A half-dozen charming girls are fluttering about; charming, because, whether plain or beautiful, they all look happy, earnest, womanly, full to the brim of life.

  “A sweet, heart-lifting cheerfulness,
  Like spring-time of the year,
  Seems ever on their steps to wait.”

...  They are tying on white aprons and preparing the day’s occupations, for they are a detachment of students from a kindergarten training school, and are on duty for the day.

One of them seats herself at the piano and plays a stirring march.  The army enters, each tiny soldier with a “shining morning face.”  Unhappy homes are forgotten ... smiles everywhere ... everybody glad to see everybody else ... happy children, happy teachers ... sunshiny morning, sunshiny hearts ... delightful work in prospect, merry play to follow it....  “Oh, it’s a beautiful world, and I’m glad I’m in it;” so the bright faces seem to say.

It is a cosmopolitan regiment that marches into the free kindergartens of our large cities.  Curly yellow hair and rosy cheeks ... sleek blonde braids and calm blue eyes ... swarthy faces and blue-black curls ... woolly little pows and thick lips ... long arched noses and broad flat ones.  Here you see the fire and passion of the Southern races, and the self-poise, serenity and sturdiness of Northern nations.  Pat is here with a gleam of humor in his eye ...  Topsy, all smiles and teeth,...  Abraham, trading tops with Isaac, next in line,...  Gretchen and Hans, phlegmatic and dependable,...  Francois, never still for an instant,...  Christina, rosy, calm, and conscientious, and Duncan, as canny and prudent as any of his people.  Pietro is there, and Olaf, and little John Bull.

What an opportunity for amalgamation of races, and for laying the foundation of American citizenship! for the purely social atmosphere of the kindergarten makes it a life-school, where each tiny citizen has full liberty under the law of love, so long as he does not interfere with the liberty of his neighbor.  The phrase “Every man for himself” is never heard, but “We are members one of another” is the common principle of action.

The circles are formed.  Every pair of hands is folded, and bright eyes are tightly closed to keep out “the world, the flesh,” and the rest of it, while children and teachers sing one of the morning hymns:—­

  “Birds and bees and flowers,
    Every happy day,
  Wake to greet the sunshine,
    Thankful for its ray. 
  All the night they’re silent,
    Sleeping safe and warm;
  God, who knows and loves them,
    Will keep them from all harm.

  “So the little children,
    Sleeping all the night,
  Wake with each new morning,
    Fresh and sweet and bright. 
  Thanking God their Father
    For his loving care,
  With their songs and praises
    They make the day more fair.”