The character of the teacher should be taken by a young girl old enough to lead and direct children. The marches may be as elaborate as the manager chooses, but they should not be too long or intricate.
The shields are made of heavy white card-board after the pattern shown in Fig. 590, and the handles are strips of tin fastened in the middle of the shield. To secure the handle in place, with a sharp knife cut two horizontal slits about one inch long in the shield near the centre. These must be about five inches apart, and one directly over the other. Then make two more slits of the same size, one two inches above the top slit, the other two inches below the bottom slit. Pass one end of the tin through the
Fig. 590. lower top slit, working from the inside of the shield, and bend the end up, slipping it back through the upper top slit as if taking a stitch; then fasten the end by bending it up close to the inner surface of the shield. Care must be taken not to tear the card-board during this process. Now reverse the order of work, and passing the other end of this tin through the two lower slits in the shield, fasten it by bending the end down. The loop of the handle must be sufficiently large to allow a child’s hand to slide in and grasp it easily. When the tin is well wrapped in strips of cotton cloth there is no danger of a cut from the sharp edges.
Large black letters are either painted on the shields or cut from black paper or cloth and pasted on. These letters must be simple and plain in design, that they may be instantly recognized. All the shields should be of one size, and as a rule should reach from the shoulder almost to the knee of the bearer. The children, also, should be as nearly of one height as possible.
CHAPTER XXVII
ODD GARDENS
Summer is coming! Don’t you see it? Don’t you feel it? Even while the trees are still leafless and the grass-plots still brown we know spring is here, almost as the plants themselves know it, by the surging up of new life in our veins.
We open wide our windows to let the sweet sunshine in and make ready to welcome the blessed summer so near at hand.
What if you cannot leave the city, as some do, to enjoy the delights of a summer in the country; what if you have not even a foot of ground, you may still have some of the sweets with which summer is so lavish; you may, nevertheless, have your flower-garden. Summer will help you grow your plants. The sun is knocking now on your window, bidding you prepare the ground for summer to make fruitful.