They gather around it and plant
gardens with the bright-colored balls; they use it for geography,
moulding the hills, mountains, valleys, and tracing the rivers near
their homes; they arrange historical dramas, as "Paul Revere's Ride,"
or the "Landing of the Pilgrims:" but no child does any one of these
things alone; there is constant and happy cooeperation.
It is the aim of one day's exercise, perhaps, to retrace with the
child the various steps by which his comfortable chair and his strong
work-table have come to him.
Across one end of the sand-box, a group of children plant a forest
with little pine branches which they have brought. The wood-cutters
come, fell the trees, and cut away the boughs. Another party
of children bring the heavy teams, previously built from the
play-material, harness in the horses (taken from a Noah's Ark), and
prepare to carry off the logs. Now here come the road-makers, and they
lay out a smooth, hard road for the teams, reaching to the very bank
of the river, which another party of little ones has made.
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