irritate the baby's chin. The others watched her with the severity of judges on the bench.
The teacher began to ask questions.
"Who should the baby sleep with?" she said.
One very small girl, carried away by the form of the question, cried out, "His mother!" The others waved their hands.
"Well, who should he sleep with?" said Miss Needle.
"Himself!" cried several triumphantly.
"Why should he sleep by himself? Rosa, you tell us."
Rosa stood up. She was a dark-eyed little creature, with hair cropped short—we will not ask why. Her face worked with the excitement of putting her thoughts into language.
"If he sleeps with his mother she might lay on him and smother him."
They all seemed to shudder. It was as though the unfortunate infant was perishing before their very eyes.
The Little Mothers' Leagues are groups of small girls, ranging in age from eight to fourteen who are being taught the essentials of caring for babies, under the direction of the Child Federation. By the kindness of the Federation and Miss O'Neill, the supervisor of public school playgrounds, I was privileged to visit four of these classes the other afternoon. In three of the schools the children were learning how to put the baby to bed; in one they were sitting around a
