He knew how unwilling the young are to
learn from the experience of the old, and he therefore proclaimed this
command, that they might have it constantly before their eyes.

"I have said, this is a comprehensive command. To honor thy father and
thy mother is not merely to show them outward respect. It embraces
numberless duties, and among them this; the duty, while you are young,
of doing nothing without their knowledge and consent, when you are in a
situation to ask it.

"Be assured of one thing. If you are about to go anywhere, or do
anything, and a doubt arises in your mind whether it is necessary to ask
your mother's permission, be certain that you ought to ask it. The very
doubt in your own mind is sufficient evidence of the fact.

"Get into the habit of talking with your mother upon every subject; your
diversions, your studies, your health. Never conceal anything from her.
Is she not your mother? Did she not give you being? Who then shall you
look up to, if not to her?"

"O," interrupted Mary, "I have sometimes begun to talk to my mother
about many things which I did not exactly understand, but somehow or
other she was not willing to answer my questions."

"Perhaps," said Mrs. Spaulding, "you did not take a proper occasion, or
she may have been very busy about something else. You ought always to
endeavor to take a proper time for everything. At the same time," she
continued, "I am sorry to say that there are some mothers who think
children cannot be talked to, and reasoned with, till they are of age.
This is a mistaken idea. Children have reasoning faculties, and the
sooner we begin to converse with them accordingly, the sooner will those
faculties be developed. With this view, we ought always to encourage
them to give us their confidence on all occasions, gratify their
curiosity, and allow them to talk upon every subject to us. If we do not
act thus, they will soon abstain from that frank manner with which
children ought always to lay open their whole hearts to their parents."

"O yes," cried Mary; "there is Emma Woodbury,--I do not believe she ever
asks her mother's advice."

"No," said Clara, "and there is Jane Clifton's mother,--"

"Stop, my dears," interrupted Mrs. Spaulding, "these remarks of yours
remind me that there is another subject, about which I should like to
have a conversation with you; and if your mother, Mary, will give you
permission to come home with Clara, after school to-morrow after