ying over to himself, "I'm not a coward. She said I'm not a coward,"
finally adding, "She said I couldn't be a coward." This one thought,
repeated to him several times and turned over and over in his mind,
eventually overthrew the false fears instilled by his father.

A short time ago the daily papers contained the story of the
ten-year-old son of a New York business man who drew his few dollars
from the savings bank, boarded a train for Chicago, and, after three
days of amusement and loneliness, his money all gone, was found in a
hotel bitterly weeping. His identity was revealed, the parents were
notified at once, and the boy was sent on the first train back to his
home. On the way to the station he sobbed out through his tears,
"Well, my brother can't call me a coward any more, anyway." Who knows
but that this everlasting taunting of the child with the accusation of
being a baby or being a coward has much to do with many such escapades
and other daring exploits on the part of the juveniles who are chafed
by such unjust insinuations? Those of us who are acquainted with the
vice and crime of a great city can imagine just what might have
happened if this boy had been a little older, if his heredity had not
been so good, if his money hadn't run out, if he had been able to
remain in the big city long enough to make undesirable acquaintances.

Many criminals have confessed behind prison bars that when they were
children they were called cowards. After a while they actually came to
believe that they were cowards, and in their efforts to acquire
courage and demonstrate their bravery they were led to desperate and
even criminal acts. They prowled around the dark alleys just to
convince themselves that they were not afraid, that they were not
cowards, and there they made the acquaintance of the criminals who led
them into new and dangerous paths. Even if a child enters this world
handicapped by heredity, let us not lessen his chances of success by
adverse suggestion.

Faith-thoughts, thoughts of bravery and of courage, may just as easily
be instilled into the mind of the normal child as thoughts of fear and
cowardice. A child should never have suggested to him that he is
afraid. He should be constantly assured that he is brave, loyal, and
fearless. The daily repetition of these suggestions will contribute
much to the actual acquirement of the very traits of character that
are thus suggested. This does not mean that a child sh