es of father and mother with those
of companions in the most joyous of good times, and, after the evening
altar, when the lights are darkened, knows that each pillow is pressed
by its own pure face, that home is a bulwark of the nation and the ante
chamber to one of God's many mansions.

May God have pity on the thousands of children who live in houses, but
are homeless.

HERO WORSHIP

In this new interest in his fellows, all figures do not stand out in
equal proportion against the child's horizon. Some loom very high, and
in the inner chamber of the soul, incense is burning at their shrine.
Out of the earlier interest in people, and desire to imitate their
actions, there begins to emerge the great passion of hero worship with
all its power in shaping ideals and determining character. If it be
true, indeed, that life grows like what it gazes fixedly upon, then
nurture has here an important work.

The hero of any period must inevitably embody that which the life most
admires at the time, hence physical strength and skill, courage and
daring will be prominent factors in a boy's hero in this period. This
hero may be, perchance, the physical director of the Y.M.C.A., the
champion baseball or football player, an explorer or adventurer, a
desperado, or--happy case--a father who has not forgotten how to swim
and fish and hunt and play ball. A boy always longs to place his father
on the throne of his heart, if he is given a chance, but the fathers who
covet that place enough to pay the price for it are too few.

A hard working mechanic said to a friend, "I made up my mind I would
rather have a backache when my boys were little than a heartache later
on," and so no day's task was so heavy, up toil so exhausting that when
he came home at night his two boys could not claim him. The cramped
muscles would unlimber behind the bat, the tired limbs would forget
their weariness in the jaunt that had been planned with father, and
during the hours of freedom the three were chums in sports, in
interests, in confidence. They say there is no more beautiful sight in
that town today than two stalwart, manly fellows arm in arm with the
father, who counts it the joy and pride of his life to have mounted the
hero's throne in the hearts of his sons.

While boys always choose a man as their hero, girls may choose either
the masculine or feminine character. They are still near enough Nature's
heart to glory in wildness and abandon, and the