, which develop at
maturity and ripen the ova, and these pass into the oviducts, which are
tubes like the oviducts of the bird. Here the egg remains a certain
length of time, and then if it is not fertilized it is passed away; but
if it is fertilized a marvellous change takes place in this tiny cell:
it remains within the oviduct and is there supplied with nourishment by
blood-vessels essentially as the flower seed is supplied with food from
the sap. Generally three or five of these ova develop at the same time,
some in one oviduct, some in the other. When these tiny eggs have
developed into kittens strong enough and perfect enough to make
entrance into the world safe, they are born just as the egg is born.
Unlike the oviduct of the bird, which opens into the intestine, these
ducts unite just before the end, and have separate openings of their
own.

As soon as the young are born the mother begins to care for them. For
several weeks they depend upon the milk she secretes for their food, and
upon her constant care and loving watchfulness for their life. The
thought of parental love and care should be much more strongly
emphasized at every step than the mere physical facts, though it is
necessary that they too be clearly comprehended. The sacrifice of the
parent for the child is one of the most universal and unselfish facts of
life, and many stories illustrating it can be collected and told. It is
not necessary to tell them as obviously pointing a moral, yet they
should be told as dramatically and interestingly as possible, that the
child may get a strong impression of this great force. Among mammals it
is true, (but this need not be dwelt upon with the child,) that many
males pay no attention to their offspring; though some, as the cattle,
defend the females and young if a herd is attacked by savage animals, by
putting them in the centre and themselves forming a circle about them.
It is the mother love and care, however, which are here most prominent;
but the child who knows the facts concerning paternity should not be
allowed to forget the great factor of inheritance, and that the
offspring gets its characteristics from the father as well as from the
mother.

There is only one more step to be taken in the _modus operandi_ of
reproduction, and that is in the higher mammal, where the ovum passes
down through a slender oviduct into an enlarged chamber or womb, where
it remains a certain length of time, finally if unfertil