n undue effect upon the heart's action. He is normally
dreamy, languid, indifferent, and subject to various moods. These
things are merely tokens of the tremendous change that is going on
within his organism, and which heavily drains his vitality. Certain
duties may, of course, be required of him at this stage, but they
should be light and steady. He should not be expected to fill
up chinks and run errands with joyful alacrity. The six- or
eight-year-old may be called upon for these things, and not he harmed,
but this is not true of the child between twelve and seventeen. He
has absorbing business on hand and should not be too often called away
from it.

[Sidenote: Laziness and Rapid Growth]

Laziness ordinarily accompanies rapid growth of any kind. The
unusually large child, even if he has not yet reached the period of
adolescence, is likely to be lazy. His nervous energies are deflected
to keep up his growth, and his intelligence is often temporarily
dulled by the rapidity of his increase in size.

[Sidenote: Hurry Not Natural]

Moreover, it is not natural for any child to hurry. Hurry is in itself
both a result of nervous strain and a cause of it; and grown people
whose nerves have been permanently wrenched away from normal quietude
and steadiness, often form a habit of hurry which makes them both
unfriendly toward children and very bad for children. These young
creatures ought to go along through their days rather dreamily and
altogether serenely. Every turn of the screw to tighten their nerves
makes more certain some form of early nervous breakdown. They ought
to have work to do, of course,--enough of it to occupy both mind and
body--but it should be quiet, systematic, regular work, much of it
performed automatically. Only occasionally should they be required to
do things with a conscious effort to attain speed.

[Sidenote: Abnormal Laziness]

However, there is a degree of laziness difficult of definition which
is abnormal; the child fails to perform any work with regularity, and
falls behind both at school and at home. This may be the result of
(1) _poor assimilation_, (2) _of anaemia_, or it may be (3) _the first
symptom of some disease_.

(1.) Poor assimilation may show itself either by (a) thinness and lack
of appetite; (b) fat and abnormal appetite; (c) retarded growth; or
(d) irregular and poorly made teeth and weak bones.

[Sidenote: Anaemia]

(2.) Anaemia betrays itself most characteristically b