occult principle of natural adaptation, there is always a
"time" for a man to scatter abroad and for a woman to gather together.
Mother or sister attends to "the boy's things." Why has the boy any
more than the girl the right to leave his hat on the parlor table, his
gloves on the mantel, his coat on the newel-post, and his over-shoes
in the middle of the floor? They are left there, and there they remain
until some long-suffering woman puts them away. From hut to palace,
and through uncounted generations, by oral and written enactment, as
well as by tacit consent, whatever other innovations are made, the
custom holds that man can upset without fault, and his nearest of
feminine kin is blamable if she do not "pick up after him."

Teach your son that it is his business to keep his own room in order,
and that there is no more reason why his sister should follow him up,
replacing what he has disarranged, than that he should perform the
same office for her. Inculcate in him habits of neatness. In acquiring
an "eye" for the disorder he has caused, and deftness in rectifying
it, he is taking lessons in tender consideration and growing in
intelligent sympathy for mother, sister and the wife who-is-to-be.

CHAPTER XX.

CHILDREN AS BURDEN-BEARERS.

Those of us who are mothers would do well to read carefully and ponder
deeply St. Paul's assertion that when he was a child he spoke as a
child, and felt as a child, and thought as a child; and that when he
was a man, and not until then, he put away childish things.

Can the same be said of the child of to-day?

In this "bit of talk," I want to enter my protest against thrusting
upon children the care-taking thought that should not be theirs for
years to come. When the responsibility that is inseparable from every
life bears heavily upon us, we sigh for the carefree days of
childhood, but we do not hesitate to inflict upon our babies the
complaints and moans which teach them, all too soon, that life is a
hard school for us. A child must either grieve with us or become so
inured to our plaints that he pays no attention to them. In the latter
case he may be hard-hearted but he is certainly happier than if he
were exquisitely sensitive.

"What a pretty suit of clothes you have!" said I to a four-year-old
boy.

The momentary expression of pride gave way to one of anxiety.

"Yes; but mamma says when these wear out she does not know how papa
will ever buy me any more cloth