AY IS FRAUGHT WITH DANGER.--Knowledge on a subject so vitally
connected with moral health must not be deferred. It is safe to say that no
child, no boy at least in these days of excitement and unrest, reaches the
age of ten years without getting some idea of nature's laws regarding
parenthood. And ninety-nine chances to one, those ideas will be vile and
pernicious unless they come from a wise, loving and pure parent. Now, we
entreat you, parents, mothers! do not wait; begin before a false notion has
had chance to find lodgment in the childish mind. But remember this is a
lesson of life, it cannot be told in one chapter; it is as important as the
lessons of love and duty.

7. THE FIRST LESSONS.--Should you be asked by your four or five-year old,
"Mamma, where did you get me?" Instead of saying, "The doctor brought you,"
or "God made you and a stork brought you from Babyland on his back," tell
him the truth as you would about any ordinary question. One mother's
explanation was something like this: "My dear, you were not made any more
than apples are made, or the little chickens are made. Your dolly was {402}
made, but it has no life like you have. God has provided that all living
things such as plants, trees, little chickens, little kittens, little
babies, etc., should grow from seeds or little tiny eggs. Apples grow,
little chickens grow, little babies grow. Apple and peach trees grow from
seeds that are planted in the ground, and the apples and peaches grow on
the trees. Baby chickens grow inside the eggs that are kept warm by the
mother hen for a certain time. Baby boys and girls do not grow inside an
egg, but they start to grow inside of a snug warm nest, from an egg that is
so small you cannot see it with just your eye." This was not given at once,
but from time to time as the child asked questions and in the simplest
language, with many illustrations from plant and animal life. It may have
occupied months, but in time the lesson was fully understood.

8. THE SECOND LESSON.--The second lesson came with the question, "But
_where_ is the nest?" The ice is now broken, as it were; it was an easy
matter for the mother to say, "The nest in which you grew, dear, was close
to your mother's heart inside her body. All things that do not grow inside
the egg itself, and which are kept warm by the mother's body, begin to grow
from the egg in a nest inside the mother's body." It may be that this
mother had access to illustrations o