d to have so young a child come to the family table. It
is better he would have his own meals, so that he is satisfied with
proper foods before the other appears. Or, if he must eat when you do,
let him have a little low table to himself, spread with his own pretty
little dishes and his own chair, with perhaps a doll for companion or
playmate. From this level he cannot see or be tempted by the viands on
the large table; yet, if his table is near your chair you can easily
reach and serve him. It is a real torment to a young child to see
things he must not touch or eat, and it is a perfectly unnecessary
source of trouble.

"My four children ate at such a low table till the oldest was eight
years old, when he was promoted to our table, and the others followed
in due order."

AIR CASTLES

"What a wonderful reader you were as a child! and certainly the books
you mention were far beyond you. Yet I can not quite agree that the
habit of air-castle building is pernicious. Indeed I believe in it.
It needs only to be balanced by practical effort, directed towards
furnishing an earthly foundation for the castle. Build, then, as high
and splendid as you like, and love them so hard that you are moved
to lay a few stones on the solid earth as a beginning of a more
substantial structure; and some day you may wake to find some of your
castles coming true. Those practical foundation stones underlying a
tremendous tower of idealism have a genuine magic power. Build all you
like about your baby, for instance. Think what things Mary pondered in
her heart.

"No, I'm never worried about idealism except when it is contented with
itself and makes but little effort at outward realization. But the
fact that you are taking this course proves that you will work to
realize your ideals.

"I don't think it very bad either to read to 'kill time.' Though if
you go on having a family, you won't have any time to kill in a very
little while. But do read on when you can, otherwise you may be shut
in, first you know, to too small a world, and a mother needs to draw
her own nourishment from _all_ the world, past and present."

DUTY TO ONESELF

"Yes, I should say you were distinctly precocious, and that you are
almost certainly suffering from the effects of that early brilliancy.
But the degree was not so great as to permanently injure you,
especially if you see what is the matter, and guard against repeating
the mistakes of your pare