d,' answered the boy, and then as a grim look came on his
face he said: 'God! I wish they had!'

"A pleasant realization must it be to the parents of this boy as they
read this sentence in the head master's letter to the father of this
boy:

"'I cannot but feel that your criminal negligence in the most vital duty
that can come to a parent is the direct cause in this twofold calamity:
first, of the downfall of your own son; and second, of the downfall of
each of the other forty boys, and of the humiliation in which they and
their parents find themselves. These are hard words to say to you, but
they are true, and I say them not alone as the head master of this
school, but also as one father to another, and as one man to another.'"

In the growing youth's mind there arise many questions that he would
like to talk over with his father, but he feels diffident about asking
him. Too often the boy grows up and goes away to college without ever
talking with his father about manhood. In all matters concerning his
business relations and success, the boy has received careful
instruction. He has not been left to work out those problems by himself
but is given the benefit of the experiences of those who have trodden
the road before. But in this matter so vital to his whole life, he has
been left to clear his own path through the woods. With no guide and
bewildered with the new ideas and experiences that crowd upon him, is
it any wonder he loses his way, wanders off the straight path, falls
ofttimes into some bog that perhaps was hidden from his sight by
surrounding flowers and to which he has been lured by siren music?

The father's duty to his son is plain--and must not be neglected. In
some cases the mother must attend to this duty and for the future
welfare of her son she must see that he receives adequate instruction.

CHAPTER XXII

HOW SHALL THE CHILD BE TOLD?

Every mother and every father realizes that there are certain things
incident to reproduction that must be learned by the child at an early
age. They realize, too, that it is preferable that this information
should be imparted by the parents. But, on account of their own lack of
instruction, they find two problems confronting them. How and when shall
I tell my child are the questions uppermost in many parents' minds.

The answer to the first question must depend upon the individual case.
At a certain age a baby expresses a desire for something to bite. Bef