o encourage and stimulate a liking
and admiration for things which appeal to the interest through the
imagination. Given half a chance, nature can be fairly well trusted to
look after the rest--and in the long run is apt to prove as true a guide
as finicky and restricted notions which may be lacking in broad
comprehension.

One of the loveliest and most helpful occupations any mother can have is
to learn to tell stories to her children. Many mothers may find
themselves a little deficient in this ability, at first; but, with the
inspiration of love and their holy cause, almost any mother can soon
acquire a charming facility in doing it. And the advantage to the
children, as well as to mother, which may be derived from this method is
very considerable. A story told by mother is easier to understand, more
sympathetic, more delightful, less set and cumbersome than nearly any
story which has to be read methodically from the printed pages of a
book. A mother is in close touch with the needs and natures of her own
flock--she can embellish and interpret and add her own loving comments,
as such and as often as she feels the call for it.

I have found by experience that so many stories which are supposedly
designed for children, make use of big and stilted words, complicated
ideas, and tedious, long-winded explanations. Mother can read them so
quickly by herself and then preserve the pith and point of them in her
own manner of recounting. There is practically no limit to the variety
of kinds and subjects which may be interpreted and rendered available in
this way. The story of Ivanhoe, or Quentin Durward, or Lohengrin, may be
just as readily told in this way as Cinderella, or Robin Hood, or
Aladdin and his Wonderful Lamp. But set any child the task of reading
for itself a great volume of Ivanhoe, or many of the other world
classics, or of listening to any one who waded through the long
descriptions for hours on end, is hardly to be thought of.

Fortunately there are a number of books which seem to have been written
by people who love children and understand them. These a mother can
search out and select from and make good use of.

One of the curious things about youth is that children love to hear the
same stories over and over again, even after they know them almost by
heart. This is undoubtedly due to the fact that the appeal is
principally to the feelings and not to the intellect. Intellectual
people, when once they know t