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Show 26 MADELYN CANNON STEWART SILVER her shoes. Dandelions grew along the edge and Madelyn was sentimentally attracted to this poor man's gold. In the ditch she often found frogs, and occasionally a trout. She floated things down the stream. There were childhood sights and sounds and, as she later recalled, lots of dreams." Madelyn's first swimming was in Great Salt Lake, so perme ated with salt that one couldn't sink. Madelyn and her brothers and sisters attended the Forest Dale Ward School. Not all ward schools were centers of grade school excellence, but apparently this one was. The many young professionals in the ward, many graduates or former students of the University of Deseret and University of Utah, insisted on good teachers for their children. The instruction included reli gion and morals as well as the usual reading, writing, arith metic, geography, and history. Madelyn's cousin, Martha Stewart, recalled, for example, the following verse she and oth ers were taught at Forest Dale." Obedience is Heaven's first law And order is its result. This is a lesson good to learn For child and for adult. As the first child in a prominent family, Madelyn was ambi tious to establish herself; she was a natural leader in that "host generation." She was extroverted, cooperative, empathiz ing, and popular. She tended to be supportive of the status quo." Madelyn's Aunt Annie joined her parents in seeing to it that the Stewart children had good training. Madelyn, a regular vis itor to the school library, loved to read "good literature." At a young age, for example, she enjoyed the poetry of Eugene Field, known as the poet of childhood, whose verses included "Wynken, Blynken, and Nod," "Little Boy Blue," and "The ess Little Peach." When she was in her early teens she read Little Women by Louisa May Alcott, a charming and heart-warming saga Madelyn thoroughly enjoyed. Based on Miss Alcott's youthful experiences, it described the daily lives of four girls, |
