and takes, and grows.

Another baby of the same age is Peggy. She is needlessly handled and
caressed. She is kissed a hundred times a day with rough affection,
which is mistaken for tenderness and love. She is "bounced" up and down
and around; and the people about her, who believe themselves her
friends and would be heartbroken if she were taken from them, talk at
her, and not with her; they make her do "cunning little things," and
then laugh and admire; they try over and over to force her to speak
words when her little brain is not ready for the effort; and when she
is awake, she is almost constantly surrounded by "loving" noise. Peggy
is capable of being as good a friend as Heidi, but she is not allowed
to be. Her family are so overwhelmed by their own feelings of love and
admiration that they really only love themselves in her, for they give
her not the slightest opportunity to be herself. The poor baby has
sleepless, crying nights, and a little irritating illness hanging about
her all the time; the doctor is called, and every one wonders why she
should be ill; every one worries about her; but the caressing and noisy
affection go on. Although much of the difference between these two
babies could probably be accounted for by differences of heredity and
temperament, it nevertheless remains true that it is very largely the
result of a difference between wise and foolish parents.

The real friendship which her mother gave to Heidi, and which resulted
in her happy, placid ways and quickly responsive intelligence, meets
with a like response in older children; and reciprocal friendship grows
in strength and in pleasure both for child and older friend, as the
child grows older. When a child is permitted the freedom of his own
individuality, he can show the best in himself. When he is tempted to
go wrong, he can be rationally guided in the right way in such a manner
that he will accept the guidance as an act of friendship; and to that
friendship he will feel bound in honor to be true, because he knows
that we, his friends, are obeying the same laws. Of course all this
comes to him from no conscious action of his own mind, but from an
unconscious, contented recognition of the state of mind of his older
friends.

A poor woman, who lived in one room with her husband and two children,
said once in a flash of new intelligence, "Now I see: the more I
hollers, the more the children hollers; I am not going to holler any
more." The