o
them when they were together again. In the end they were free strong men
and women, able to stand alone, and yet enthusiastically attached to
their mother, so that every pleasure was the dearer if she shared it.

If a woman has no children of her own, it often happens that she may do
this good work for her little brothers and sisters, or for her nieces
and nephews. Or, if there is no one among her kindred who needs her
care, there are always the orphan children.

If a woman of wealth and leisure adopts a child the experiment usually
fails. I have often wondered why, and I think I can see the reason. A
rich and cultivated woman who has also the large heart which leads her
to take a child belongs to the very highest development of the race.
The destitute waif is often from the dregs of the people. The distance
between them is too wide for sympathy. She trains this child as she
would train her own, and the child feels oppressed. Its faults are so
different from those of her own childhood, that she is overwhelmed by
them and quite at a loss how to meet them. And yet, it would be a pity
for her to repress the generous wish to help a child. I think such a
woman may sometimes find the child of educated parents, perhaps from
among her own circle of friends whom she can naturally help; and if she
will take two children instead of one, her task will be lightened for
they will help each other.

But if she finds it best to adopt one of the lowest class, she may still
succeed by remembering several things. 1. It is too much to expect to
train such a child to be a real companion, though in some rare cases
this may follow. Her main effort should be to awaken and guide the moral
nature, and to do this she must learn to look at the child from another
standpoint than her own prejudices. 2. She must give the child an
abundance of simple physical pleasures, and, if possible, companions of
about its own intellectual grade. 3. She must enter heartily into all
the child does, and endeavor to understand the workings of its mind.

Many young women who would hesitate to take the whole responsibility of
one child may find useful and pleasant employment for themselves by
teaching a class of children of the poor. They can teach them to sew or
to read, they can provide simple pleasures for them, and supplement the
work of the public schools in a hundred ways necessary in cases where
there is no adequate home life.

There is another great work