In The Boyhood of Lincoln Part 34

"Hark!" he said. "Hear the birds sing in the trees! Nature is teaching us. When Nature is teaching I listen. Nature is a greater teacher than I, or any man."

The little school sat in silence and listened. They had never heard the birds sing in that way before. Presently there was a hush in the trees.

"Now I will begin," said he.

_PESTALOZZI'S STORIES._

"Did you ever see a mushroom? Yes, there are mushrooms under the cool trees. Once, in the days when the plants and flowers and trees all talked--they talk now, but we have ceased to hear them, a little mushroom bowed in the winds, and said to the gra.s.s:

"'See how I grow! I came up in a single night. I am smart.'

"'Yes,' said the gra.s.s, waving gently.

"'But you,' said the smart little mushroom, 'it takes you a whole year to grow.'

"The gra.s.s was sorry that it took so long for it to grow, and hung its head, and thought, and thought.

"'But,' said the gra.s.s, 'you spring up in the night, and in a day or two you are gone. It takes me a year to grow, but I outlive a hundred crops of mushrooms. I will have patience and be content. Worth is of slow growth.'

"In a week the boastful little mushroom was gone, but the gra.s.s bloomed and bore seed, and left a lovely memory behind it. Hark! hear the breeze in the trees! Nature is teaching now. Listen!

"Now I will tell you another little story, such as I used to hear Pestalozzi relate. I am going to tell this story to myself, but you may listen. I have told a story to you, but now I will talk to myself.

"There once was a king, who had been riding in the sun, and he saw afar a lime-tree, full of cool, green leaves. Oh, how refreshing it looked to him! So he rode up to the lime-tree, and rested in the shadow.

"The leaves all clung to the branches, and the winds whispered among them, but did not blow them away.

"Then the king loved the tree, and he said:

"'O tree, would that my people clung to me as thy leaves do to thy branches!'

"The tree was pleased, and spoke:

"'Would you learn from me wisdom to govern thy people?'

"'Yes, O lime-tree! Speak on.'

"'Would you know, then, what makes my leaves so cling to my branches?'

"'Yes, O Lime Tree! Speak on.'

"'I carry to them the sap that nourishes them. 'Tis he that gives himself to others that lives in others, and is safe and happy himself.

Do that, and thy kingdom shall be a lime-tree.'"

A child brought into the room a bunch of harebells and laid them upon the teacher's desk.

"Look!" said Jasper, "Nature is teaching. Let us be quiet a little and hear what she has to say. The harebells bring us good-will from the sun and skies. There is goodness everywhere, and for all. Let us be grateful.

"Now I will give you another little Pestalozzian story, told in my own way, and you may tell it to your fathers and mothers and neighbors when you go home.

"There was once a man who had two little ponies. They were pretty creatures, and just alike. He sold one of them to a hard-hearted man, who kicked him and beat him; and the pony said:

"'The man is my enemy. I will be his, and become a cunning and vicious horse.'

"So the pony became cunning and vicious, and threw his rider and crippled him, and grew spavined and old, and every one was glad when he was dead.

"The man sold the other pony to a n.o.ble-hearted man, who treated him kindly and well. Then the pony said:

"'I am proud of my master. I will become a good horse, and my master's will shall be my own.'

"Like the master became the horse. He became strong and beautiful. They chose him for the battle, and he went through the wars, and the master slept by his side. He bore his master at last in a triumphal procession, and all the people were sorry when he came to die. Our minds here are one of the little colts.

"So we will all work together. The lesson is ended. You have all the impressions that you can bear for one day. Now we will go out and play."

But the play-ground was made a field of teaching.

"There are plays that form right ideas," said Jasper, "and plays that lead to an evil character. I teach no plays that lead to cruelty or deception. I would no sooner withhold amus.e.m.e.nts from my little ones than water, but my amus.e.m.e.nts, like the water, must be healthy and good."

There was one odd play that greatly delighted all the children of the Prairie Island school. The idea of it was evolved in the form of a popular song many years afterward. In it the children are supposed to ask an old German musician how many instruments of music he could play, and he acts out in pantomime all of the instruments he could blow or handle. We think it was this merriment that became known in America as the song of Johnnie Schmoker in the minstrel days.

Not the children only, but the parents also all delighted to see Jasper pretend to play all the instruments of the German band. Often at sunset, when the settlers came in from the corn-fields and rested under the great trees, Jasper would delight the islanders, as they called themselves, with this odd play.

"The purpose of education," Jasper used to repeat over and over to his friends in this sunny island of the prairie sea, "is not to teach the young how to make money or get wealth by a cunning brain, but how to live for the soul. The soul's best interests are in life's highest interest, and there is no poverty in the world that is like spiritual poverty. In the periods of poetry a nation is great; and when poetry fails, the birds cease to sing and the flowers to bloom, and divinities go away, and the heart turns to stone."

There was one story that he often repeated to his little school. The pupils liked it because there was action in it, as in the play-story of the German musician. He called it "c.h.i.n.k, c.h.i.n.k, c.h.i.n.k"--though we believe a somewhat similar story is told in Germany under the name of "The Stone-cold Heart."

He would clasp his hands together and strike them upon his knee, making a sound like the jingling of silver coin. Any one can produce this curious sound by the same action.

"c.h.i.n.k, c.h.i.n.k, c.h.i.n.k," he would say. "Do you hear it? c.h.i.n.k, c.h.i.n.k, c.h.i.n.k. Listen, as I strike my hands on my knees. Money? Now I will open my hands. There is no money in them; it was fool's gold, all.

"There lived in a great German forest a poor woodman. He was a giant, but he had a great heart and a willing arm, and he worked contentedly for many years.

"One day he chanced to go with some foresters into the city. It was a festival day. He heard the jingle of money, just like that" (striking his clasped hands on his knee). "He saw what money would buy. He thought it would buy happiness. He did not know that it was fool's gold, all.

"He went back to his little hut in the forest feeling very unhappy. His wife kissed him on his return, and his children gathered around him to hear him tell the adventures of the day, but his downcast spirit made them all sad.

"'What has happened?' asked his wife. 'You always seemed happy until to-night.'

"'And I was always happy until to-day. But I have seen the world to-day, and now I want that which will buy everything.'

"'And what is that?' asked his wife.

"'Listen! It sounds like that,' and he struck his clasped hands on his knee--c.h.i.n.k, c.h.i.n.k, c.h.i.n.k. 'If I had that, I would bring to you and the little ones the fine things I saw in the city, and you would be happy.

You are contented now because you do not know.'

"'But I would rather that you would bring to me a happy face and loving heart,' said his wife. 'You know that the Book says that "a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth." Love makes happiness, and gold is in the heart.'