thing
so much as by the inch-by-inch waiting upon a child.

The child who has been made a companion of, and not repressed or
driven away by the older people of the family, has a sort of
instinctive respect for them, which, though it may overstep itself in
some daring familiarity occasionally, is the basis of a strong
authority over him. The child who has been spied on, and whose idea of
all adults is that they are a sort of modified policemen, will show
respect only under compulsion, and will fail in all those fine
courtesies which the thoroughly well-bred child grows to delight in.

Self-control and self-repression are equal virtues to be cultivated in
the child. To permit the child to be indifferent and inattentive when
one is trying to amuse or entertain, to be impatient to get at the end
of a story or a game, to keep yawning; or making other expressions of
weariness when being reproved or reprimanded, cultivates in the child
a mental laziness which is as bad as its opposite,--parrot-like
facility for chattering and asking questions, which gives a child no
chance to think, and makes him develop into a man of only surface
intelligence and thoughtless flippancy. Even a child can appreciate,
if rightly taught, the motive back of a kind action, and can respect
that even if the action does not interest him.

On the other hand, it is a serious matter to allow a child to be
constantly bored with lectures on his conduct, or even with efforts to
amuse him. He should be let alone, thrown upon his own resources, and
not permitted to be taxed beyond adult endurance by well-meaning but
futile efforts on his behalf.

Children should never be allowed to interrupt. For that reason
parents, and those who have the care of children, should remember not
to monopolize the conversation when there are children present, nor
talk on and on for a long time, as no person, least of all a child,
can follow such continuous talk without weariness.

Children should be taught that thinking will answer most of their
questions for them, that they should wait and see if the answer will
not be given by something that is said later on. Every effort made to
drive the thought of a loquacious child back upon itself is an effort
in the right direction; just as every effort made to express and
reveal the thought of an imaginative child is much to the latter's
benefit.

The sayings of a child should never be quoted in his presence, nor his
doings relat