fail to remember the great and irreparable loss which these
children have suffered in the death of the only person in the wide
world who could thoroughly understand them. If you had a mother to
help you in your childhood, you will know what they miss, or, if you,
too, were a lonely little being, let the memory of that loneliness
make you lovingly pitiful towards the children who suffer in the same
way. Such pity soon leads to an unconquerable love.

Bear in mind in justification of what may seem like unreasonable
prejudice, that all children have heard many stories, some of which
are true, of the cruelties of step-parents. Doubtless, you in your own
life, have known of more than one second wife who was jealous of her
husband's love for the first wife's children. When women are heartless
they are desperately cruel, and do not hesitate to vent their hatred
upon the little ones whose look, Mrs. Browning tells us,--

"is dread to see,
For they mind you of their angels in high places,
With eyes turned on Deity."

She also reminds those whose consciences are so hardened by
selfishness that they dare be cruel to the mere babies in their care
that--

"The child's sob in the darkness curses deeper
Than the strong man in his wrath."

We have not to do in this Talk with this type of woman, but with
beings of the mother-sex who would, if they were allowed, make life
brighter for the bereaved little ones.

One way to keep step-children's affection is to talk to them often and
reverently of their own mother. This is due to them and to her who
bare them. Do not allow them to forget her, and guard against the
entrance of any jealous feeling into this sacred duty of keeping her
memory fresh. The children were hers, and in the eternal home will be
hers again. They are only lent to you as a sacred trust. It is not
sacrilegious to believe that their mother knows of your efforts to
make them good men and women, and that she, as their guardian angel,
will not forget to bless her who gives her life to the children who
were once "the sweetest flowers" her own "bosom ever bore."

CHAPTER XIX.

CHILDREN AS HELPERS.

A correspondent inquires whether or not children ought to be trained
to do housework and to make themselves useful in the numerous ways in
which the young hands and feet can save the older ones.

Unless you expect to be a millionaire many times over, and in
perpetuity--emphatic