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“There are few children who are not injured, then. I should like to see a mother get along with a parcel of children without scolding them.”

“It is a sad truth, as you say, that there are but few children who are not injured by scolding. No cause is so active for evil among children as their mother’s impatience, which shows itself from the first, and acts upon them through the whole period in which their minds are taking impressions and hardening into permanent forms. Like you, Sarah, our own mother had but little patience among her children, and you can look back and remember, as well as I, many instances in which this impatience led her into hasty and ill-judged acts and expressions that did us harm rather than good.”

“It’s an easy thing to talk, William. An easy thing to say–Have patience.”

“I know it is, Sarah; and a very hard thing to compel ourselves to have patience. But, if a mother’s love for her children be not strong enough to induce her to govern herself for their sakes, who shall seek their good? Who will make any sacrifice for them?”

“Are you not afraid to trust Mary up in your room?” said Mrs. Elder, recollecting at the moment that Mary was alone there for a longer time than she felt to be prudent.

“No. She will not trouble any thing.”

“I’d be afraid to trust her. She’s a thoughtless, impulsive child, and might do some damage.”

“No danger. She understands perfectly what may be and what may not be touched in my room, and so do all the children in the house. I wouldn’t be afraid to leave them all there for an hour.”

“You’d be afraid afterwards, I guess, if you were to try the experiment.”

“I am willing to try it.”

“You are welcome.”

“Henry! William!” Uncle William went to the door and called the children.

Two boys came romping into the room.

“Boys,” he said, “Mary is up in my room, and I want you to go up and stay with her until I come.”

Away scampered the little fellows as merry as crickets.

“They’ll make sad work in your room, brother; and if they do, you mustn’t blame me for it.”

“Oh, no, I shall not blame you, nor scold them, but endeavour to apply some corrective that will make them think, and determine never to do so again. However, I am pretty well satisfied that nothing will be disturbed.”

In less than an hour, Mrs. Elder and her brother went up to see what the children were about. They found them seated on the floor, with two or three loose packs of plain cards about them, out of which they were forming various figures, by laying them together upon the floor.

“Why, children! How could you take your uncle’s cards?” said Mrs. Elder reprovingly.

“He lets us play with them, mother,” replied the oldest boy, turning to his uncle with an appealing look.

“You haven’t touched any thing else?” said Uncle William.

“No, sir, nothing else. We found Mary playing with the cards when we came up, and we’ve been playing with them ever since. You don’t care, do you, Uncle William?”

“No; for I’ve told you, you remember, that you might play with the cards whenever you wanted to.”

“Can’t we play with them longer, Uncle William?” asked Mary.

“Yes, my dear, you can play with them as long as you choose.”

Mrs. Elder and her brother turned away and went down-stairs.

“I don’t know how it is, William, that they behave themselves so well in your room, and act like so many young Vandals in every other part of the house.”

“It is plain enough, Sarah,” replied her brother. “I never scold them, and never push them aside when they come to me, no matter what I’m engaged in doing. I never think a little time taken from other employments thrown away when devoted to children; and, therefore, I generally hear what they have to say, let them come to me when they will. Sometimes I am engaged in such a way that I must not be interrupted, and then I lock my door. I have explained this to them, and now the children, when they find my door locked, immediately go away. On admitting them into my room at first, I was very careful to tell them that such and such things must on no account be touched, and explain the reason why; at the same time I gave them free permission to play with other things that could sustain no serious injury. Only once or twice has any of them ventured to trespass on forbidden ground. But, instead of scolding, or even administering a reprimand, I forbade the one who had done wrong coming to my room for a certain time. In no case have I had to repeat the interdiction. If I can thus govern them in my room, I am sure you can do it in the whole house, if you go the right way about it.”