that you want to tell us about?" asked the mother.

"Just as I was getting ready to fly home," said the youngest pigeon then, "I stopped near a house not far from here, and on the porch I saw a father, a mother, a baby and two other children. The father had the baby on his lap playing pat-a-cake with him;

the mother was reading a story to her little boy who stood by her knee; and the little girl was sitting near making a dress for her dolly. That was the most beautiful thing I saw," said the youngest pigeon. And the whole family of pigeons agreed that this was indeed the loveliest sight of all.

opening of our schools, and we are busily planning what this new year shall embrace. We are all anxious to do more and better work than ever before.

The class is large, the children rep resenting many nationalities and as many, if not more, types of homes. How shall each child be reached? What is the living interest of the moment !

Perhaps half the children have been away during the summer and Love for the first time made acquaintgree will, the given fields. They are

stat of a cerest in courtry life. will sell of cows and Son of & des it von bat iyi esbom. 'gre soon ory brick nove

How are the different home environments that have nurtured these children to be harmonized? Here is an opportunity that only just such a class presents. We are often per

plexed over this problem. Let us be as thoroughly alive to all the advantages as we are to the disadvantages.

Here, in our small circle, we have material both for giving and receiving, for understanding and sympathiring with all phases of our-complex social life. We may lay, we should lay, the foundation for the brotherhood of man.

1: is of vital importance that each child shield contribute his mite. Polary has had no summer outing, dille Cher children, are eager to tell - and seashore. Give them verity, but see that Johnny is na noclected. Ee feels that he hes pong NM-Wide and ake niknown to

ner understands and lifts Johnny out of the slough of despond. Others have told of the means of conveyance by which they reached their destinations, the wonderful steam cars or still more fascinating steamboat, but Johnny's eyes have every day seen rapidly moving cars quite as enticing to small boys. Has Johnny seen the trolley cars this summer? What are they for? How do they run? Any ordinary Johnny cannot resist this pressure to contribute his experience. He now has something to tell and the others listen with due interest.

So much depends upon the way we first meet the children. Shy Harriet has been quietly absorbing the doings of the others, but for her own sake and the welfare of all she must be helped toward being an active contributor. Shall we ask if father on a Saturday holiday has taken her to the park? Will she tell us of her happy times? A similar stimulus had successfully carried demure Johanna into the stream of conversation, but Harriet, dear little closed blossom, is still too much overcome, even on this, the last day of our weekly gatherings, to more than glance up through drooping eyelids when any friendly overtures made.

are

The sensitive plant is bruised with careless handling, and even closes its delicate leaflets under the tenderest

plant must not be bruised in our handling. What fostering care will bring the most perfect blossoming? Is it time for her to add by personal effort to the sunshine of the happy group? The friend of the children feels that the decisive moment has come. Harriet must in some way actively express herself during the talk. The kindergartner rises, goes to the closet that has only commenced to reveal its treasures, takes out the kindergarten doll, seats herself beside Harriet with the doll still in her arms, sings a song that Marie has told us her mother sings to baby, then asks Harriet if she would like to hold the baby while we all sing again? A blissful smile and a quiet, a very quiet, "yes" is the response, but the citadel is won; time, tact, and patience will enable the little maiden to give of her best and to grow correspondingly.

This shy child has occupied much space in this short article because, in large groups of children, there is the danger that the sensitive, quiet child will be either overlooked or too quickly urged to a full share in the doing. So many energetic, hardy little souls are calling for attention that the sensitive plant fails to receive the full warmth of personal thought and tendance that must absolutely be her share if she is to reach a perfect blossoming.

'HIS forty-third annual conven

THIS

tion of the N. E. A. was a red letter event in the history of the organization. One could scarcely conceive of a setting more fitting for a meeting of this character than the great World's Fair, with its many avenues for acquiring knowledge. Never before had an annual meeting of this association been held at a great fair like this. Former gatherings have been held in large cities, to be sure, where excursions were planned and much entertainment given to enhance the pleasure of the visitors, and the increase of people in those cities has been very marked during the convention. At St. Louis,

however, the whole fair grounds of

1,240 acres were thrown open to the teachers, and so great was the area. that, while at all the meetings a large number were in attendance (the active membership never having been better represented), there was appreciable crowd on the grounds. Indeed the smaller organization was hidden by the vastness of the greater; but the greater was so in character with the smaller that the whole seemed almost one vast educational association, only instead of national, it had become international.

On account of the surroundings and unusual features, the convention commanded more than the usual in