It was all dates, and all looked alike, and they wouldn't
stick. Day after day of the summer vacation dribbled by, and still the
kings held the fort; the children couldn't conquer any six of them.
With my lecture experience in mind I was aware that I could invent some
way out of the trouble with pictures, but I hoped a way could be found
which would let them romp in the open air while they learned the kings.
I found it, and they mastered all the monarchs in a day or two.
The idea was to make them SEE the reigns with their eyes; that would be a
large help. We were at the farm then. From the house-porch the grounds
sloped gradually down to the lower fence and rose on the right to the
high ground where my small work-den stood. A carriage-road wound through
the grounds and up the hill. I staked it out with the English monarchs,
beginning with the Conqueror, and you could stand on the porch and
clearly see every reign and its length, from the Conquest down to
Victoria, then in the forty-sixth year of her reign--EIGHT HUNDRED AND
SEVENTEEN YEARS OF English history under your eye at once!
English history was an unusually live topic in America just then. The
world had suddenly realized that while it was not noticing the Queen had
passed Henry VIII., passed Henry VI. and Elizabeth, and gaining in length
every day. Her reign had entered the list of the long ones; everybody
was interested now--it was watching a race.
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