me other women to whom God has given another and
different talent; and let her not be discouraged, if she seem often to
accomplish but little in that great work of forming human character
wherein the great Creator of the world has declared Himself at times
baffled.

Family tolerance must take great account of the stages and periods of
development and growth in children.

The passage of a human being from one stage of development to another,
like the sun's passage across the equator, frequently has its storms and
tempests. The change to manhood and womanhood often involves brain,
nerves, body, and soul in confusion; the child sometimes seems lost to
himself and his parents,--his very nature changing. In this sensitive
state come restless desires, unreasonable longings, unsettled purposes;
and the fatal habit of indulgence in deadly stimulants, ruining all the
life, often springs form the cravings of this transition period.

Here must come in the patience of the saints. The restlessness must be
soothed, the family hearth must be tolerant enough to keep there the
boy, whom Satan will receive and cherish, them if his mother does not.
The male element sometimes pours into a boy, like the tides in the Bay
of Fundy, with tumult and tossing. He is noisy, vociferous, uproarious,
and seems bent only on disturbance; he despises conventionalities, he
hates parlors, he longs for the woods, the sea, the converse of rough
men, and kicks at constraint of all kinds. Have patience now, let love
have its perfect work, and in a year or two, if no deadly physical
habits set in, a quiet, well-mannered gentleman will be evolved.
Meanwhile, if he does not wipe his shoes, and if he will fling his hat
upon the floor, and tear his clothes, and bang and hammer and shout, and
cause general confusion in his belongings, do not despair; if you only
get your son, the hat and clothes and shoes and noise and confusion do
not matter. Any amount of toleration that keeps a boy contented at home
is treasure well expended at this time of life.

One thing not enough reflected on is, that in this transition period
between childhood and maturity the heaviest draft and strain of school
education occurs. The boy is fitting for the university, the girl going
through the studies of the college senior year, and the brain-power,
which is working almost to the breaking-point to perfect the physical
change, has the additional labor of all the drill and discipline of