that he would shrink with
utter loathing from the filthy so-called "secrets" that are bandied
about among schoolboys? I know that the task of conveying this knowledge
presents many difficulties, but again I ask, "What is there in our life
that is worth doing which is not difficult?" Long ago the definition of
a difficulty to me has become "a thing to be overcome." It is not in
sitting down helplessly before a difficulty that the way will open. With
us, as with the Israelites on the brink of that raging midnight sea, it
is in a brave obedience to the Divine command, "Go forward!" that the
path opens through the trackless sea, and we find that the great waters
that seem ready to overwhelm us are in reality a baptism into new life.

III

Again I seem almost to hear the cry of your heart, "I know I ought to
speak to my boy, but how am I to do it?"

Now, it is here that I earnestly desire to give you, if I possibly can,
some helpful, practical suggestions, for I feel that it is not in the
recognition of a duty, but in its performance, that the difficulty lies
which is arresting so many educated mothers at the present time.

With very young children, whether girls or boys, there should be no
difficulty whatever. They are too young to understand. Only, when they
come to you asking their innocent little questions as to where the
little baby brother or sister comes from, I would earnestly ask you
never to allow yourself, or your nurse, to inflict on them the usual
popular fables, that the baby was brought by the doctor or that it was
found under the gooseberry-bush. A child is far quicker than we think to
detect that mother is hiding something, and the first tiny seed of evil
curiosity is sown. Make no mystery about it; look your child full in the
face, and say, "My child, you have asked me a question about what is
very, very sacred. If I were to try to explain it to you, you would not
be old enough to understand; for the present you must be content to know
that the baby comes from God; how it comes mother will tell you when you
grow old enough to understand; only promise me that you will never ask
any one but mother about it." The child will then see that you are
hiding nothing, and will be satisfied to wait for the explanation that
mother has promised.

But what when the child is old enough to understand?--an age which
doubtless varies in different children, but which with boys must come
before their first school, if yo