m--trust him to obey her because she
is mother.

Brothers and sisters are often a trouble. "How those children do nag?"
"Never can leave those boys together." "He's sure to teaze her if I
leave them alone." Don't be a bully either to your brothers or sisters.
Don't be selfish and claim all you can for yourself. Share and share
alike should be the rule, and gentleness towards the girls and little
ones.

School will help to take the nonsense out of you; you cannot have it all
your own way there. Boys will be boys, is a very common expression, and
it would be very funny indeed if boys did not turn out to be boys, but
that is no reason that boys should be rude or cruel, and in fact "little
cubs." Quarrels there will be sometimes--very often for no real reason,
sometimes for a good cause. If you have one fight it out then and there,
and bear no malice afterwards. I would rather see a fair fight and have
done with it, than keeping up a nasty quarrel, and trying to spite one
another in little mean ways. There is too often a want of real honour
amongst boys. Telling tales of one another seems to be the fashion, and
the favourite way of paying off old scores. There are of course times
when a boy must speak out against wrong, even at the risk of being
counted a sneak, but, as a rule, boys who delight in telling tales, and
who have not the sense of honour to stick by one another are a very poor
lot.

Do your school work thoroughly. Idleness is not only wrong but foolish.
There is a time for work and a time for play. Learn as much as you can
and learn thoroughly if you want to be of any use in after life. A boy's
religion is not a thing that shows very much on the surface, or that he
is very likely to talk much about, but it must be in him if he is any
worth.

Boys and girls alike should learn from their mother to say their prayers
night and morning, and when they become too old, or mother too busy for
them to say them at her knee, they should never omit to say them by
themselves. I heard the other day of a rough labouring man, who on his
death bed sent for the priest of his parish. He said he had never been
inside a Church since he had been a man. He had done his work honestly,
and lived steadily, but had altogether got out of the way of going to
Church. There was one thing, however, that he had always done. Long
years ago, as a lad, he had promised his mother never to get up in the
morning or go to bed at