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Diverse Pedagogical Approaches To Experiential Learning: Multidisciplinary Case Studies, Reflections, and Strategies 1st Ed. Edition Karen Lovett
Diverse Pedagogical Approaches To Experiential Learning: Multidisciplinary Case Studies, Reflections, and Strategies 1st Ed. Edition Karen Lovett
Diverse Pedagogical Approaches To Experiential Learning: Multidisciplinary Case Studies, Reflections, and Strategies 1st Ed. Edition Karen Lovett
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Diverse Pedagogical
Approaches to
Experiential Learning
Multidisciplinary Case Studies,
Reflections, and Strategies
Edited by
Karen Lovett
Diverse Pedagogical Approaches
to Experiential Learning
Karen Lovett
Editor
Diverse Pedagogical
Approaches
to Experiential
Learning
Multidisciplinary Case Studies, Reflections,
and Strategies
Editor
Karen Lovett
Office of Experiential Learning
University of Dayton
Dayton, OH, USA
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer
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Telling the Story
of Experiential Learning (EL)---Student
Perspectives on EL at UD
v
vi TELLING THE STORY OF EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING (EL)—STUDENT …
Note
1. The EL Lab has been a critical part of our work in the Office of Experi-
ential Learning; through these unique monthly three-hour workshops, we
promote EL to our peers and guide them through meaningful reflection
about their learning journeys using digital storytelling and other techniques.
Their reflection has included sharing their experiences abroad, community-
engaged learning opportunities on and off campus, as well as professional
development through various internships. For more information about the
EL Lab, visit udayton.edu/el.
Colleen Kelch, B.A. is originally from Chicago, Illinois. She graduated from
the University of Dayton with a B.A. in Communication, with a focus in Public
Relations, and a minor in English. While working in the Office of Experiential
Learning at UD, she created and managed social media accounts and collaborated
with her team members to produce informative and interesting digital content.
ix
x ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
xi
xii CONTENTS
Index 267
Notes on Contributors
xv
xvi NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS
substance abuse. She currently serves on the Board for the National
Alliance on Mental Illness (Montgomery County, Ohio).
Kelly Bohrer, M.S. is the Director of Community Relations for the
School of Engineering at the University of Dayton. In this role, she
provides leadership for the development, implementation, support, and
evaluation of community-engaged learning and scholarship initiatives that
advance the School’s academic and civic engagement mission. Kelly also
teaches upper-level community-engaged learning courses and is actively
involved in planning and implementing faculty and staff professional
development to promote and enhance community-based experiential
learning. Other positions Kelly has held at the University of Dayton
include the Director of Community Engaged Learning and Scholarship
within the Fitz Center for Leadership in Community, Coordinator of
Community Outreach in the Center for Social Concern, and the Lab
Coordinator in the Biology Department. In these roles, she created,
directed, implemented, and assessed high-impact experiential learning
and civic engagement initiatives, including social justice education, local
immersions, and inquiry-based science labs.
Dr. Lisa J. Borello has served as the Director of the Women’s Center
at the University of Dayton since July 2017. In this role, Dr. Borello
advances gender equity on campus via educational programming,
research, and policy development. She also serves as Adjunct Faculty in
the Department of Sociology, Anthropology and Social Work at UD.
Prior to joining UD, Dr. Borello served as the Assistant Director in the
Professional Development and Career Office at Johns Hopkins Univer-
sity in Baltimore, Maryland. She’s spent more than 15 years working in
higher education in diverse roles ranging from strategic communications
to grant writing to managing a research lab. She has a Ph.D. and M.S.
from Georgia Tech in Sociology of Science & Technology, a Master’s in
Women’s Studies from Georgia State University, and received her Bache-
lor’s degree in Journalism and Women’s Studies from Penn State Univer-
sity. She conducts research on women’s advancement in higher educa-
tion, gender, and technologies of the body and women in male-dominated
STEM professions.
Malcolm W. Daniels, Ph.D. is a faculty member in the Department of
Electrical and Computer Engineering. With undergraduate and grad-
uate degrees from the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland,
NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS xvii
xxv
List of Tables
Table 4.1 Various locations visited during GEO 204 field trips 49
Table 15.1 CSI learning outcome 229
Table 16.1 Average Scores on 3 Dimensions of Intercultural
Effectiveness for SAIL Cohort 1 (2016–2017) 248
Table 16.2 Average Scores on 3 Dimensions of Intercultural
Effectiveness for SAIL Cohort 2 (2017–2018) 248
Table 16.3 Average Scores on 3 Dimensions of Intercultural
Effectiveness for Control Group 2 (2016–2017) 249
Table 16.4 Average Scores on 3 Dimensions of Intercultural
Effectiveness for SAIL Cohort 3 (2018–2019) 249
Table 16.5 Average Scores on 3 Dimensions of Intercultural
Effectiveness for Control Group 3 (2018–2019) 249
xxvii
CHAPTER 1
Karen Lovett
The field of experiential learning (EL) has significantly expanded over the
past several decades, along with a proliferation of research and scholar-
ship on EL methods and best practices. The following chapters provide
detailed, behind-the-scenes insights into the creation and development of
powerful and impactful EL programs that contribute to student success.
The book brings together the voices of 37 faculty, staff, undergraduate
and graduate students, alumni, and community partners, from over fifteen
different academic disciplines and areas of specialization at the University
of Dayton (UD), a private Catholic and Marianist institution in Dayton,
Ohio. The book contains EL case studies, reflections, and strategies for
designing, facilitating, expanding, and assessing different EL activities and
programs, including community-engaged learning, internships, education
abroad, student employment, and more. It provides a unique, holistic pic-
ture of EL which includes educators’ personal experiences and learning
processes—perspectives which are often missing in EL literature.
K. Lovett (B)
Director of Experiential Learning, University of Dayton, Dayton, OH, USA
e-mail: klovett1@udayton.edu
The book also features many examples of the ways EL educators collab-
orate within and across academic and professional boundaries to develop
multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, and transdisciplinary approaches to
EL. The chapters describe the complexities of doing EL in a college set-
ting, including: integrating EL into a course or curriculum, navigating
academic and institutional hurdles to obtain EL resources and support,
handling the logistics of executing an EL activity or program, mentor-
ing and guiding students with varied skills and abilities who are at dif-
ferent developmental stages in their college careers, leading students into
new and diverse communities beyond the classroom, and facilitating deep,
sometimes difficult conversations with students and colleagues about the
ethical, social, political, and economic dimensions of EL.
One especially unique feature of this book is that students contributed
to the collection in many important ways. Students in ENG 377 Writ-
ing in Social Contexts, taught by English professor Patrick Thomas,
co-authored the afterword and provided immensely valuable editorial
support, rendering the book itself an EL project. Additionally, my own
student team in the Office of Experiential Learning co-authored the
book’s foreword and offered a wealth of insights that informed the
development of this project.
Scholars have offered numerous definitions for EL, a broad term which
includes many pedagogical approaches, learning environments, and activ-
ities1 (Beard & Wilson, 2015; Eyler, 2009; McClellan & Hyle, 2012;
Morris, 2016). In sum, EL is a process that involves active engagement
and self-guided learning in a purposeful, immersive experience, as well as
reflection and sense-making about that experience in order to transform
it into knowledge that can be applied in subsequent experiences and con-
texts. Active engagement in purposeful, immersive experiences can take
many forms, from internships to community-engaged learning, student
employment, education abroad, and more—there are numerous teaching
and learning methods which can be included under the larger umbrella
of EL (Roberts, 2016).
EL learning goals and objectives can also vary greatly; some experi-
ences are intended to prepare students for specific professions, others
are meant to help individuals achieve greater integration of classroom
concepts and real-world problems, others are meant to enhance learners’
problem-solving and leadership skills or intercultural competencies, and
some attempt to do all of these and even more. In addition to differences
in form and objectives, strategies for implementing EL experiences can
1 INTRODUCTION: LISTENING AND LEARNING FROM EXPERIENTIAL … 3
efforts and help foster communities of practice around EL. The deep sup-
port and commitment to EL allow educators to experiment with different
types of EL and establish important partnerships across institutional and
community boundaries. This has resulted in fruitful and vibrant EL
communities of practice which include individuals from a myriad of
backgrounds, perspectives, and types of expertise. I am very fortunate to
be the Director of EL at a university where EL is widely practiced and
supported by university leadership, and where students generally have
great interest in, and access to, a multitude of EL opportunities. And, of
course, it is wonderful to be at a place where there is so much interest in
reflection, research, and scholarship about EL.
The city of Dayton also provides a unique context for this collection.
Despite Dayton’s historical legacy as a city of inventors and successful
business owners, it has also faced many difficulties such as an economic
depression, the ongoing opioid epidemic, a struggling public education
system, housing and racial segregation, food deserts, among others. These
issues are not unique to Dayton and can be seen in cities across the
Midwest and US. UD communities have responded to these local and
regional issues through a number of EL programs, while also educating
students about community assets and opportunities. Dayton is experienc-
ing an economic revitalization, and its population is gradually increasing
and becoming more diverse and welcoming to newcomers such as immi-
grants and refugees. Readers of this text will gain important insight into
the ways EL educators in this book are applying their expertise, knowl-
edge, and skills in new ways to address these realities so their students
have the best chance of becoming the kinds of responsive, creative, and
collaborative problem-solvers the world needs.
This collection can appeal to a range of audiences, including faculty
and staff educators looking for examples of EL within and across disci-
plines, as well as college administrators interested in supporting faculty
in their areas and gaining a better understanding of the issues educa-
tors encounter when doing EL. Those who are interested in expanding
campus-wide EL initiatives and advancing EL goals, nurturing communi-
ties of practice around EL, and developing an understanding of faculty at
different stages of learning around EL would find the collection helpful
as well. Students interested in how learning happens in diverse social con-
texts, or those looking to explore the institutional demands, constraints,
and opportunities that impact EL in higher education would also benefit
from this book. The sections described below offer readers a roadmap for
6 K. LOVETT
exploring six key themes in the collection. These themes are applicable to
many forms of EL as well as diverse student populations and institutions
involved in EL.
Crossing Boundaries:
Transdisciplinary EL for Social Justice
Chapter 8, “We Are All Students: the Moral Courage Project as a Model
for Transdisciplinary Experiential Learning” by Joel Pruce, Ph.D., and
Natalie Hudson, Ph.D., describes the development and growth of a multi-
sited (Ferguson, Missouri, and El Paso) inter-/transdisciplinary EL pro-
gram focused on human rights, which involves collaboration among fac-
ulty and community partners from photography, political science, media
production, and more. Chapter 9, “Dinner in the Desert Kitchen: Reflec-
tions on Experiential Learning through Food, Art, and Social Practice” by
Glenna Jennings, M.F.A., explores a socially engaged art program involv-
ing educators, students, advocates, and food-related organizations who
work to raise awareness of food justice and food insecurity in Dayton.
The chapter addresses key challenges and successes in establishing col-
laborations across academic disciplines, managing course assessment, and
sustaining equitable partnerships with individuals and organizations out-
side the university.
Conclusion
As Director of Experiential Learning at UD, I have developed a great
appreciation for the fascinating, complex, and innovative EL landscape
around me, which is reflected in the following chapters. My unique per-
spective as an anthropologist of education has informed the ways in which
I examine and analyze EL in its numerous forms and expressions. I have
been guided by a desire to discover the meaning, value, and impact of EL,
from the perspectives of those who participate in EL and practice it every
day. Through hundreds of illuminating conversations about EL with fac-
ulty, staff, students, alumni, and community partners, my understanding
of the multifaceted nature of EL deepened and expanded. I have also
gained insight into how these individuals are actively re-shaping institu-
tional norms and transforming cultures of higher education as they work
10 K. LOVETT
Notes
1. For a compilation of various EL definitions, see Beard and Wilson (2015,
pp. 25–26).
2. For more information, see our EL catalog at udayton.edu/el.
3. For more information about the Office of Experiential Learning archive of
EL interviews, reflections, and testimonies, visit udayton.edu/el.
References
Beard, C., & Wilson, J. P. (2015). Experiential learning: A handbook for
education, training and coaching. London: Kogan Page.
Corker, J. S., & Porter, D. J. (2015). Maximizing experiential learning to
student success. Change, 47 (1), 66–72.
Eyler, J. (2009, January 1). The power of experiential education. Liberal
Education, 95(4), 24–31.
Hesser, G. (Ed.). (2013). Strengthening experiential education: A new era. Mt.
Royal, NJ: National Society of Experiential Education.
1 INTRODUCTION: LISTENING AND LEARNING FROM EXPERIENTIAL … 11
Kuh, G.D., & O’Donnell, K. (2013). Ensuring quality and taking high-impact
practices to scale. Washington, DC: Association of American Colleges and
Universities.
McClellan, R., & Hyle, A. E. (2012, May 1). Experiential learning: Dissolving
classroom and research borders. Journal of Experiential Education, 35(1),
238–252.
Morris, L. V. (2016). Experiential learning for all. Innovative Higher Education,
41(2), 103–104. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10755-016-9361-z.
Roberts, J. W. (2016). Experiential education in the college context: What it is,
how it works, and why it matters. New York: Routledge.
CHAPTER 2
& Wardle, 2015). Beyond these concepts, grant writing offers a use-
ful way of addressing many of the types of skills that are important for
professional writing students to practice as part of their learning experi-
ence, skills such as primary research, collaborative writing, development
of workplace/professional genres, and rhetorical methods for tasks such
as interviewing, memoing, summarizing, and reporting. These skills and
practices, which are common across many types of Professional and Tech-
nical Writing curricula, are integrated within the development of grant
proposals through a multi-stage approach to research, writing, and dis-
semination.
Finally, grant writing provides us, as faculty at the University of Day-
ton, with a tangible means of enacting some of the most significant tenets
of the Common Academic Program (CAP), the university’s interdisci-
plinary general education program. Specifically, CAP courses are part of
sixteen types of courses built around a set of seven institutional learn-
ing goals. Beyond introductory-level coursework, students are required
to take “Crossing Boundaries” courses from areas outside of their own
major discipline “in order to see the relationship between the practical
and theoretical and to understand issues in a more integrative and holistic
perspective” (“The Common Academic Program,” 2010, p. 16). The par-
ticular type of course for which we teach grant writing falls within an “In-
quiry” category of Crossing Boundaries courses. Inquiry courses are cate-
gorized as such because they require students to investigate problems and
develop solutions using methodologies outside of those in their home dis-
cipline. In the case of our grant writing course, these methodologies are
drawn from the rhetoric and professional writing studies and include crit-
ical rhetorical analysis and qualitative research. Therefore, in addition to
providing English majors with experience and professional development
in grant writing, our coursework in grant writing also engages students
from other disciplines—especially social scientific, business administrative,
and scientific disciplines—in experiential learning as a way to understand
how professional writers work to solve problems and communicate effec-
tively, for money, within organizations.
Together, these interconnected sets of pedagogical goals—of experien-
tial learning, professional/technical writing, and our university’s general
education program—are meaningfully integrated through our approach
to the teaching of grant writing, which we describe in further detail below.
16 N. F. ADAMS AND P. W. THOMAS
Simulation Pedagogy
to Community-Engaged Grant Writing
Nicky, the first co-author of this chapter, offers the following narrative
describing her initial foray into teaching grant writing:
I came to the University in Fall of 2011, fresh out of graduate school, and
interested in the ways that I might expand course offerings in the area of
professional writing. After all, that was why I was hired.
In graduate school I had worked on a series of successful grant writ-
ing projects, most of which were funded, and so I knew first-hand how
empowering it was to be able to use my writing skills to further projects
that I cared about – especially educational projects for teachers. Despite
this, I had little “formal” training in grant writing, so I wasn’t sure I
could actually teach a course in which I had only practical experience.
However, when I arrived to campus, our first-year faculty orientation
included a three-hour tour of the city of Dayton, making stops at four
2 WHEN STUDENTS WRITE FOR MONEY … 17
local organizations with which the university had maintained active com-
munity learning projects. What was so memorable about that tour was
how many different types of organizations were represented: large non-
profit centers, start-up businesses, and even neighborhood programs. The
message of that tour was clear: UD, my new employer, cared about how it
helped the community. And that message was repeated multiple times over
my first year, as many folks in my department mentioned the possibilities
of engaging with local community partners to help build new opportuni-
ties for students with interest in writing. I was interested in doing this, but
without knowing which community agencies to target, or how to go about
doing so, I decided to begin with a smaller assignment for grant writing
instead.
For both of us, prior to including a grant writing course into our curric-
ular offerings, we each experimented with the prospect of grant writing
assignments in our other professional writing course, especially Report
and Proposal Writing, a course for non-majors focused on producing var-
ious types of the two genres. In this way, our approach mirrored the type
of “simulation pedagogy” (Wang, 2019), a popular pedagogical approach
in applied fields such as nursing, management, and computer science. In
this approach, instructors may construct simulated rhetorical situations in
which students practice producing appropriate kinds of texts to fit that
situation. Often, students benefit from this approach to practice profes-
sional writing skills because it offers a “low stakes” method of engaging in
the kinds of communicative situations that they can envision in contexts
outside the classroom.
The simulation approach to grant writing often took the form of an
instructor-supplied RFP (Request for Proposals, a solicitation for grant
proposals). As instructors, we could invent a funding organization, situa-
tion, and genre constraints and group students into grant writing teams
as a way to propose funding ideas aimed at this RFP. Student teams could
work to fulfill many of the aspects of the grant writing process in condi-
tions that we, as instructors, can easily control and alter as teams required.
In addition, students had the opportunity to select causes, issues, or cam-
paigns to which funding from the RFP organization would be applied.
This approach was successful in the way that it provided us with oppor-
tunities for experimenting with teaching the process of grant writing—
including research, genre knowledge, and team writing, all of which offer
students (who may or may not have interest in grant-making or grant
writing) useful practice in developing professional skills.
18 N. F. ADAMS AND P. W. THOMAS
I now come to the very prince of pets, the one of all I ever had the
most noble and most dear,—Tom, a Newfoundland setter, the
favorite dog of my brother Albert. He has been a member of our
family for five or six years past. We brought him from the city to our
pleasant village home in Pennsylvania, where we now live.
Tom is a dog of extraordinary beauty, sagacity, and good feeling. He
is very large, and, with the exception of his feet and breast, jet black,
with a thick coat of fine hair, which lies in short curls, glossy and
silken. He has a well-formed head, and a handsome, dark eye, full of
kindness and intelligence. His limbs are small, and his feet
particularly delicate. He is, I am sorry to say, rather indolent in his
habits, always prefers to take a carriage to the hunting-ground, when
he goes sporting with his master, and he sleeps rather too soundly at
night to be a good watch-dog. We make him useful in various ways,
however, such as carrying baskets and bundles, and sometimes we
send him to the post-office with and for letters and papers. These he
always takes the most faithful care of, never allowing any one to look
at them on the way. He is a remarkably gentlemanly dog in his
manner, never making free with people, or seeming too fond at first
sight; but if you speak to him pleasantly, he will offer you a friendly
paw in a quiet way, and seem happy to make your acquaintance. He
never fawns, nor whines, nor skulks about, but is dignified, easy, and
perfectly at home in polite society. He is a sad aristocrat, treats all
well-dressed comers most courteously, but with shabby people he
will have nothing to do. Tom knows how to take and carry on a joke. I
recollect one evening, when we had visitors, and he was in the
parlour, I put on him a gay-colored sack of my own, and a large
gypsy hat, which I tied under his throat. Instead of looking ashamed
and trying to get these off, as most dogs would have done, he
crossed the room and sprang on to the sofa, where he sat upright,
looking very wise and grave, like some old colored woman at church.
The illustrious General Tom Thumb once travelled with my brother
and this dog, and, falling very much in love with his namesake,
offered any price for him. Of course, my brother would not think for a
moment of selling his faithful friend, and even had he felt differently, I
doubt very much whether Tom, who had been used to looking up to
full-grown men, would have shown much obedience or respect, for
such a funny little fellow as the General. It was amusing to observe
the dog’s manner toward his small, new acquaintance. He was kind
and condescending, though he sometimes seemed to think that the
General was a little too much inclined to take liberties with his
superiors in age and size,—rather more forward and familiar than
was quite becoming in a child.
Two or three years ago, Tom was the beloved playfellow of my
brother Frederic’s youngest daughter,—our little Jane. She always
seemed to me like a fairy-child, she was so small and delicate, with
such bright golden curls falling about her face,—the sweetest face in
the world. It was beautiful to see her at play with that great, black
dog, who was very tender with her, for he seemed to know that she
was not strong. One evening she left her play earlier than usual, and
went and laid her head in her mother’s lap, and said, “Little Jane is
tired.” That night she sickened, and in a few, a very few days she
died. When she was hid away in the grave, we grieved deeply that
we should see her face no more, but we had joy to know that it
would never be pale with sickness in that heavenly home to which
she had gone; and though we miss her still, we have great
happiness in the thought that she will never be “tired” any more, for
we believe her to be resting on the bosom of the Lord Jesus.
One day last spring, I remember, her mother gave me a bunch of
violets, saying, “They are from the grave of little Jane.” I suppose
they were like all other blue violets, but I thought then I had never
seen any so beautiful. It seemed to me that the sweet looks of the
child were blooming out of the flowers which had sprung up over the
place where we had laid her.
Tom seems much attached to all our family, but most devotedly so to
my brother Albert. They two have hunted very much together, and
seem equally fond of the sport. If Tom sees his master with his
hunting-dress on, and his fowling-piece in hand, he is half beside
himself with joy. But when he returns from the hunt, spent and weary,
he always comes to me to be fed and petted.
You will remember that years have passed by since this brother and I
were schoolmates and playmates together. He is now a fine young
man, while I am a full-grown woman, who have seen the world I
used to think so grand and glorious, and found it—no better than it
should be. But of my brother. He is our youngest, you know, and so
has never outgrown that peculiar fondness, that dear love, we
always give to “the baby.” While I have been writing these histories,
and recalling in almost every scene the playmate of my childhood, I
can only see him as a boy,—a little black-eyed, rosy-cheeked boy; it
is very difficult to think of him as a man, making his own way bravely
in the world. Last spring we observed that dear Albert’s bright face
had become very thoughtful and serious; we knew that something
was weighing on his mind, and finally it came out. He was about to
leave us all for a long time, it might be for ever; he was going to
California! We were very unhappy to hear this, but, as it was on
some accounts the best thing that my brother could do, we finally
consented, and all went to work as cheerfully as we could to help
him off.
It was a bright May morning when he left, but it seemed to us that
there never was a darker or sadder day. The dear fellow kept up
good courage till it came to the parting; then his heart seemed to
melt and flow out in his tears, fast dropping on the brows and necks
of his mother and sisters, as he held them for the last time to his
heaving breast. But I will not dwell on this parting, for my own eyes
grow so dim I cannot well see to write.
I remember that poor Tom seemed greatly troubled that morning; he
knew that something sad was happening, and looked anxiously in
our faces, as though he would ask what it was; and when my brother
patted him on the head, bade him good by, and passed out of the
gate, forbidding him to follow, the faithful creature whined sadly, and
looked after him wistfully, till he was out of sight.
After Albert had been gone about an hour, I remember that I went up
into his room, and sat down in his favorite seat, by the window. O,
how still and lonely and mournful it seemed there! Near me hung my
brother’s fencing-sword and mask, which he had used only the day
before,—on the floor lay the game-bag, which he had always worn in
hunting, and which he had flung out of his trunk, not having room for
it. This brought my merry brother before me more clearly than any
thing else. I took it up and held it a long time, mourning at heart, but I
could not weep. Suddenly I heard a low whine in the hall, and Tom
stole softly into the room. He came to me and laid his head in my
lap; but when he saw the game-bag there, he set up a most mournful
cry. Then I flung my arms about him, bowed my head down against
his neck, and burst into tears. I forgot that he was a poor dumb
brute, and only remembered that he loved my brother, and my
brother loved him, and that he mourned with me in my sorrow. After
this, it was very affecting to see Tom go every day, for a long while,
to the gate, out of which he had seen his master pass for the last
time, and then stand and look up the street, crying like a grieved
child.
As you will readily believe, Tom is now dearer than ever to us all; we
cannot see him without a sweet, sad thought of that beloved one so
far away. I am not now at home, but I never hear from there without
hearing of the welfare of the noble dog which my brother, in going,
bestowed upon me.
SUPPLEMENTARY STORIES.
It is twenty years since the first part of this little volume was
published. The dear children for whom those simple stories of my
childhood were told are men and women now, and wonderful
changes have taken place in all our lives and in all the world. But in
growing old I have not lost any thing of my old love of pets; and I
hope that my little readers of this time will understand and share that
feeling. I hope that you, dear boys and girls, look on all innocent
dumb creatures about you as friends, and have not only a kindly
interest in them, but respect them for all that is lovely and wonderful
in their brief existences, and as objects of the unceasing care and
tenderness of our Father in heaven. Every smallest creature that
lives represents a thought of God,—was born out of his great, deep,
infinite life.
I hope you especially like to hear about dogs and cats, birds and
chickens, for it is of them that I have a few new stories to relate, as
true as they are amusing or marvellous.
FIDO THE BRAVE.
FAITHFUL GRIMALKIN.
Many years ago, when my parents lived in old Connecticut, my
mother had a pet cat, a pretty graceful creature, frisky and arch and
gay, though clad in sober gray. She was a favorite with all the large
household, but especially attached herself to my mother, following
her about everywhere,—“up stairs, down stairs, and in my lady’s
chamber,” accompanying her in her walks, hiding behind every bush,
and prancing out upon her in a surprising, not to say startling,
manner.
At last she grew out of kittenhood, laid aside, in a measure, kittenish
things, and became the happiest, fondest, proudest feline mamma
ever beheld. She caressed and gloated over her little, blind, toddling,
mewing, miniature tigers in a perfect ecstasy of maternal delight.
Just at this interesting period of pussy’s life our family moved from
the old place to a house in the country, about a mile away. My
mother was ill, and was carried very carefully on a bed from one
sick-room to another. In the hurry, trouble, and confusion of that time,
poor pussy, who lodged with her family in an attic, was quite
forgotten. But early in the morning of the first day in the new house,
—a pleasant summer morning, when all the doors and windows
were open,—as my mother lay on her bed, in a parlor on the first
floor, she saw her cat walk into the hall and look eagerly around. The
moment the faithful creature caught sight of her beloved mistress,
she came bounding into the room, across it, and on to the bed,
where she purred and mewed in a delighted, yet reproachful way,
quite hysterical, licking my mother’s hand and rubbing up against her
cheek in a manner that said more plainly than words, “Ah! my dear
madam, didst thou think to leave thy faithful Grimalkin behind?
Where thou goest, I will go.”
She was taken into the kitchen and treated to a cup of new milk; but
after a few moments given to rest and refreshment she disappeared.
Yet she went only to come again in the course of an hour, lugging
one of her kittens, which she deposited on the bed, commended to
my mother’s care, and straightway departed. In an almost incredibly
short time she came bounding in with a second kitten. She continued
her journeys till the whole litter had been safely transported, over hill
and dale, ditches and stone-walls, through perils of unfriendly dogs
and mischievous boys, and the family flitting was complete.
After this, our noble puss was loved and respected more than ever.
She dwelt long in the land, and her kits grew up, I believe, to be
worthy of such a mother.
OBEDIENT THOMAS.
Now I want to give you an instance of filial respect and submission
in a young cat. When we first came to Washington, nearly two years
ago, I took to petting a handsome cat belonging to the relatives with
whom we then lived. I fed and caressed her, and she became very
fond of me, always running to meet me when I entered the garden
which she haunted, or the barn in which she lodged. She was rather
wild in her ways, and so stole a nest, in which she finally hid away
some kittens, that she afterwards reared to be wilder than herself.
These somehow disappeared, all but one, which, when he was
about half grown, I undertook to tame. It was a difficult, tedious job;
but I persevered, and at last found him a more affectionate, docile
pet than ever his mother had been. She had seemed fond of him in
his wild, unregenerate days, but as soon as he became
domesticated, and I began to show a partiality for him, she grew very
severe with him, scratching his face and boxing his ears whenever
she saw me caressing him. I soon noticed that when she was near
he was shy, pretending not to be on intimate terms with me; while, if
she was out of the way, I had only to call his name, to have him
come galloping up from the furthest part of the long garden, to rub
against me, to lick my hand, and show every feline fondness and
delight. Now we live at another house, and I seldom see my pets,
mother and son; but they are loving and constant still, proving that
the poet Coleridge didn’t know every thing when he talked about “the
little short memories” of cats.
Master Thomas has grown large and strong, and is accounted a
gallant young fellow by all the young pussies in the neighborhood.
But while toward cats of his own sex he is fierce and combative, he
is just as meek and deferential to his mother as he was in his tender
kittenhood. The other day I encountered him in the old garden, and
was surprised to find how stalwart he had become. I stooped to
caress him, and he seemed as susceptible to gentle overtures as
ever, arched his back, switched his tail, and purred rapturously.
Suddenly the mother cat stole out from behind a tree, and confronted
us. “Good morning, madam,” I said, for I always talk to cats and dogs
just as I talk to other people. “You have a fine son here; a handsome
young fellow, that favors you, I think.” But she wasn’t to be softened
by the compliment. She walked straight up to him, and boxed him
first on one ear and then on the other, quite in the old motherly way.
As for him he never thought of resenting the old lady’s act, or
opposing her will, but drooped his lordly tail, and hastily retreated.
Now that is what I call good family discipline.
This city of Washington is a place where the wits of people are
sharpened, if anywhere, and perhaps even cats and dogs become
uncommonly clever and knowing here. Only yesterday I was told of a
Washington cat which had just been found out in a wonderful trick.
Observing that, when the door-bell rang, the one servant of the
household was obliged to leave the kitchen, she managed to slyly
ring the bell, by jumping up against the wire, and invariably, when
her enemy, the cook, went to the door, she would slip into the
kitchen, and help herself to whatever tempting article of food was
within reach. At last some one watched, and caught her at her secret
“wire-pulling.” Poor puss retired with a drooping tail and a most
dejected aspect, evidently realizing that the game was up.
Another cat I know of was of so amiable and benevolent a
disposition that she actually adopted into her own circle of infant kits
a poor, forlorn little foundling of a rat. As her nursling he grew and
thrived, seeming quite as tame as the others; and when a
mischievous boy set a rat-terrier on him, and so finished him, cat and
kittens really seemed to mourn for their foster son and brother.