ciety of girls as never before; and desires to
treat them with more attention. This is a time when, if he is wrongly
taught, he may fall into great wrong-doing and injure himself, and not
that alone, but those who are to come after him. I have not yet told you
of the great responsibilities that come with this gift of sex."

Dr. Barrett rose and, bringing a book from the shelves, opened it and
showed Carl an illustration, saying; "Did you ever see such a picture as
this?"

[Illustration]

"What are they?" asked he. "They look like pollywogs."

"As much like them as anything. But they are not pollywogs. They have a
bigger sounding name than that. They are called _spermatozoa_, or each
one is a _spermatozoon_. They are so tiny that they are not visible
except with the aid of a microscope, and yet they are alive and very
active. They live and move in a fluid called _semen_, and they are the
living principle contributed by the male to the formation of a new
creature. Each one contains in itself all the particular traits,
characteristics or talents which the father would confer on the child of
which this spermatozoon would form a part. You are like your father in
some things, I suppose."

"Yes, I am like papa in size and in my love for mathematics. He says I
have his quick temper, too."

"That leads me to speak of another fact. You see that you were a part of
your father during his whole life, and you were affected by all that
affected him. You were changed or modified by his habits. If he tried to
curb his quick temper, it has made it easier for you to control
yourself; but if he allowed it full sway, it has made it harder for you.
If he were truthful and honest, it has made it easy for you to be the
same; but if he were wild and dissipated, it would make it easier for
you to yield to the same temptations."

"Was that what he meant when he said he was not surprised that Will Grey
was so bad a boy, for his father was a very wild young man?"

"Yes, that was exactly what he meant."

"If that is so why don't fathers tell their boys about it so that they
can behave better when they are young?"

"That is just what I think they ought to do, but unfortunately people
have thought they must not talk of these things to young folks for fear
it will make them bad instead of good."

"Well, I guess that would depend upon the way they told it. Now they
don't tell it right, but leave the boys to be told in wrong ways, and
that