“I thought perhaps she was. Madame Montessori tries to make all her training a natural outcome of the children’s lives and to develop them to use what they know in their daily occupations. If Elisabeth had a clothes-closet small enough for her to hang up and take down her own dresses and coats and rompers, I think Miss Merriam would find that she would be trying to put them on and fasten them herself very soon.”
“Wouldn’t a clothes pole about three feet high be too cunning for words,” exclaimed Ethel Blue, and Dorothy cried, “Do let us have all these things, Mother. Elisabeth will look like a little white Persian kitten, trotting around in this blue and white room!”
“Had you made any plans for your own room, Mrs. Smith?” asked Miss Graham.
“Oh, Aunt Louise, I do wish you’d have one of those gray rooms, with scarlet lacquer furniture,” cried Helen eagerly.
Before Mrs. Smith could answer, Miss Graham had interposed a soft objection.
“I wouldn’t,” she said. “A room like that has several reasons for non-existence. They are very handsome because the real scarlet lacquer is beautiful in itself, and it’s valuable too, but a room whose chief appeal to the eye is scarlet is not restful.”
“You think scarlet is not a proper color for a bed-room,” responded Helen.
“Not at all suitable to my way of thinking. It’s exciting, rather than soothing. Another objection to it here is that a room containing such a vivid color should be a dark room, and all of your bed-rooms are splendidly light. But the most serious objection to my mind, is this. Just step out here in the entry with me for a minute.”
They all followed Miss Graham on to the landing at the head of the stairs.
“In a house as small as this,” she said, “you can see from the hall into all the bed-rooms. That means that from the decorator’s point of view, the entire floor ought to be harmonious. Behind us, for instance, is the baby’s delicate blue nursery. Just ahead is Dorothy’s apple-blossom room. Do you think that a room of gray and scarlet and black is going to be harmonious with those delicate tints?”