other: "Madam, I will give you a problem to solve. If, at the age of
three, a child needs the impetus of one hat-pin to make him obey, how
many meat-axes will it require to keep him in order at the age of ten?
And if you are such a poor miserable failure as a mother and a woman
now, just at the commencement of an immortal destiny, what have the
eternities in store for you?"

Why, oh, why are children sent to people who have no more idea about
bringing them up than a trout has about training hop-vines? It is a
question that has given and does give me much uneasiness.

XXV.

POLITENESS VS. SINCERITY.

You imagine it is not polite to be plain spoken! My dear, there are
times when to be merely "polite" is to be a toady! There are times
when politeness is a pillow of hen feathers, wherewith to smother honor
and strangle truth. If all you care for is to be popular, to go
through life like a molasses-drop in a child's mouth, why, then, choose
your way and live up to it, but don't expect to rank higher than
molasses, and cheap molasses at that. For my part I would rather be
outspoken in the cause of right, even if plain speech did offend, than
be a coward and a woolly mouth. Somebody once lived upon earth, the
example of whose thirty odd years of mortal environment we are taught
to pattern our own lives close upon. How about his politeness when he
talked with the hypocrites and rebuked the pharisees? How about his
policy when he drove the money-changers before a stinging whip, and
championed the cause of the sinful woman? Oh! I tell you, the soul
that is always looking out for the chance to score one for the winning
cause, and throw up its hat with the crowd that makes the most noise,
is poor stock to invest in. In the time of need such a friend would
turn out worse than a real estate investment in a Calumet swamp.

XXVI.

THE MOST DANGEROUS WOMAN.

Shall I tell you plainly, and without any mincing, what type of woman I
think the most dangerous? It is not the virago, the wounds of a sharp
tongue are hard enough to bear, but there is a balm for them. Mother
may be overworked, or sister may be fretted; something is the matter
with the digestion, often, when the one we love scolds and is
excessively disagreeable in manner and speech. The harshest word is
soon excused and overlooked by the smile and the caress that are sure
to follow. So, bad as a scolding, nagging tongue may be, it has its
alle