So he made a school like that and called it Kindergarten, which is the German way of saying “Child Garden,” just as we say flower garden, or vegetable garden. Then the little children in Germany were just as happy as we are to-day, for now they could see pictures and play games, and hear stories and make things with their hands. They could grow as the flowers and the birds grow.
DUMMLING’S REQUEST
Sometimes one is not so simple as he seems, and behind a foolish face may lie a very clever head.
Everybody thought Dummling was a simpleton. His older brothers were very clever, but Dummling’s father thought he was too foolish to bother with. So everybody let him alone except his mother.
When Dummling was fifteen years old his father grew tired of supporting him, and gave him twenty shillings and told him to go out in the world and seek his fortune. Dummling kissed his mother, took the twenty shillings and went on down the road jingling the money in his pocket.
It made a merry sound, and Dummling jingled it louder and louder, for he liked to hear the noise of money in his pocket. By and by he met a man carrying a basket of fish.
“What have you there?” asked Dummling.
“Nothing that you can buy,” said the man; but when Dummling jingled his money the man stopped to listen. Then Dummling proposed to buy the fish for the twenty shillings. The man was so glad to get the money that he seized it and ran off leaving Dummling in the road with the fish and the basket, too.
“I shall take these fish and give them to the king,” said Dummling; and taking up the basket he went on to town and came to the king’s palace. He knocked at the gate and the porter came to open it.