Penelopes Postscripts | Page 7

asked her if the townspeople knew about
Friedrich Froebel, but she looked blank.
"Froebel? Froebel?" she asked; "qui est-ce?"
"Mais, Madame," I said eloquently, "c'etait un grand homme! Un heros!
Le plus grand eleve de Pestalozzi! Aussi grand que Pestalozzi
soi-meme!"
("PLUS grand! Why don't you say plus grand?" murmured Salemina
loyally.)
"Je ne sais!" she returned, with an indifferent shrug of the shoulders.
"Je ne sais! Il y a des autres, je crois; mais moi, je connais Pestalozzi,
c'est assez!"
All the younger children had gone home, but she took us through the
empty schoolrooms, which were anything but attractive. We found an
unhappy small boy locked in one of them. I slipped behind the

concierge to chat with him, for he was so exactly like all other small
boys in disgrace that he made me homesick.
"Tu etais mechant, n'est ce-pas?" I whispered consolingly; "mais tu
seras sage demain, j'en suis sure!"
I thought this very pretty, but he wriggled from under my benevolent
hand, saying "Va!" (which I took to be, "Go 'long, you!") "je n'etais
mechant aujourd'hui et je ne serai pas sage demain!"
I asked the concierge if the general methods of Pestalozzi were still
used in the schools of Yverdon, "Mais certainement!" she replied as we
went into a room where twenty to thirty girls of ten years were studying.
There were three pleasant windows looking out into the street; the
ordinary platform and ordinary teacher's table, with the ordinary
teacher (in an extraordinary state of coma) behind it; and rather rude
desks and seats for the children, but not a single ornament, picture, map,
or case of objects and specimens around the room. The children were
nice, clean, pleasant, stolid little things with braided hair and pinafores.
The sole decoration of the apartment was a highly-coloured chart that
we had noticed on the walls of all the other schoolrooms. Feeling that
this must be a sacred relic, and that it probably illustrated some of the
Pestalozzian foundation principles, I walked up to it reverently,
"Qu'est-ce-que c'est cela, Madame?" I inquired, rather puzzled by its
appearance.
"C'est la methode de Pestalozzi," the teacher replied absently.
I wished that we kindergarten people could get Froebel's educational
idea in such a snug, portable shape, and drew nearer to gaze at it. I can
give you a very complete description of the pictures from memory, as I
copied the titles verbatim et literatim. The whole chart was a powerful
moral object-lesson on the dangers of incendiarism and the evils of
reckless disobedience. It was printed appropriately in the most lurid
colours, and divided into nine tableaux.
These were named as follows:-

I--LA VRAIE GAITE
Twelve or fifteen boys and girls are playing together so happily and
innocently that their good angels sing for joy.
II--UNE PROPOSITION FATALE!
Suddenly "LE PETIT Charles" says to his comrades, "Come! let us
build a fire!" LE PETIT Charles is a typical infant villain and is
surrounded at once by other incendiary spirits all in accord with his
insidious plans.
III--LA PROTESTATION
The Good Little Marie, a Sunday-school heroine of the true type,
approaches the group and, gazing heavenward, remarks that it is
wicked to play with matches. The G. L. M. is of saintly presence,- -so
clean and well groomed that you feel inclined to push her into a puddle.
Her hands are not full of vulgar toys and sweetmeats, like those of the
other children, but are extended graciously as if she were in the habit of
pronouncing benedictions.
IV--INSOUCIANCE!
LE PETIT Charles puts his evil little paw in his dangerous pockets and
draws out a wicked lucifer match, saying with abominable indifference,
"Bah! what do we care? We're going to build a fire, whatever you say.
Come on, boys!"
V--UN PLAISIR DANGEREUX!
The boys "come on." Led by "LE PETIT VILAIN Charles" they light a
dangerous little fire in a dangerous little spot. Their faces shine with
unbridled glee. The G. L. M. retires to a distance with a few saintly
followers, meditating whether she shall run and tell her mother. "LE
PETIT Paul," an infant of three summers, draws near the fire, attracted
by the cheerful blaze.

VI--MALHEUR ET INEXPERIENCE
LE PETIT Paul somehow or other tumbles into the fire. Nothing but a
desire to influence posterity as an awful example could have induced
him to take this unnecessary step, but having walked in he stays in, like
an infant John Rogers. The bad boys are so horror- stricken it does not
occur to them to pull him out, and the G. L. M. is weeping over the sin
of the world.
VII--TROP TARD!!
The male parent of LE PETIT Paul is seen rushing down an adjacent
Alp. He leads a flock of frightened villagers who have seen the smoke
and