“Nellie, I have just found out that our sister Mira has signed away her legacy that she should receive now on her twenty-first birthday. She signed it away two years ago. I wish we could find out where she is, for mother is grieving herself to death, it is so long since we have had any word from her. I find Geron is sorry that he ever mortgaged his place. He seems to be very blue, and that may be partly the reason mother is looking so worried. We must cheer her up when she comes.”
“I will do my best, Tom dear. I think the sight of the children will do her good, they are so bright and happy. Everything is systematized here and our apartments are so cheery and bright that I feel sure she will enjoy her visit.”
Mrs. Vivian came the next day and Tom and Nellie showed her all the improvements made since her last visit. She seemed most interested in the children’s department, but thought the idea of having them in a public nursery might be all right as long as the parents were in constant communication. “But I cannot see that it is best to separate them.”
“But, mother, we are not separated. We can have them here as we like, only the advantage to them is greater.”
Next day Mrs. Vivian took her place in the nursery and was there long enough to be convinced that this kind of place was the best on earth for children. The top floor was the infants’ department from a month old to the age when they could walk. Every contrivance to teach the oldest ones to use their feet and at the same time protect their bodies was here to aid them until they were strong enough to stand on their feet. Swinging chairs and frames to push around in learning to walk were placed around on the bare floors, which were white and clean. In another apartment were little cots in a row and an arrangement (if one became restless) was attached to each cot so that it could be rolled out into another room.
The nurses had eighteen hours for themselves in their own homes and six in the nursery. These short hours made them much more patient than mothers who have usually from two to six children to take care of, besides cooking and taking what time they can get to rest at night.
Telephones were in all the buildings and the night watchmen in the apartments were kept at close range so that the parents might be called at any time.
The next floor was where the older children live. These from the time they were old enough to learn are placed in the kindergarten three hours daily. The rest of the time is spent in resting and amusing themselves. Another grade, still older, are taught to be useful for a short time each day, to form industrious habits. Then they amused themselves the rest of the time and were under the watchful eye of the nurses and teachers.
In the evening Mrs. Vivian was ready to tell of her experience.
“Well, I am surprised,” she said. “I never thought of having children all in one place and special people to take care of them. Certainly the children are the better for the good system it necessitates. I was impressed with the graceful bearing of the girls and the manliness of the boys. All speak to each other in such a polite, kindly way. When you consider that some are born of parents who are ignorant of the refinements of social life, it is surprising. At the table particularly they handled their knives, forks and spoons as if bred and born in a social atmosphere of ease and refinement. I must say, Tom, that I don’t understand this. I have always supposed that children born of parents who only understood work could not be taught these things but would show their breeding at least for three generations.”