ivation.
Here, for example, we find in a northern state a plum tree bearing
fruit such as no other northern tree ever produced before. We ask the
nurseryman how it is possible to transplant this fruit from a warmer
zone to the region of rigorous Winters. He replies that this tree was
not brought from a warmer locality, but that it grew here from the
beginning. How, then, can it be made to produce such big, splendid
plums when no other tree in the neighborhood grows such luscious
fruit?

[Illustration: Fig. 112]

"Here is the explanation: The tree was found growing wild in the
woods. [Draw the branch of Fig. 112 in brown and the leaves in green.]
And there in the woods it produced only very small, sour
plums. [Complete Fig. 112 by drawing the plums in purple or a
combination of red and blue.] But with this hardy tree to work on, the
fruit experts, through grafting and cultivation, have caused it to
bring forth this large, luscious fruit. [With purple, or a combination
of red and blue, enlarge the plums, completing Fig. 113.] These men
knew what to do and they did it. If they hadn't done it, the tree,
worthless and neglected, would still bear little, sour plums instead
of big, sweet ones.

[Illustration: Fig. 113]

"Mothers, the nursery of your home is like the nursery where the fruit
experts do their wonderful work. God has placed in your keeping these
little ones. You are the expert whose business it is to see that as
they grow older they will not bear the small, sour fruit of wrong
living, but the large, sweet fruit of Christian service. What they are
to be depends upon _you_. The plum tree in the woods could not
grow better of itself. _It had to have help._ And yet, we find
mothers everywhere who seem to think that the child can develop into a
high type of manhood and womanhood if he is provided with a plenty to
eat and wear and with the public school and the Sunday school at his
disposal.

"Within the heart of each mother God has implanted a natural knowledge
of how to care for the child. To fail to apply this knowledge is to
fail to reach up to a parent's highest privilege.

"The Sunday school can do much, but we must remember that home was
God's first and holiest school. It is in the home that the child
receives his first and most lasting lessons. Let us not misjudge the
ability of the child to perceive the inconsistency, the insincerity,
of father and mother. Even though the parent be a teacher in the
Su