ement in daily life such knowledge
helps one very little. You constantly forget, and forget, and forget.
Or, if in a moment of forced acknowledgment to the need of better
living, you make up your mind that you will live according to sensible
laws of hygiene, you go along pretty well for a few weeks, perhaps even
months, and then as you feel better physically, you get whirled off
into the excitement again, and before you know it you are in the dust
with the rest of the world, and all because you had no background for
your good resolutions. You never had found and you did not understand
quiet.

Did you ever see a wise mother come into a noisy nursery where perhaps
her own children were playing excitedly with several little companions,
who had been invited in to spend a rainy afternoon? The mother sees all
the children in a great state of excitement over their play, and two or
three of them disagreeing over some foolish little matter, with their
brains in such a state that the nursery is thick with infantile human
dust. What does the wise mother do? Add dust of her own by scolding and
fretting and fuming over the noise that the children are making? No--no
indeed. She first gets all the children's attention in any happy way
she can, one or two at a time, and then when she has their individual
attention to a small degree, she gets their united attention by
inviting their interest in being so quiet that they "can hear a pin
drop." The children get keenly interested in listening. The first time
they do not hear the pin drop because Johnnie or Mollie moved a little.
Mother talks with interest of what a very delightful thing it is to be
for a little while so quiet that we can hear a pin drop. The second
time something interferes, and the third time the children have become
so well focused on listening that the little delicate sound is heard
distinctly, and they beg mother to try and see if they cannot hear it
again. By this time the dust is laid in the nursery, and by changing
the games a little, or telling them a story first, the mother is able
to leave a nursery full of quiet, happy children.

Now if we, who would like to live happily and keep well, according to
plain common sense, can put ourselves with intelligent humility in the
place of these little children and study to be quiet, we will be
working for that background which is never failing in its possibilities
of increasing light and warmth and the expanse of outlook.