he burden of
many an excuse for misdemeanors. And after all the years of parental
indulgence, what is your reward? The spring is gone from your own
being, while your children will not let you live your life over again
in theirs.

We all recall AEsop's fable of the young man about to be executed, who
begged on the scaffold for a last word with his mother, and when the
wish was granted, stooped to her and bit off the tip of her ear, that
the pain and disfigurement might serve as a constant reminder of the
hatred he felt for the over-indulgence and lack of discipline which
had brought him to this shameful death. The hurt which the mother's
heart feels at the thought of causing her child's downfall is pain too
great to be endured.

The letting-alone principle is a short-sighted one. Even in infancy a
spoiled child may make such a nuisance of himself as to produce a
disagreeable impression upon all who know him,--an impression which it
takes many years of model behavior to eradicate. It is actual cruelty
to throw upon the child the work the parent should have performed. It
is easy to train the growing plant, but after the bark is tough and
the fibre strong it is a terrible strain upon grain and vitality to
bend it in a direction to which it is unaccustomed.

Much of the insubordination to be found in the children of the present
day is due to the growing habit of entrusting the little ones to
servants whose own wills and tempers are uncontrolled and untrained. A
child knows that his nurse has no right to insist upon obedience, and
he takes advantage of the knowledge until he is a small tyrant who is
conscious of no law beyond that of his own inclinations.

The prime rule in the training of children should be implicit
obedience. The child is happier for knowing that when a command or
prohibition is stated there is no appeal from the sentence, and that
coaxing avails naught. Uncertainty is as trying to small men and women
as to us who are more advanced in the school of life.

So much depends upon this great principle of obedience, that it is
marvelous that parents ever disregard it. I have known in my own
experience three cases in which it was impossible to make a child take
medicine, and death has followed in consequence. One of the most
painful recollections I have is of seeing a child six years old forced
to swallow a febrifuge that was not unpalatable in itself. The mother,
father, and nurse held the struggling boy, w