u are to occupy the ground of his heart
with good seed, which leaves no room for the devil's sowing.

Well, with regard to the facts of birth, I do not think we ought to find
much difficulty. You can point out how the baby seed has a soft, downy
place provided for it in the pod of the parent plant till it has ripened
and is fit to be sown, when the pod opens and lets it fall to the earth,
and it becomes a plant in its turn. You can point out that the egg in a
similar way is carried in the mother bird's body till the shell has
hardened and is fit to be laid, when she warms it with her own breast,
patiently sitting on it for days, while the father bird feeds her, till
the little chick is strong enough to break the walls of its tiny house,
and come forth and peck and fend for itself. You can explain how the
little kitten the child plays with has in the same way a safe place
provided for it in the mother's body, where it grows and grows till all
its organs are formed, and it can breathe and suck, when, like the seed
from the pod, and the chick from the egg it leaves the mother's body,
and is born, a blind and helpless baby kitten, to be fed and tenderly
cared for by the mother cat. You will explain that the baby comes in
just the same way so far as its infant body is concerned, growing like
the kitten from a tiny cell--borne by the mother till all the organs are
formed which it needs for its earthly life, when it also is born and
laid in its mother's arms, to be nourished and cared for by the love of
both father and mother, not for a few weeks, as with animals, but
through long years of helplessness. And you mean to tell me that the
sacred truth would not endear you to your child far more than the usual
cock-and-bull story about the doctor and the gooseberry-bush?

A friend of mine has three boys of widely opposite character and
temperament. Owing to circumstances, the eldest lad had to be sent to
school at an early age. Young as he was, she resolved to follow Dr.
Butler's advice and tell him the facts of birth in the way I have
suggested. On realizing the truth, the boy flung his arms round her neck
and burst into tears. But though she felt that she had done right, she
was not wholly without misgivings that she might have introduced some
objectionable talk into her nursery. When the time came to send the
second lad to school, she repeated the talk that she had had with his
elder brother. But to her surprise she found him i