"! And there was a place by Moses, but he was very much of a fop
just then, owing to a new "second-hand" coat, and might make scathing
allusions to Patsy's abbreviated swallow-tail.
But a pull at my skirt and a whisper from the boy decided me.
"Please can't I set aside o' you, Miss Kate?"
"But, Patsy, the fun of it is I never do sit."
"Why, I thought teachers never done nothin' but set!"
"You don't know much about little boys and girls, that's sure! Well,
suppose you put your chair in front and close to me. Here is Maggie
Bruce on one side. She is a real little Kindergarten mother, and will
show you just how to do everything. Won't you, Maggie?"
We had our morning hymn and our familiar talk, in which we always
"outlined the policy" of the new day; for the children were apt to be
angelic and receptive at nine o'clock in the morning, the unwillingness
of the spirit and weakness of the flesh seldom overtaking them till an
hour or so later. It chanced to be a beautiful day, for Helen and I were
both happy and well, our volunteer helpers were daily growing more
zealous and efficient, and there was no tragedy in the immediate
foreground.
In one of the morning songs, when Paulina went into the circle and threw
good-morning kisses to the rest, she wafted a dozen of them to the
ceiling, a proceeding I could not understand.
"Why did you throw so many of your kisses up in the air, dear?" I asked,
as she ran back to my side.
"Them was good-mornings to Johnny Cass, so 't he wouldn't feel
lonesome," she explained; and the tender bit of remembrance was followed
out by the children for days afterward. Was it not enough to put us in a
gentle humor?
Patsy was not equal to the marching when, later on, the Lilliputian army
formed itself in line and kept step to the music of a lively tune, and
he was far too shy on the first day to join in the play, though he
watched the game of the Butterfly with intense interest from his nook by
the piano.
After the tiny worm had wriggled itself realistically into a cocoon it
went to sleep; and after a moment of dramatic silence, the little one
chosen for the butterfly would separate herself from the still cocoon
and fly about the circle, sipping mimic honey from the child-flowers.
To see Carlotty Griggs "being a butterfly," with utter intensity of joy
and singleness of purpose, was a sight to be remembered. For Carlotty
was a pickaninny four years old, and blacker than the Ace of Spades! Her
purple calico dress, pink apron, and twenty little woolly braids tied
with bits of yellow ribbon made her the most tropical of butterflies;
and the children, having a strong sense of color and hardly any sense of
humor, were always entirely carried away by her antics.
[Illustration: CARLOTTY GRIGGS "BEING A BUTTERFLY."]
Carlotty had huge feet,--indeed, Carlotty "toed in," for that matter;
but her face shone with delight; her eyes glistened, and so did her
teeth; and when she waved her ebony hands and flitted among the
children, she did it as airily as any real butterfly that ever danced
over a field of clover blossoms.
And if Patsy's joy was great in the play, it was greater still in the
work that came afterward. When Helen gave him a scarlet and gold mat to
weave, his fingers trembled with eagerness; and the expression of his
face caused that impulsive young person to fly to my side and whisper,
"Oh, why should one ever 'want to be an angel' when one can be a
Kindergartner!"
* * * * *
From this time on, Patsy was the first to come in the morning and the
last to leave at night. He took the whole institution under his
guardianship, and had a watchful eye for everybody and everything
belonging to it.
He soon learned the family history of every child in the school, and
those family histories, I assure you, were of an exciting nature; but so
great were Patsy's prudence and his idea of the proprieties that he
never divulged his knowledge till we were alone. Then his tongue would
be loosed, and he would break into his half-childlike, half-ancient and
reflective conversation.
He had a stormy temper, which, however, he was fast learning to control,
and he was not always kind and gentle with his little playfellows; for
he had been raised in a hard school, and the giving and taking of blows
was a natural matter, to him the only feasible manner of settling a
misunderstanding.
His conduct to me, however, was touching in its devotion and perfect
obedience; and from the first hour he was my poor little knight _sans
peur et sans reproche_.
Meanwhile, though not perfect, he was greatly changed for the better. We
had given him a neat little coat and trousers, his hair was short and
smooth, and his great dark eyes shone with unutterable content. He was
never joyous; born under a cloud, he had lived in its shadow, and sorrow
too early borne had left its indelible impress, to be removed only by
that "undisturbed vision of the Father's face, which is joy
unutterable;" but for the first time in his life he was at peace.
The Duchess of Anna Street had moved into a house a trifle better suited
to her exalted station in life; one where the view was better, and the
society worthy of a fish-peddler's family. Accordingly we transferred
the Kennetts into Number 32, an honor which they took calmly at first,
on account of the odor of fish that pervaded the apartments. The three
and four year old Kennetts were now members of our flock, the dull baby
was cared for daily by the Infant Shelter, and Mrs. Kennett went out
washing; while her spouse upheld the cause of labor by attending
sand-lot meetings in the afternoon and marching in the evening.
So, in the rainy winter afternoons, when the other children had gone,
Patsy and I stayed together and arranged the next day's occupations.
Slang was being gradually eliminated from his conversation; but it is no
small task to correct nine years of bad grammar, and I never succeeded
in doing it. Alas! the time was all too short.
It was Patsy who sorted the wools and threaded the needles, and set
right the sewing-cards of the babies; and only the initiated can
comprehend the labyrinthine maze into which an energetic three-year-old
can transform a bit of sewing. It was he who fished the needles from the
cracks in the floor, rubbed the blackboards, and scrubbed the slates,
talking busily the while.
"Jiminy! (I take that back.) Miss Kate, we can't let Jimmy Buck have no
more needles; he sows 'em thick as seed round his chair. Now, now jis'
look yere! Ef that Battles chap hain't scratched the hull top of this
table with a buzzer! I'd lam him good ef I was you, I would."
"Do you think our Kindergarten would be the pleasant place it is if I
whipped little boys every day?"
"No-o-o! But there is times"--
"Yes, I know, Patsy, but I have never found them."
"Jim's stayin' out nights, this week," said he one day, "'nd I hez to
stay along o' Mis' Kennett till nine o'clock."
"Why, I thought Jim always stayed at home in the evening."
"Yes, he allers used ter; but he's busy now lookin' up a girl, don't yer
know."
"Looking up a girl! What do you mean, Patsy?"
Patsy scratched his head with the "ten-toothed comb of Nature,"--a habit
which prevailed with terrible and suggestive frequency when I first came
"into my kingdom,"--and answered:--
"Lookin' up a girl! Why, I s'posed yer knew that. I dunno 'zackly. Jim
says all the fellers does. He says he hates to git the feed an' wash the
dishes orfly, 'nd girls likes ter do it best of anything."
"Oh!" cried I, light bursting in upon my darkened intellect when
dish-washing was mentioned; "he wants to get married!"
"Well, he has ter look up a girl first, don't yer s'pose?"
"Yes, of course; but I don't see how Jim can get money enough to take
care of a wife. He only has thirty dollars a month."
"Well, he's goin' ter get a girl what'll 'go halveys,' don't yer know,
and pay for her keep. He'd ruther have a 'millingnary' girl--they're the
nicest; but if he can't, he's goin' to try for one out of the box
factory."
"Oh, Patsy! I wish"--
"Why, didn't I ought ter say that?"
"I wish you had a mother, dear."
"If I had, I'd know more 'n I do now," and a great sigh heaved itself
upward from beneath the blue jacket.
"No, you wouldn't know so much, Patsy, or at least you would get the
right end first. Never mind, dear boy, you can't understand."
"Jim says Mis' Kennett 'nd I needn't set such store by you, 'cause the
fust chance you gits you'll git married." (I always did have an elective
antipathy for Jim.) "Shall yer, Miss Kate?"
"Why, dear, I think we are very happy as we are, don't you?"
"Yes, ef I could only stay f'rever, 'nd not go ter the reel school. Jim
says I ought ter be gittin' book learnin' pretty soon."
"Did you tell him that Miss Helen was teaching you to read and write a
little while every afternoon?"
"Yes, I told him. He liked it fust rate. Mis' Kennett said she'd let her
childern stay f'rever with yer, ef they never larned a thing, 'nd so
would I, dear, dear Miss Kate! Oh, I bet God would like to see you in
that pretty blue dress!" and he hung over me with a speechless caress;
his first, and last indeed, for he was shy and reticent in emotion, and
never once showed his affection in the presence of the other children.
[Illustration: PAULINA'S "GOOD-MORNINGS TO JOHNNY CASS."]