isobedient, or violate the
rules, they are shut up for punishment in a kind of prison; and perhaps she
entertains them with invented examples of boys that would not go to prison,
and had to be taken there by force, and kept there longer on account of
their contumacy; and also of other noble boys, tall and handsome, and the
best players on the grounds, who went readily when they had done wrong and
were ordered into confinement, and bore their punishment like men, and who
were accordingly set free all the sooner on that account. Then she proposes
to them the idea of adopting that plan herself, and asks them to look
all about the room and find a good seat which they can have for their
prison--one end of the sofa, perhaps, a stool in a corner, or a box used as
a house for a kitten. I once knew an instance where a step before a door
leading to a staircase served as penitentiary, and sitting upon it for
a minute or less was the severest punishment required to maintain most
perfect discipline in a family of young children for a long time.

When any one of the children violated any rule or direction which had been
enjoined upon them--as, for example, when they left the door open in coming
in or going out, in the winter; or interrupted their mother when she was
reading, instead of standing quietly by her side and waiting until she
looked up from her book and gave them leave to speak to her; or used any
violence towards each other, by pushing, or pulling, or struggling for a
plaything or a place; or did not come promptly to her when called; or
did not obey at once the first command in any case, the mother would say
simply, "Mary!" or "James! Prison!" She would pronounce this sentence
without any appearance of displeasure, and often with a smile, as if they
were only playing prison, and then, in a very few minutes after they had
taken the penitential seat, she would say _Free_! which word set them at
liberty again.

_Must begin at the Beginning_.

I have no doubt that some mothers, in reading this, will say that such
management as this is mere trifling and play; and that real and actual
children, with all their natural turbulence, insubordination, and
obstinacy, can never be really governed by any such means. I answer that
whether it proves on trial to be merely trifling and play or not depends
upon the firmness, steadiness, and decision with which the mother
carries it into execution. Every method of management requires firmness