throw out no warning; they meet no
opposition; they are--or ought to be, if they would be effective--a
natural part of ordinary conversation and, by being part and parcel of
everyday affairs, they become normally related to life. The table is the
best opportunity for informal, indirect teaching, and this is for
children the natural and only really effective form of moral
instruction.

The child comes to these social occasions with a hungry mind as well as
with an empty stomach. His mind is always receptive--even more so than
his stomach; at the table he is absorbing that which will stay with him
much longer than his food. Even if we were thinking of his food alone,
we should still do well to see that the table is graced by happy and
helpful conversation; nothing will aid digestion more than good cheer of
the spirit; it stimulates the organs and, by diverting attention from
the mere mechanics of eating, it tends to that most desirable end, a
leisurely consumption of food.

The general conversation of the family group has more to do with
character development in children than we are likely to realize, and the
table is peculiarly the opportunity for general conversation. Here, most
of all, we need to watch its character and consider its teaching
effects. Where father scolds or mother complains the children grow
fretful and quarrelsome. Where father spends the time in reciting the
sharp dealing of the market or the political ring, where mother
delights in dilating on the tinsel splendors of her social rivalries,
they teach the children that life's object is either gain at any cost or
social glory. But it is just as easy to do precisely the opposite, to
speak of the pleasures found in simpler ways, to glory in goodness and
kindness, and to teach, by relating the worthy things of the day, the
worth of love and truth and high ideals. The news of the day may be
discussed so as to make this world a game of grab, inviting youth to
cast conscience and honor to the winds and to plunge into the greedy
struggle, or so as to make each day a book of beautiful pictures of
life's best pleasures and enduring prizes.

Sec. 2. DIRECTING TABLE-TALK

But table-talk, helpful, cheerful, and educative, does not occur by
accident. It comes, first, from our own constant and habitual thought of
the meals in social and spiritual, as well as in physical, terms. And it
reaches its possibilities as we endeavor to create and direct the kind
of co