eport of the Boston Children's Aid Society for 1896,[6] cites two
cases of truancy due to physical defects. One was a girl of ten years,
whose eyes were found to be defective. After fitting her with proper
glasses, the Society's agent had her returned to school. Another was a
boy of eight, with a slight impediment in his speech. No one had
noticed that his schoolmates teased the child, until he told the agent.
After the boy's teacher had been seen, there was no more laughing and
no more truancy.

Massachusetts has an excellent system of placing juvenile offenders on
probation for a first offence. This same report contains illustrations
of the work of the Children's Aid Society's probation officer. "A boy,
fifteen years of age, already on informal probation, and apparently
doing fairly well, was suddenly brought into court, charged with
breaking and entering his employer's shop at night. On {86} account of
his past good character, he was put on probation by the court under our
agent's care. He told Mr. Lawrence that he got into this criminal
state of mind by bad reading and by attending low theatrical
performances. With the aid of the boy's Sunday-school teacher he has
been encouraged to do his best, and is now working regularly, taking
good books from the Public Library, and is doing very well."

The charitable are only beginning to discover the importance of such
personal and preventive work among children, founded upon an intimate
knowledge of their habits and character. Such work must be done in
large measure by volunteers, and the friendly visitor's relations to
poor families render him specially fit for the service. The
illustration just given emphasizes the importance of guiding a child's
reading. It is not enough to teach the children to use the Public
Library; we should know what they are reading and teach them to enjoy
the right books. An admirable system of lending libraries having this
object in view has been established by the Boston Children's Aid
Society. These little Home Libraries in small {87} hanging book cases
are placed in certain homes in poor neighborhoods, and the visitor in
charge of a library meets at regular intervals a group of children of
the neighborhood who form the library circle, explaining the books to
them, playing games, and getting well acquainted. A friendly visitor
might easily establish such a library in any poor neighborhood; the
details of the plan may be had upon