d the peculiar temper and
dispositions of his children so as to aid a mother in their proper
training? Perhaps in some cases such evils cannot be remedied.

But, alas! what heavy responsibilities does such neglect, on the part of
the father, devolve upon the mother! Methinks the circumstances of such
a mother may be even more difficult to meet than if she were a widow!

We invite the attention of parents to a consideration of this topic and
some of the evils growing out of the wrong treatment of timid, dull
children. We can do no more at present than attempt to show, in a given
case, how such an existing evil was cured by forbearance and kindness.
The illustration is taken from "Pictures of Early Life," in the case of
a little girl by the name of Lilias Tracy.

This poor child, though her father was rich, and held an honorable
station in society, yet on account of her mother's sorrows, and
subsequent insanity, her poor child, Lilias, who was allowed to remain
with her mother, was brought up in an atmosphere of sadness, and it was
no wonder that she became melancholy and reserved.

After the death of her mother, her father understood too little of the
character of his only child to be able to afford her much solace, and he
therefore determined to send her to a boarding-school.

If there be a trial which exceeds a child's powers of endurance, it is a
first entrance into a boarding-school. Little Lilias felt at once this
painful situation in all its bitterness.

Shy and sensitive at all times, she had never felt so utterly forlorn,
as when she first found herself in the play-ground belonging to Mrs.
Bellamy's school.

Not only was she timid and shy, but the necessity of being always with
her mother to soothe the paroxysms of distress, had deprived Lilias of
many opportunities of education, and she was therefore far less advanced
in knowledge than most of her companions. Numberless were the
mortifications to which she was obliged to submit on account of her
ignorance, while her timidity and shyness increased in proportion to the
reproofs of her teachers, and the ridicule of her schoolfellows. She at
length came to be regarded as one of those hopelessly dull pupils who
are to be found cumbering the benches of every large school, and but for
her father's wealth and honorable station in society, she would,
probably, have been sent away in disgrace.

Fortunately, Providence raised up for poor Lilias, at this juncture, a